After Sandy Lyle bid goodbye to professional golf at the Masters Tournament, we hear memories from two of the men who have shared locker rooms and fairways with him over the past 50 years.

“He’s an absolute giant when it comes to the Tour. He really was one of the leading lights that revolutionised the Tour.”

Those are the very first words spoken by Ken Brown when asked to talk about Ryder Cup teammate Sandy Lyle, who last week brought the curtain down on his Hall of Fame career at the Masters Tournament, reports the European Tour website.

After bursting on to the scene in 1979, Lyle was one of the great European trailblazers who turned the golfing hierarchy on its head, winning two Major Championships and a Players Championship and playing on two winning Ryder Cup teams.

His victory at the 1988 Masters Tournament made him the first player from the British Isles, the third from Europe and just the fourth non-American to wear the Green Jacket, while those Ryder Cup victories in 1985 and 1987 were the first defeats for the United States in 30 years and a first-ever win for either Great Britain and Ireland or Europe on US soil.

Brown would play alongside Lyle in both of those team triumphs but his relationship with his fellow Scot went back much further.

“I first bumped into Sandy when we both played in the Boys Internationals at Hoylake in 1974 and at that time Sandy and a chap called David Robertson were head and shoulders above anybody else,” he said.

“I remember the incredible power he had. We were all reeds in the wind and he had this incredible slow backswing and he just crunched it.

“You could see what a mega-talent he was, he was so far above the rest of us skinny-wisps of lads and you could see he had a lot of skill and talent.

“His dad Alex was a pro so he got a bit of a flying start but as soon as he turned pro he was straight to the top of the game, you could see he was going to be one of the talismans together with Seve that the rest of us were all going to strive to catch up with.”

After playing his first full season on the European Tour in 1978, Lyle won the then Order of Merit in 1979 and he repeated the feat in 1980, the same season Tony Johnstone made his first appearance on Tour.

Sandy Lyle. Sky Sports

“The first time I played with Sandy was at Crans-sur-Sierre and in the third round we get up on the first hole, which was a par-five in those days with the old equipment, and I absolutely nailed a drive and a three wood and came up about 30 yards short of the green,” said Johnstone.

“Sandy gets up and he hits this drive that took off and it was a joke. He was so far ahead of me off the tee it was frightening.

“He then hit this three iron where if the clouds had been lowered it would have disappeared into them. I’ve never seen a three iron hit so smoothly, easily and so high. This thing went up into the stratosphere, came down two feet from the flag and stopped stone dead and he just pops it in for a three.

“All three shots made it look like he was playing for 50p in a practice round, it was just the simplest thing and I thought: ‘This is not bad, watching this guy,’ and he just did that all the way around.

“Nobody has ever made the game look easier at that level than he did, it was just unbelievable. Every time you played with him you just felt like you were playing a different sport.

“He had a 1-iron that he used to hit past all of our drivers and when he hit a driver we weren’t even in the same league.

“He was just sensational but he always made it look so easy. He made it look like he was playing a practice round when he was winning Majors.”

That effortless power and the ease with which Lyle played the game at his remarkable best is often mentioned when people talk about the 65-year-old, and Brown, who was a playing partner in the 1979 World Cup and 1985 Ryder Cup, saw that first hand.

“I played with him lots and it all seemed so easy to him,” he said. “Great sport isn’t easy, you do all the work but he made it look easy, he never got flustered. He played with his seemingly natural gift to hit it 15 yards, 20 yards past everybody else, and winning just flowed in.

“The unique thing about Sandy was, while everyone else had to hustle and work and do press-ups and all the rest, Sandy could just take a couple of deep breaths and a swipe at it and off he went.

“He was just immensely talented. One of his great strengths when he won The Open and the Masters and the Players was he just seemed to be playing golf, it didn’t matter where it was he’d just hit the ball and hit it again. He never really got cross and he just played his own game.”

I first met Sandy Lyle 50 years ago we played the Boys International at Hoylake. He was the teams Captain. Sir Nick played. Two of Europes greatest golfers. Both retiring this year. pic.twitter.com/oKLNpVGF52

— Ken Brown.. .. (@KenBrownGolf) March 29, 2023

That 1979 World Cup, in which Brown and Lyle finished second for Scotland, saw Lyle practising left-handed for the first two days, while he spent the practice rounds before his 1985 Open triumph “casually” testing shots with a four or five wood.

