Former champion Lyle likely to end Masters run in 2023 tourney
AUGUSTA — The 2023 Masters could signal the end of not one, but two former champions’ careers at the Augusta National Golf Club.
Sandy Lyle, the 1988 champion, said next year’s tournament is likely going to be his last.
“I think probably next year might be the end of the Lyle attack on the golf course,” he said.
Lyle played in the final group alongside Jack Nicklaus when the latter won his sixth Masters in 1986. Two years later, Lyle earned his own green jacket by hitting a 7-iron from the fairway bunker on No. 18 to within 10 feet before making the putt for birdie to beat Mark Calcavecchia by a shot.
The 64-year-old Scotsman has had a unique Masters career. In 41 tournaments since 1980, the two-time major champion has made only 17 cuts — the last coming in 2014 — and he has not had another top-10 performance since his triumph.
Should 2023 truly be Lyle’s final tournament at Augusta National, he will likely be joined by 1987 champion Larry Mize, who put the green jacket on Lyle a year later. Mize announced earlier this week that the 2023 tournament would likely be his last, too.
Lyle said next year’s Masters would be the perfect time for him to go out because it plans to be a family affair.
“Well, I think my older son is coming out, and a few of his buddies,” Lyle said. “And I think my younger son is probably coming out, so we’re going to be full family, I think, so I think it will be the end of the day.”
Lyle, like most of the players on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, find it difficult to play Augusta National later in their careers, especially as the club continues to lengthen holes, almost on a yearly basis.
“I hit most of the fairways in the round (Friday), which is all good,” Lyle said. “Even the last few holes I hit the fairways. Not as far as my playing partner (amateur Stewart Hagestad) because he was, like, 50 yards ahead of me, so he makes the 17th a lot easier. I can’t hit it high enough and far enough to get into the flat bit, so I’m hitting 6-iron into 17, when (Hagestad) is probably hitting a gap-wedge or something like that.”
Lyle shot rounds of 8276 and missed the cut this week. However, there was one highlight that did come out of his trip to Augusta. It was the 100th major tournament of his career. His first was the 1974 British Open, which he entered as a 16-year-old amateur.
“One hundred major championships,” Lyle said. “Something to tell the grandchildren.”