In the coming days there will be a flurry of tributes paid to Sandy Lyle. The 65-year-old’s confirmation that he will no longer play on the Champions Tour suggests at the very least that the Masters this week will be the last sight of Lyle in a competitive domain. Lyle is tired of the road and no wonder. Augusta National, where he famously triumphed in 1988, seems a fitting place for goodbye.
Lyle’s slide towards well-earned retirement gives cause to ponder another, less illuminating theme. What has become of the great Scottish golfer?
Lyle has a spot in the Masters this week on the basis of prior achievement but no other player, amateur or professional, from the home of golf will join him in the field. Austria has representation. So, too, Poland and Belgium. A Norwegian, Viktor Hovland, sits inside the world’s top 10. Yet Scotland, a country steeped in the game, cannot provide a contemporary golfer for the opening major of the year.
No less alarming as the fact is the general indifference towards it. Indeed it feels as if Scotland is either not bothered by the failure to earn seats at golf’s top table or has no serious interest in addressing it. There should be embarrassment that no Scot can earn his way into the Masters via circumstances other than what occurred 35 years ago. Scotland has around 550 golf courses and 200,000 registered players. This is not a minority environment.
The glass-half-full analysis would be that this represents merely a snapshot in time. That Scotland will soon have a raft of golfers jousting for the game’s premium honours. Yet the harsher reality may well be that it has been left behind as golfers in other countries advance through professional levels. Ireland, a natural comparison for this conversation, was still basking in the glow of major wins by Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy when Shane Lowry came along to collect the Claret Jug. This was all between 2007 and 2019. Scotland? Making up the numbers.
Bob MacIntyre was once the tartan golfing hope. At 26 he arguably still is. MacIntyre is a curious and contradictory case in the sense that he can clearly compete with the best – he has two Open top-10s alongside a highly respectable share of 12th on his Masters debut – but hype around him, created by the wish for a hero, has not been matched by consistency of results.
When MacIntyre won the Italian Open last September, his biggest title to date, it seemed natural that he would march his way into Europe’s Ryder Cup team this year. MacIntyre was also an impressive performer in the Hero Cup, a Ryder Cup warm-up event staged in Abu Dhabi in January. He ended last week as the world No 96, will spend this one watching the Masters on television and, barring a stellar summer, – that could, of course, transpire – looks only an outside bet to make a Ryder Cup debut on the course where he tasted individual victory.
MacIntyre is among a group of formidable DP World Tour players from Scotland. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that. Perhaps Ewen Ferguson, Connor Syme, Calum Hill, David Law, Grant Forrest et al suffer for the ranking status afforded to their home circuit, which in turn makes it harder to qualify for the world’s biggest tournaments. Golf’s ecosystem is heavily weighted in favour of the US. It could be that Martin Laird and Russell Knox, as PGA Tour winners, have punched above Scottish golf’s weight.
However, it was not always this way. Colin Montgomerie barely needs reminding he never did win a major title but, post-Lyle, he was the dominant force in Europe and a perennial contender in the big four on any given year. Paul Lawrie lacked Monty’s consistency but placed Scottish golf back on the world map with his 1999 Open success. Even Italy – a country of suave centre-forwards and imperious defensive systems – has produced an Open champion during the intervening years.
Scottish Golf, the body responsible for everything from club levies to player development, has been beset by internal wrangling in recent years. The most likely pathway for any Scot towards the summit of the game is via the American college system, which was good enough for Hovland. The trouble is, there are only occasional and distant murmurings about the next cab off the Scottish rank. There is no superstar; no McIlroy or Andy Murray equivalent.
The Scotland football team’s dismissal of Spain last week reminded us all of the desperation for sporting fairytales. Scotland remains a football‑obsessed nation, occasionally to the detriment of all else. After years in the doldrums Steve Clarke has a team which captures the imagination. The Scotland rugby team has world-class talent within its ranks.
Scots could glance across the border and point out England, with such a vast population, has underperformed in elite golf. It is not an argument without validity. Nonetheless Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick tossed in US Open wins. Danny Willett won the Masters. Lee Westwood and Luke Donald each spent lengthy periods as the top-ranked player in the world. Westwood, Donald and Ian Poulter were major championship factors in their pomp. Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton are modern-day stars on both sides of the Atlantic.
Lyle’s afternoon in the Georgia sun arrived during a spell when European golfers were making hay at the Masters. Lyle had already claimed the Open of 1985. Scotland’s class of 2023 face strength in depth that did not exist back then; but the country’s collective demise should not simply be glossed over. Magnolia pain emphasises the sorry situation.