Brown also recalled Hale Irwin coming over at that World Cup and looking in Lyle’s bag in sheer disbelief that a player could hit a one iron past a driver.

Shortly after his Open win, Lyle played in his fourth Ryder Cup, lining up alongside Brown in the day one foursomes and crucially claiming a half in the day two fourballs, a result that saw Seve Ballesteros fall off his chair.

“We were in the team room and I was sitting behind Seve who had his face maybe three feet from this big screen watching Sandy and Bernhard Langer, two down with two to play against Craig Stadler and Curtis Strange,” said Brown. “Sandy eagled the 17th and Stadler missed a short putt on the last.

“The Ryder Cup is won and lost on matches that you either flip away at the end or you turn it. There’ll be about three during the week and Seve was the master of believing it and you could feel Seve willing this putt to miss from 18 inches.

“Seve jumped up in the air and missed the centre of the seat when he came down and the seat came back and landed on my lap. Seve knew how big that match was and it was Sandy’s doing, he turned that match around from nothing to a half.

“We looked like we were going to lose and Sandy went: bang, bang, have some of that and then can you hold your nerve. It was a crucial, crucial moment.”

Lyle, Brown, Ballesteros and nine other history-makers in blue and gold would go on to lift the trophy at the Belfry, sealing a historic win for Europe, but keeping hold of the cup on US soil at Muirfield Village two years later would be a different task.

Big victories in the United States were not alien to that European team, however, with Ballesteros and Langer both Masters champions, and Lyle claimed another momentous win as he became the first European winner of the Players in 1987.

The seeming simplicity of his game and laidback nature of Lyle’s personality could never be mistaken for a lack of steel, as he proved in front of vociferous American crowds on numerous occasions.

“He’s a champion golfer,” said Brown. “There are lots of kind, sweet people who get blown over when the pressure comes on but Sandy didn’t fold at all when the pressure was on.

“When he took Jeff Sluman on in the play-off at the Players, it was windy, it was difficult and nobody in sight was cheering for Sandy but it made no difference to him.

“At that 1988 Masters, I remember there was a huge roar when one of the Americans made a putt on 16 and it was like a clap of thunder. It was quite hostile – in a nice way – and Sandy is going through all that and he didn’t flinch for one second.

“He had this brilliant attitude, he was never flustered.”

“His mental strength is that he’s an uncomplicated guy,” added Johnstone. “You’ve got simple beliefs and he doesn’t live a complicated life, he goes through life as if there’s nothing to it and he carried that through to his game.

“It was: ‘What’s the problem here? I know where I’m going to hit the ball, I know how to hit the ball so I’ll hit it there and see if anybody can beat me’.

“I’m sure everybody feels the stress but he never looked like he did and that’s just his nature, just a chilled, laidback man.”

Come the Ryder Cup, Lyle and Langer reignited their partnership and took three points from three as a pair as Europe claimed that history-making 15-13 victory.

In the team room, Brown admits that Ballesteros was “the leader by miles” but that did not make Lyle any less influential.

“We had so many different characters in that team but all focused, all trying to do their absolute best with the big goal to win Majors and the Ryder Cup. It was a fantastic time and Sandy was a big, big part of it because we all knew if Sandy played his best, it didn’t matter who you were, you weren’t going to beat him.

“In the team room, he didn’t have a presence like Seve but he had a presence of calm and authority in his game and he was never frightened to have a quiet word.

“He was one of our world-class players, respected by the Americans. There would have been times when the Americans respected us as people but they knew that most times we played they were going to come out on top because they were better players. That changed and Sandy was one of those players.

“He was also a player where the captain could say, ‘do you fancy playing with whoever?’ and he’d say yes, it wouldn’t have mattered who it was. But he was a winner as well, he wasn’t just fluffing around, he wanted to win like anything.

“He was a vital part of all the ingredients in that team room coming together. Seve was the leader by miles but he couldn’t have done it all on his own and he knew it. Seve really respected Sandy and there wouldn’t be a player who didn’t.”

