AS the wind quickened and even little mistakes turned into big numbers, Sandy Lyle signed off at the Masters yesterday with the kind of roller-coaster experience which only Augusta National can deliver.
Twenty years after becoming champion, the enormity of winning the Masters is still sinking in. Asked if he could envisage in his lifetime another Scot triumphing here, Lyle replied: "Never say never. But it's hard. You've got to be in it to win it an
d I'm the only Scot here this week.
"You'd be better off asking (coach] Bob Torrance than me about the players coming through. It's been 20 years since I won and I suppose that shows just how difficult it is for a small country like Scotland, in terms of producing players, to compete with America and the rest of the world. It's even been a while since we've had a British winner – but that's not for the want of trying."
Yesterday, the only Scot with a green jacket must have wondered about arranging a fitting for a strait-jacket after carding five birdies, four bogeys, three double bogeys and six pars. His 77 for 14 over par was haunted by the old ghosts of too many trying experiences during the years when form had deserted him.
"There's still a few wounds from years of playing poorly here," he admitted. "I'm not going to shake that off immediately. But I'm happy with the way I've turned the corner in terms of hitting the ball. I've needed that for the last couple of years, instead of flapping at the ball and mis-timing it and hurting my hands through distortion through the impact. I seem to have cured the sore knuckles and the direction is getting there."
Playing with a non-competing marker, member Jeff Knox, Lyle was eager to make amends for a poor round on Saturday. It was compelling to watch alright, though not always for the right reasons. Now he's adjusted his grip and eliminated most of the aches in his hands, the past champion is striking most of his shots in a purer fashion. But the margin which separates glory from disaster here is minute.
Knox, incidentally, is no slouch when it comes to navigating a successful path around Augusta. He holds the club record of 61 off the members' tees. On Saturday, he'd played with Miguel Angel Jimenez and outdrove the Spanish Ryder Cup player on the first hole. "I said to him: 'You can't do that any more,'" grinned the man from Malaga. "And he didn't."
In Lyle's company Knox was just as tidy and opened with a birdie to the Scot's bogey. Lyle offered a high five by way of celebration. Stung into action, Lyle utilised the breeze which was already gusting on the par-5 second hole by wafting his second shot onto the green and grazing the cup with a putt for eagle.
A visit to the trees on the third cost him a shot before a splendid birdie at the par-3 fourth raised his spirits. He gave the stroke back at the next; but it was that kind of day. On Sunday at Augusta, the course giveth and the course taketh away. Around the turn, it was larcenous as Lyle dialled the number of the beast – 6,6,6 – between the ninth and the 11th. Lyle retaliated with birdies at the 14th and 15th and made a fine sand save at the last.
With his son, Stuart, 24, on the bag, and his wife Jolande in the gallery, this turned out to be a family week. For Stuart, the chance to stand beside his father on the course which secured his place in the record books was an experience to be treasured.
"We just took one trip over the back nine in practice," he recalled. "There was no need for any more. And I could sense his excitement. You know those mounds in front of the 17th? He knows exactly where to hit his approach."
While Lyle was able to scoot round in three hours and 20 minutes, the contenders for the title he won in 1988 faced a sapping test of nerve and patience. Leading a major going into the final round for the first time, Trevor Immelman was asked how he would cope and acknowledged he hardly knew what to expect.
"I have no clue how to answer your question," he admitted with candour. "All I can ask is to believe in myself, play as hard as I can and hope for the best."
Serendipity has been woven into the scripts for the Masters for so long that Immelman would not have been human if he didn't spy a connection between his own feats and the occasion of compatriot Gary Player's record breaking 51st appearance. Immelman has known Player since he was five years old.
While Player declines to take any credit for Immelman's emergence as a player worthy of the company of Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Tim Clark and Rory Sabbatini, the veteran sees a comparison with another Augusta legend. "Trevor's swing is the closest I've seen to Ben Hogan," ventured Player. "And I always thought that Hogan was the best striker of a ball from tee to green that I've ever seen."
The leader since Thursday, Immelman appeared to have luck on his side on Saturday when he laid up at the par-5 15th and looked on nervously as the ball spun off the green and headed down the slope towards the water. By some miracle of gravity, the ball stopped halfway down the bank. "I was extremely fortunate," he conceded.
Tiger Woods, for one, can't recall winning a tournament when the good breaks didn't outweigh the bad. Needing to make up a six shot margin on Immelman – the same gap which separated Nick Faldo from Greg Norman in 1996 – the world No 1 took advantage of the gentler conditions on Saturday to break 70 for the first time this week.
"I put myself right back in the tournament," he recalled. "If I have a few more putts go in, I'm right there."
The full article contains 1035 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
