Alexander Walter Barr Lyle is a knighted Member of the Order of the British Empire. To those of us who know of Lyle on a less formal and less proper level, he is Sandy Lyle, a past winner of the British Open and the Masters, an 18-time champion on the European Tour, a six-time winner on the American PGA Tour, and the most recent inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Sandy Lyle was born to Scottish parents in February of 1958. He spent the formative years of his life in England. His father, Alex Lyle, was a club professional who relocated his family to Shrewsbury, England, where he served as the pro at the Hawkstone Park Golf Course. The Lyle family lived on the golf course premises, a mere lob wedge away form Hawkstone”s 18th green.
Lyle was a Hawkstone Park regular from the time he began playing the game as a 3-year-old. He immediately took to the game and came into his own as one of Great Britain”s top teenaged golfers in the early 1970s. Sandy qualified for his first British Open in 1974 as a 16-year-old. In 1975 he won the Brabazon Trophy (English Men”s Amateur Stroke Play Championship) and the English Boys Amateur Stroke Play Championship. In 1977 he won a second Brabazon Trophy as well as the British Youths Open Amateur. Lyle also was a member of the Walker Cup team in 1975 and 1977.
After competing in the 1977 Walker Cup at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island, Lyle turned pro. That autumn, he was the medalist at the European Tour”s Qualifying School, giving him full access to the European Tour for 1978. He had a solid rookie season and was named the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year.
In just his second full season as a professional, Lyle broke through with his first victory in June of 1979 when he won the Jersey Open with a three-stroke win over Howard Clark. One month later, he shot a final-round 69 to hold off European golf”s biggest name, Spaniard Seve Ballesteros, to capture the Scandinavian Open. Later that year in September, Lyle ran away with a seven-stroke win at the European Open over Dale Hayes and Peter Townsend.
At the conclusion of the 1979 season, Lyle had three big wins, was the leading money winner on the European Tour, and was his circuit”s Order of Merit champion. He was 21 years old and he was the newest, big name in European golf. Lyle won the Order of Merit again in 1980 and he continued with his winning ways, taking home the Coral Welsh Classic. For the next three years, Lyle was a consistent winner on the European Tour, capturing the Open de France and the Batley Invitational in 1981, defending his Batley title in 1982, winning the Madrid Open in 1983, and prevailing in the Italian Open and the Lancome Trophy in 1984.
Sandy Lyle took his game to the next level in 1985 when he eked out a one-stroke margin of victory over Payne Stewart to win the British Open at Royal St. Georges. Lyle shot an even-par 70 during the final round to post a 2-over-par 282 total on the windy and punitive Royal St. Georges course. He shot a final-round 64 one month later to beat Ian Woosnam by one stroke to win the Benson & Hedges International Open. Lyle ended the 1985 campaign atop the European Tour”s money list and took home his third Order of Merit crown.
From the start of his professional career, Lyle had a tendency to compete throughout the world. In 1987 he won the Nigerian Open. He won the World Cup of Golf in 1980 at Bogota, Columbia. He won at Kapalua in Hawaii in 1984 as well as Japan”s Casio World Open. Following his British Open triumph, Lyle began splitting his time between his home circuit in Europe and the American PGA Tour. Sandy won the Greater Greensboro Open in 1986, won the prestigious Players Championship at Sawgrass in 1987, and during the early months of 1988, he won the Phoenix Open as well as a second title in Greensboro.
The week after his win at Greensboro, golf”s greats converged upon the Augusta National Golf Club for the playing of the Masters. Lyle shot 71-67-72 over three rounds, and played even-par golf through 17 holes on Sunday. Tied with Mark Calcavecchia, who was already in the clubhouse, Lyle pulled his tee shot into the left fairway bunker on Augusta”s 18th hole. He then lofted a 7-iron shot out of the sand, hit it into the middle of the green, and had it spin back to 15 feet. Lyle drained the downhill putt to beat Calcavecchia by one stroke and win his second major title.
Lyle continued his winning ways through 1992, capturing the World Match Play in 1988, the BMW in Germany in 1991, and the Italian Open and the Volvo Masters in 1992. Yet by the mid-1990s, he was in his late 30s and seemed to lose some of the magic on the golf course. He wouldn”t win again on the international stage and was no longer a world-class player by the time he reached his 40th birthday. Lyle continues to dabble in senior golf and last summer he won the ISPS Handa Senior World Championship on the European Seniors Tour.
Sandy Lyle was the forerunner on the great European invasion in world golf. He opened the major championship door for the likes of Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and others. He played on five Ryder Cup teams from 1979 through 1987. He was the first British winner to win a major since Tony Jacklin and he was the first from Great Britain to win the Masters. He was a long-ball knocker who had an excellent iron game. His swing was very simplistic and he was very calm and collected on the golf course. Perhaps his only career regret is that he was never chosen to captain the European Ryder Cup team, being passed over most recently by Colin Montgomerie for that honor.
Sandy Lyle will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame this coming May in St. Augustine, Florida. The leader of golf”s British invasion of the 1980s, he won two major titles, 18 European Tour events, and another 13 wins in America, Japan and other parts of the world. During the decade of the 1980s, he was one of the game”s top players alongside Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Greg Norman. His place in the World Golf Hall of Fame is most deserved.