Six months later came that monumental triumph at the Masters, with a wave of buoyed Europeans led by Lyle, Ballesteros, Langer, Ian Woosnam and reigning Open Champion Nick Faldo ready to conquer Augusta National.

Lyle entered the final round two shots ahead of Mark Calcavecchia but the duo were tied stood on the 18th tee.

It looked to be advantage Calcavecchia when Lyle found sand off the tee but the then 30-year-old produced one of the most famous shots in Masters history.

“That shot out of the bunker at Augusta on the last hole, that was perfect Sandy Lyle stuff,” said Johnstone. “That is a seriously tough shot out of that bunker with a decent lip and he just walks in there, takes one look and hits it to 20 feet straight over the flag.

“The game shouldn’t be that easy for anyone. That really exemplified Sandy Lyle’s golf.”

The following putt and victory jig changed Scottish and British golf forever, with Faldo winning the next two Masters and Woosnam putting on the Green Jacket in 1991 as Europeans enjoyed seven wins in nine years.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt Sandy’s win in 1988 set the stage for British players to have confidence at the Masters,” said Brown. “And I don’t know whether Sandy would have had the confidence if Seve hadn’t won.

“Everyone was manifesting: ‘I can play with Seve, I can beat Seve. I can play with Sandy, I can beat Sandy’. It drew the whole of that small group of players forward and also a small group which I was included in like Mark James, Sam Torrance, Howard Clark, Eamonn Darcy — there was another group that was striving to do the same things, it dragged everybody up. And in 1985 and 1987 we won the Ryder Cup, it was all part of that incredible story.”

And what did Lyle do the day after writing his name in the history books and forever cementing his place in European golf folklore?

“He followed me to the next tournament which was Hilton Head and we shared a cabin there on the course,” said Brown. “On the Monday after he won the Masters we went to the practice range and he must have given me a lesson for an hour.

“He’s just a genuinely good solid friend and you couldn’t get a better, more decent man.”

“He was just one of us,” said Johnstone. “He was a Major winner and he was unbelievably good but he never gave you that impression, he was just one of the boys.

“When he was a young man coming out on Tour to post-winning a Major, you’d see him the next week and there was absolutely not one iota of difference. Whether he won the monthly medal or a Major he remained exactly the same man and that is a rarity in this world. It says everything you need to know about Sandy — just a wonderful man.

“He was a joy to play with. He was cheerful, he was happy, he never got in your way or tried to put you off, he was a gentleman and a sportsman and that’s the greatest compliment you can give a man.”

“He is always good company,” added Brown. “He is quiet, never going to be bombastic or anything like that but he is good company and charming, always affable.

“He was generous with his time if anyone was struggling with anything and he’s kind, you can’t ask for much more than that.”

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The chill in the air Saturday morning at Augusta National Golf Club did nothing to cool down Jason Kokrak’s mood after he needed all of two minutes to complete his second round in the Masters.

Kokrak doubled down on heated statements he made on Friday afternoon after play was suspended with his group that included 1988 Masters champion Sandy Lyle and Talor Gooch on the 18th green.

“I absolutely stand by what I said yesterday. What they did was, in my mind, inexcusable,” the 37-year-old Ohioan said after completing a seven-over 79 and missing the cut at eight-over 152. “To not be able to find a way to let Sandy Lyle walk off that green with his family there and people around to send him off properly … I thought that was wrong. It would have taken a minute to just let him finish by himself.”

Lyle, 65, was competing for the final time in the Masters, ending a run of 42 appearances. The Scotsman faced a 12-footer for par when play was suspended for a second time on Friday at 4.22pm and eventually was halted for the rest of the day. Trees that fell near the 17th green caused the suspension.

On the 18th green, Kokrak, who was left with a 20-footer for par, had words for a Masters official.

“I said: ‘It’s chicken [expletive]. It could have been a really cool moment for Sandy Lyle, his family, the patrons, Augusta National, being the 1988 champion,” Kokrak was quoted as saying Friday. “Him and Larry [Mize] being their last Masters. I asked them for a special exemption. They said they weren’t even going to blow the horn for a few more minutes, but the trees came down on 17.

