Sandy Lyle, one of Britain’s most natural and successful golfers, believes it was his father’s innate coaching abilities which helped make him a major winner.

He won the Open Championship at Royal St George’s in 1985 and the Tournament Players’ Championship – the so-called fifth major – two years later. Then, in 1988, Sandy became the first Briton to win the Masters. He clinched his victory with a seven-iron from a fairway bunker on the 18th. This shot remains one of the greatest sporting memories of the 20th century. But it was his dad’s input which he acknowledges as making the difference.

In his biography, To The Fairway Born, Sandy Lyle says: “Blessed with a father who was as canny a teaching professional as ever prowled the practice tee, and reared on tales of an uncle who had played in the Open against Ben Hogan, Peter Thomson, Bobby Locke and Roberto di Vincenzo, it was inevitable that I should find myself drawn to golf at a tender age.”

Sandy’s father, Alex, was a Scottish golf professional who helped turn the family pig farm at Milngavie into the Clober Golf Club, outside Glasgow. But, in 1955, Alex was offered the job as club professional at Hawkstone Park in Shropshire. Today it is a superb golf complex with two championship courses, luxury hotel and 400 acres of parkland. It was a great place for a keen young golfer growing up.

 The young Sandy Lyle was a precocious golfing talent. At the age of 11 he won the August medal at Hawkstone with a round of 85, net 64. He played for English schoolboys before changing his national allegiance to Scotland.
“That might have made me one very unpopular little bunny in the clubhouse, but thanks to the way I had been brought up by my dad, in what was basically an adult environment, to respect the etiquette and spirit in which golf should be played, it earned me a number of orange squashes from the grown-ups – not to mention my first silver teaspoon.”

Sandy’s father instilled his sense of respect for the game – and its first rule: Never, Ever, Cheat.

“I was extremely fortunate in that my dad was not only an accomplished golfer in his own right but possessed a natural gift as a teaching pro.” When Sandy became a teenager, his handicap was down to three.

“Dad coached me from an early age but because he was so busy running the golf side of Hawkstone, he didn’t have time to spend hours and hours at my shoulder. He would offer a few words of wisdom now and then, leaving me to put them into practice through application and feel.”
Alex Lyle believed that if a good golfer had a natural swing then there was no point in tinkering with it.
 Sandy recalls in his biography: “It was on the practice ground that I fashioned all the little skills that stood me in such great stead in the years to come – tricks of the trade I would proudly show off to Dad when the course was a bit quieter and father and son could enjoy an evening round amid the lengthening shadows.”

He learned how to play round trees. This, he says, was far better than hitting thousands of balls with a 5-iron all day. “You learn the subtleties of golf by practising every different kind of shot – downhill lies, uphill lies, fades and draws.”

 Sandy is candid about his school days, having found out that he was dyslexic. He daydreamed at school about getting back out on the golf course.
 
The golfer’s father was a constant encouragement throughout his life.  “He had been at my side since childhood, gently encouraging me on the golf course and quietly instilling his sense of decency and honesty. He had been there at my Open and Masters victories and he had always been there for me during my years of despair, offering guidance and words of wisdom. Even now, each time I pick up a club I can hear his voice in my ear repeating the mantra, ‘Tempo not temper.’”

To The Fairway Born:  by Sandy Lyle, Headline Publishing Group, 2006.  Click on the link below to buy this book from Amazon.

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KK

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