IN a glittering career of mighty conquests and magical moments, Sandy Lyle has enjoyed so many walks down memory lane, that very lane just about needs resurfaced by the local council.
They’ll have to wait a wee while longer to do the repair work, mind you, because the bold Lyle is going to take another meander down it this week when he returns to St Annes Old Links near Blackpool for Open Championship final qualifying.
There will be so much nostalgia in the bracing seaside air, the enduring 64-year-old will probably be covered in a light dusting of sepia by the time he tees-off. This is the place, after all, where the Open love affair started for the 1985 champion.
As a talented 16-year-old amateur back in 1974, Lyle came through a qualifying shoot-out at St Annes to earn a debut appearance in the Open at nearby Royal Lytham. “This will be the first time I’ve played St Annes since I was a teenager,” said Lyle.
The connections with this neck of the golfing woods run deep. In 1969, he was a starry-eyed spectator at Lytham when Tony Jacklin became the first British player in 18 years to hoist the Claret Jug.
“I was in among the spectators when he (Jacklin) threw his ball coming off the 18th and I missed it by five feet,” reflected Lyle of a cherished keepsake that got away.
“The week in general was such an eye-opener. I watched the likes of Gary Player, Peter Thomson and Roberto De Vicenzo hitting balls on the range. They all had different styles and I realised that all golf swings are not the same. That gave me encouragement. Whatever works for you, then just play with it. Once I had seen all that and had experienced what big time golf was all about, I got the bug. I wanted to do it.”
Five years later, Lyle would do it and played in his first Open at Lytham. “My heart was coming out of my chest for the opening tee shot, thinking: ‘My God, I hope this is going to get easier’,” he said.
“Trying to control those nerves is not easy when you are 16 but gradually you get used to it. In those days there were two cuts, which was quite cruel. I made the first cut quite comfortably and was going along quite well in round three. But then I spent a long time in a bunker on the sixth and took a nine or a 10 and that was it. I’d be warned, ‘don’t go in that bunker whatever you do’. I managed to find the thing and paid the ultimate price.”
Lyle would go on to play in 43 Opens – 42 in a row from 1977 – but his exemption as a past champion ran out in 2018. He’s not played in an Open since then. The historic, romantic lure of the 150th championship at St Andrews, though, has prompted a return to the qualifying scramble. It’s the last throw of the dice in the quest for a last hurrah.
“It’s just because it’s St Andrews and the 150th and I wouldn’t try qualifying for any other one,” said Lyle. “This will be my last go at getting to an Open.”
Getting there, of course, will not be easy, especially for a man in his 60s who is nursing a “tweaked hamstring”. Only the leading four from a field of 70-odd players will emerge from the 36-hole tussle with a tee-time for the Old Course. It’s the kind of frenzied, all guns blazing shoot-out that would give Wyatt Earp the heebie-jeebies, but Lyle is up for the challenge.
“I’ve nothing to lose,” said the decorated, celebrated Scot. “I just have to go out and have a go. But it’s a tough ask. I haven’t played much competitive golf the last few weeks with this hamstring niggle. I can’t even tie my shoelace properly because of it. But I managed four rounds up at Skibo Castle recently and I was ok. I’m probably about 80 per cent fit.
“Whatever happens, I’ll still be at St Andrews for the Champions Challenge. There are some dinners too and I’m being awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of St Andrews. There will be plenty to celebrate. But it would be even nicer to go there with a tee-time for the Open.”
And have another wander down memory lane, no doubt.