“I said this is a moment that he’s not going to get again. So I think Augusta National and the rules committee should be ashamed of themselves. And I’m really disappointed for him and his family for him not to be able to have that moment.”

A standing ovation for Sandy Lyle ?

The 1988 champion finishes his last round of competition at #theMasters pic.twitter.com/52kYRguw1K

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 7, 2023

Lyle two-putted his final green when play resumed Saturday morning at 8am to complete an 83. He finished last among players who completed 36 holes at 164. He was philosophical about the unfortunate ending to his Masters playing career.

“We tried to talk to the official that, you know, please, let us finish. But, no, they stuck to the rules and rules are rules and we had to abide by that,” said Lyle, who used a gold replica Ping putter for his last two strokes, one that resembled the putter he used to win his green jacket in 1988. He said spent the late hours last night drinking tequila, “and a bit of whisky tasting at about 1 o’clock this morning”.

Kokrak, 87th in the world, lingered at the back of the Augusta clubhouse for several minutes, even as rain fell more heavily and he was without an umbrella. He was thinking of his own future of Augusta as well.

“It might be my last Masters, too, you never know,” he said. “If the majors think the best players in the world ought to compete, then they should find a way to include them in the future. So we’ll see. I might not be back.”

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There were tears shed at Tuesday’s Champions Dinner — and not just from Scottie Scheffler’s spicy tortilla soup. Augusta native Larry Mize was so choked up about playing in his final Masters that he could barely get through his speech. Sandy Lyle, who is also having a swansong at the event this week, did better getting the words out, but understandably, it’s an emotional time for an athlete when they realise it’s time to hang it up.

But as former Masters champs, at least Lyle and Mize were able to make that decision themselves. For most golfers, that’s not the case. And if you haven’t won a green jacket and want to keep coming back to Augusta National, you have to keep qualifying. And qualifying. And qualifying. Maybe you go into a slump. Maybe you get an injury. Maybe you miss one Masters. Maybe you miss another. And next thing you know, you’re having to order that “Taste of the Masters” to your home like a regular patron, if you’re craving a Georgia peach ice cream sandwich. Life comes at you quick. (See Fowler, Rickie.)

With that said, we can say with certainty that Larry Mize and Sandy Lyle won’t be the only golfers teeing it up this week who will look back one day and realise the 2023 Masters was their final one. We just can’t say for sure who those other golfers are. But with LIV Golf tournaments still not being awarded Official World Golf Ranking points — and the Masters only making a couple small tweaks to its qualifications for 2024 — it’s very possible that there are more such cases this year unless guys perform really well at majors or pull a Patrick Reed and start loading up on Asian Tour events.

Take Thomas Pieters, one of LIV’s latest free-agent signings. The 31-year-old Belgian should have a couple decades left of playing in major championships, but with this OWGR situation, he realszes this (gulp) could be it. Despite the fact that he’s less than half of Mize’s age!

“I took my parents here because it could be my last one,” Pieters told reporters on Tuesday. “That’s just being realistic. I don’t know. Time will tell. We’ll see.”

Yes, we will. It got us thinking about LIV guys like Pieters and a couple notable PGA Tour players who aren’t guaranteed invites after this year. Obviously LIV green jacket members like Patrick Reed will always have a place at Augusta National, and recent major champs like Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau are safe for another couple years. But here are some others whose Masters future is a bit more murky.

Louis Oosthuizen: The man with the runner-up career Grand Slam has fallen to 120th in the Official World Golf Ranking after ending 2022 in the top 50 to earn his invite this year. He also turned 40 and shot 76 on Thursday with this pad on his elbow:

Louis Oosthuizen. Patrick Smith

In other words, he’s not getting any younger.

Kevin Na. Andrew Redington

Kevin Na: At least Louis made it through his first round, though. Na walked off after only nine holes due to an illness. And he’s another guy who won’t sniff the top 50 in the OWGR again unless LIV gets World Ranking points real soon.

Jason Kokrak: Like Na, another 30-something who is not a top-50 something anymore. You get the point.

Talor Gooch: Ditto.

