Sandy Lyle has kick-started a war of words with Colin Montgomerie over his fellow Scot's selection as Ryder Cup skipper.

Many believe Lyle missed out on the Ryder Cup captaincy because he walked off the course at last year's Open at Birkdale after just nine holes.

But Lyle hit back at his Ryder Cup snub, claiming Monty's suspect drop at the Indonesian Open in 2005 was a far worse crime than his Birkdale abandonment.

"What Monty did was far worse," said Lyle. "He was dropping the ball badly and that's what you call a form of cheating.

"That is far worse than someone pulling out of the Open because of sore knuckles.

"If anything was going to be held against Monty, you'd think, 'Yeah well that's a case where he was breaking the rules.' And there have been other times when he has been called in to see videos."