LYLE TO LOSE HIS CANCER BATTLE
Much-loved Aussie pro going into palliative care
GOLF: Jarrod Lyle walked like a big, happy bloke – it was an effortless, almost slow-motion lope, almost always done with a smile on his face.
“He is one of the best blokes there is,” Adam Scott said on learning of the latest setback for Lyle, who revealed yesterday that he would go into palliative care.
The 36-year-old had been undergoing his third stint of cancer treatment after a recurrence of acute myeloid leukaemia last year.
A great bloke, Scott, calling Lyle the “best bloke” speaks volumes for Lyle’s outstanding character.
The well-wishes came in droves yesterday from his fellow competitors, from every golfing tour, through Australia the US, Asia and Europe – an entire sport saddened by the fate befallen one of their own.
At 36, Lyle had been everywhere too, and left no one he encountered in any doubt that for all his travails he was still going, and “going well”.
He beamed like a bloke from the bush would – he’s from Shepparton, Victoria – when he burst on to the golfing scene in 2005. His backstory was compelling – he had beaten acute myeloid leukaemia, which sent him to hospital for nine months as a teenager, to tee it up against the world’s best.
He finished fifth at a tournament called the Heineken Classic. It was his start as a professional. He was 23 and playing against Ernie Els.
Lyle was away, into a career that promised maybe not a world No.1 ranking but plenty of good things to come, at home and abroad. He carried with him that broad smile, an excellent golf game and his story. The cancer battle.
The smile didn’t disappear when the battle he thought he’d won had to be waged again. Twice the big fella endured, and beat, the dreaded disease in order to not just play the game he loved but also to marry the love of his life, Briony, and add two more names to that list, his daughters Lusi and Jemma.
The yellow bucket hat became his calling card this time around and there was a time when that smile was replaced by tears. But they were tears of joy. It was 2013 and he had returned to the Australian Masters as a player again.
Chapter three was happening and he was making the most of it. The Lyle family all hoofed it to the US. He bought a motorhome and drove around the country, seeing the sights, playing golf and experiencing a life he had fought to have.
The golf didn’t quite work out so the family came back home and took up residence on the Victorian coast. Lyle was well too, until he wasn’t again.
The battle this time has been going for about a year, but happening more in private. More recently it was torturous too, made tougher because the infectious smile Lyle had taken around the world became too much to muster.
Lyle never cried “woe is me” and he pushed his message of hope through the Challenge cancer charity. His work for them never stopped, and his two successful fights evidence that the disease doesn’t always win.
But this time, it seems it has. It is sad, very sad. Maybe though, crack a smile for Lyle today. He’d prefer that.