Abraham Ancer: Now he’s a 30-something who is still ranked 31st. But without any OWGR points, it’s very doubtful he’ll remain in the top 50 by the end of 2023. Again, you get the point.

Francesco Molinari. Andrew Redington

Francesco Molinari: See? We told you this list wouldn’t be all LIV guys. Molinari is in the final year of a five-year Masters exemption for winning the 2018 Open Championship. Despite winning at Bay Hill the following year and nearly winning a green jacket in 2019, he’s now in a four-year winless drought and down to 130th in the world. And if he had just held onto that two-shot lead on the back nine four years ago, he’d be coming back here for the rest of his life. What a cruel sport.

Harold Varner III: OK, back to the LIV guys. After finally qualifying for his first Masters in 2022, this could be it. However, and we probably should have mentioned this earlier, any of these guys can earn a trip back next year by finishing in the top 12 this week. And after an opening 72, hey, you never know.

Cameron Champ. Ben Jared

Cameron Champ: And one final PGA Tour guy! You’re probably saying: “What’s this young stud doing on this list?!” And maybe we’re crazy. BUT, despite the fact that Champ is only 27, and has three PGA Tour wins, and hits absolute lasers, he’s only here this year because of that top-12 rule. Champ is currently the lowest-ranked golfer on this list at No. 201, and he’s had back problems, and, well, again, you just never know.

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Jack Nicklaus leaves Younger Hall after receiving the Freedom of St Andrews, with his wife Barbara prior to the 150th Open at St Andrews Old Course. Oisin Keniry/R&A

By John Huggan

In Britain, the natives have long been accomplished in the arts of both pomp and circumstance. Ceremony too, as was the case when the University of St Andrews and the Royal Burgh of St. Andrews Community Council hosted a wee get-together on Tuesday to give out five honorary degrees and make Jack Nicklaus — already Dr Nicklaus in their academic eyes — an honorary citizen of the Auld Grey Toon.

Watched by a packed audience in the Younger Hall on North Street — which included PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, USGA executive director Mike Whan and Augusta National president Fred Ridley among others — Catriona Matthew, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sandy Lyle, Lee Trevino and Bob Charles all emerged as ‘Doctors of Law’. Previous recipients include Gary Player, Colin Montgomerie, Seve Ballesteros, Peter Alliss, Nick Faldo, Peter Thomson, Charlie Sifford, Renee Powell, Tom Watson, Padraig Harrington, Arnold Palmer and Paul Lawrie.

All of which added another unforgettable chapter to the story of the place where, 64 years earlier, Bobby Jones had famously accepted the Freedom of St Andrews. He, Benjamin Franklin and now Nicklaus (with the modern equivalent) are the only three Americans so honoured.

This time was just as emotional, especially for 82-year-old Nicklaus. Back at the Home of Golf for the first time in 17 years, the 18-time major champion — two of which he won at the Old Course — was at times unable to continue. Just as he had done back in 1966, when he completed the career Grand Slam with victory in the Open Championship at Muirfield, the Golden Bear took refuge in the same phrase: “Do you mind if I just pause and enjoy this for a minute?”

No one did. One of the great things about the greatest game in the land where it began is the deep affection the Scots have always had for the truly great American players. As Nicklaus has more than once noted, he, Jones, Palmer and Ben Hogan have almost enjoyed more popularity in Scotland than in the United States.

Nicklaus was typically modest during his short address, drawing on a quote from the late, great American journalist Grantland Rice that ends with the line that even the most famous are “replaced by others and soon forgotten.” There was also time to remember the four shots Jack expended in Hell Bunker en route to a quintuple-bogey 10 on the Old Course’s par-5 14th hole during the 1995 Open. “I don’t want to go to hell again,” he said with a smile.

No one in the room was having any of that, of course. As Nicklaus wound up by thanking the people of St Andrews, “for remembering me and allowing me to be one of you”, everyone rose in what turned into a prolonged ovation. All of which again evoked memories of 1958, when a nearly disabled Jones noted that he “could take out of my life everything except my experiences at St Andrews and I would still have a rich, full life.” The only thing missing this time was a poignant rendition of the old Scottish song, “Will ye no come back again?”

