Lyle 'regret' over Open withdrawal

SANDY Lyle yesterday confessed that if his father, Alex, the late teaching professional, had still been alive, he would have taken a dim view of the Scot's decision to walk out of the Open at Royal Birkdale after just ten holes of the first round last week.

Speaking at Royal Troon, where he's been paired with Tom Watson and Greg Norman in today's first round of the Senior Open, Lyle offered a partial defence of his actions at the Open, citing sore knuckles and fingers as a contributory factor in his decision to quit. "I was playing with almost numb knuckles and couldn't really continue," he insisted.

A week ago Lyle said he suffered a "total meltdown" in driving rain and high winds when he reached the turn in 45 blows, 11 over par, and headed for the clubhouse after holing out on the tenth. His behaviour drew widespread criticism. Mark Roe, the former professional, branded the past Open champion's decision as a disgrace. Peter Dawson, the chief executive of the Royal and Ancient, was also unimpressed.

While Lyle stopped short of offering an unstinting apology, he did admit regrets about his conduct. He also understood his hitherto unblemished reputation as a Masters and Open champion had been tarnished.

"I regret it a little bit in the end," he said, "but I've spoken to Peter Dawson and it's alright with him. I wrote a letter to him and as far as the R&A and the European Tour are concerned, it's a done deal. I've had an impeccable record for most of my career, not like John Daly. It's been dealt with and that's as far as we go."

Lyle's reference to Daly was hardly timely since the American played 36 holes with a hand injury at Birkdale and didn't shrink from signing for 89 in the second round which left him tied for joint last of those who completed two rounds alongside Jamie Howarth. For once, Daly deserved commendation for not shirking his duties to the game.

On the other hand, many newspaper readers, radio listeners and TV viewers expressed disappointment last week with Lyle's reaction to adversity. "I think my reputation will be tarnished for a while, but things blow over pretty rapidly these days," he said. "It's old news in some ways in my mind now and you move on. There will be people that will be unhappy. I have new sponsors and you'd like to put on a show for them. But I was the one out there suffering."

While his new backers, Aberdeen Asset, could not have been thrilled with Lyle's early departure, the big Scot conceded his dad would have had a few words to say on the subject if he'd still been alive.

"I suppose in the first round of the Open, a big name like myself, anything about myself is going to be big news," he reflected.

"It will be headlines which will go around the world within minutes. I know if my old man was alive, he wouldn't be too happy about it. But he would obviously say 'you have your reasons' and I did have my reasons at the time.

"When you're 11 over par after nine holes, it's a bit of a meltdown and I wasn't happy with myself. I was hurting in the left hand on the knuckles which has been a niggling problem for a couple of years.

"In Germany a few years ago, I had to retire after one round because I jarred my right hand. These sort of things happen in the game as you get older. Things start to fall off or hurt, a bit like an old car, I suppose. I'm prone to injuries like Tiger Woods can be."

Lyle insisted he hadn't laboured the issue of sore hands after he walked off the course because he didn't want to make excuses. "I didn't make a big splash about my hand being sore. The way my hand felt at the time was hurting, not in an extreme way, but enough to stop me having the feeling I would like to have."

The Scot also reported how his son, Stuart, who caddied for him at Birkdale, was "not very happy about me walking in".

Although it was generally agreed that Lyle had seriously damaged his already slim chances of becoming a Ryder Cup captain at Celtic Manor in 2010, the veteran golfer added: "That's two years away and there's a lot of water to go under the bridge."