Earlier, the graduation rituals — immaculately hosted by University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Sally Mapstone — provoked only occasional emotion from the recipients, although Olazabal was moved to tears by the presentation read by the university’s head of development operations, Louise Taylor.

Lee Trevino during a procession after Jack Nicklaus has been made an Honorary Citizen of St. Andrews. Ross Parker

There were laughs too. How could there not be with Trevino in the room? After telling the next man up, Charles, to get comfortable in his seat as he was going to talk “for a while”, the two-time Open champion made a typically witty speech. Inevitably, he found space for an old favourite among his many jokes.

“I have trouble getting to sleep,” he said. “Because I can’t wait to get up and hear what I have to say in the morning.”

And of course, the Merry Mex was moved to pay tribute to Nicklaus, an old friend as well as rival. Back when the Senior Tour first came into being, Trevino sent a dozen red roses to Barbara Nicklaus every week she kept husband Jack at home and “off the tour”. In 1990 that added up to 31 dozen flowers.

In conclusion though, even Trevino was serious. This is a man who has travelled further than perhaps any other golfer. Humble does not begin to describe his start in life. The first paragraph of his history in the programme says it all:

“Lee Buck Trevino was born in a three-room shack with no plumbing on a cotton farm in Garland, Texas, in December 1939 and raised by his mother, Juanita, and grandfather, Joe, a gravedigger. At the age of three he was picking cotton, at six helping irrigate the cemetery at night. The family moved to falls next to the then Glen Lakes GC, where Trevino learned to play on a makeshift three-hole dirt course in the caddie yard.”

“This is the greatest honour I’ve ever had,” he said. “This place is truly special.”

As was this ceremony. “No sport celebrates its heroes better than golf,” was Olazabal’s verdict. “And no country does it better than Scotland.”

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Early progress was slow to the point of immobility in the years after its first playing in 1955, when six-time Ryder Cupper Ken Bousfield won at Pannal Golf Club in Yorkshire, thanks to the fact many outside the British Isles weren’t even remotely aware the event existed. Between 1955 and 1966, participation was limited to English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish members of the game’s oldest professional golfers association. Why then would anyone else pay attention?

Which is not say that the origin of the event did not have at least one powerful and influential backer. Three-time Open champion Sir Henry Cotton was, according to veteran television commentator and eight-time Ryder Cup player Peter Alliss, a “driving force” behind the early PGA Championships.

“Henry felt strongly that there should be a PGA Championship,” says Alliss, who would win the event three times, a record until Nick Faldo’s fourth victory in 1989. “He saw it as affording British professionals a certain status in the world of golf. That was important because it was so difficult for us to go and play in America. Things were different then. I never thought I would see the day when so many of our leading players would live in the States. In my day, that was never going to happen because they made it so difficult for us to go over. We weren’t wanted there, especially if you could really play.”

That same sort of insularity had to change if the new tournament was to make progress. And it did, albeit only after a false start. The first response to criticism of the obviously restrictive entry requirements was the staging of “open” and “closed” versions of the tournament in 1967 and ’68. In other words, any professional from anywhere in the world could participate in the “open” event.” The “closed” version remained available only to those hailing from GB&I.

That attempt at compromise, however, didn’t work so well. By 1970, the championship had fallen into what turned out to be brief abeyance.

“The early 1970s was a turbulent period for the [British] PGA as an organization,” explains Alliss, who has twice served as the organization’s captain. “There was a lot going on, a lot of changes in management at the top over a short period of time. So there was a lot of negativity until the European Tour came into being. That changed everything, of course.”

The “Viyella” PGA Championship, a smaller-scale forerunner to today’s big-time reality, returned in 1972 (at Wentworth) as part of that newly-formed European Tour. (The British PGA did retain an interest in the event, as it still does, in that a small minority of the field qualify to play through PGA regional tournaments). Subsequently, six more sponsors have inserted their names ahead of “PGA.” And five other courses played host (Royal St. George’s, Royal Birkdale, The Old Course at St. Andrews, Ganton and Hillside) prior to Wentworth’s West course, the “Burma Road,” making its second and so-far permanent comeback in 1984.

“We always had a good venue and good sponsors,” says Ken Schofield, whose 29-year tenure as European Tour executive director ended in 2004. “But I can’t claim we had any kind of long-term plan in place. As was the case with a lot of things back then, it was intuitive.”

In retrospect, the 1975 championship at a blustery Royal St. George’s was especially significant. Arnold Palmer, 45, came from far behind with one of his patented charges (his final-round 71 was at least seven strokes lower than anyone in the top 10 after 54 holes) and won the £10,000 first prize in what was by then the Penfold PGA Championship. Just as his mere presence had done for the Open Championship 15 years earlier, golf’s most-charismatic performer raised the profile of the tournament to a previously unimagined height.

“It was the biggest event on the European Tour by then, bigger than any national Open. And we all wanted to play in it,” recalls swing coach Denis Pugh, who works with former Open champion Francesco Molinari and played in the event in 1975 at St. George’s. “But it was a bigger deal that year because Arnold was there, although it had nothing like the prestige it has now. I recall watching him walk down a fairway wearing a cashmere sweater. On a day when the rest of us needed four layers just to feel cold. He was the ultimate macho-man.”

Even as the tournament continued to grow in stature, a caveat hovered just beneath the surface. And it lingers today. Maybe because the European Tour has necessarily or unintentionally (take your pick) diminished the resonance of the title through the prominent presence of so many commercial entities, the PGA of America has, rather presumptuously, assumed ownership of the phrase “PGA Championship.”

It may seem pedantic, but “USPGA Championship” is a more accurate and appropriate title for the major held each year in the U.S. The PGA in Britain, the world’s first association of golf professionals, was born in 1901, 15 years ahead of the American version. And with age and precedence comes rank and privilege.

“The Americans understand marketing,” says a smiling George O’Grady, European Tour chief executive between 2005 and 2015. “I once had a chat with [former PGA Tour commissioner] Tim Finchem. I told him there really should be two brands for the entire world. ‘The PGA’ for the club professionals around the world. And ‘PGA Tour’ for all the professional golfers, which would make his organization the ‘U.S. PGA Tour.’ He was quick to dismiss that notion.”

Still, despite the New World’s indifference, the early days of the Old World PGA Championship were not totally lacking in merit. Not in Alliss’ mind at least.

“It quickly became a little bit more than an ordinary tournament,” says Alliss, 89. “If you won, you were a champion, the best in Britain. So it had quite a bit of kudos. Having said that, we were playing at far more modest venues and for a lot less money. First prize was something like £400, which was a lot then I suppose. So it had some razzamatazz to it. And it was certainly an event I enjoyed winning. It was just a little bit above the rest.”

It was also an innovator. At least in one respect, the championship was moving with the times. At Dunbar in 1968, the then Schweppes PGA Championship became the first “big-ball” tournament in Europe. Englishman David Talbot’s eight-under-par winning score over the East Lothian links was achieved with the 1.68-inch diameter ball, rather than the 1.62 version.

Into the 1970s, the prestige of the event was soon accelerating, as evidenced by the list of winners. BP (before Palmer), former Open and U.S. Open champion Tony Jacklin won in 1972. And 12 months later, then European No. 1 Peter Oosterhuis succeeded his biggest rival.

Even more significantly, by the end of that decade the so-called “Big Five” of European golf—Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam and Bernhard Langer—were emerging and blossoming en route to accumulating 16 major victories between them. Only Lyle would not win the PGA Championship at Wentworth, although the Scot came close, losing a playoff to Paul Way in 1985. Throw in Jose Maria Olazabal, Colin Montgomerie, Angel Cabrera, former World No. 1 Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Molinari and the tournament today boasts a fittingly stellar list of past champions.

“The buy-in from the top five was crucial,” O’Grady says. “The key to what the PGA Championship has become today was the support of the leading players in the 1980s. Faldo in particular was a huge boost to the prestige of the event. For whatever reason, he saw it as a big deal. Back then, I was managing director of Tour Enterprises, but I was also, in effect, the tournament director. My job was to negotiate with the players as well as run the commercial side of the operation.”

Peter Dazeley
The exceptional record in the tournament from Europe’s Big Five of Nick Faldo (four wins), Seve Ballesteros (2), Sandy Lyle (playoff loss), Bernhard Langer (3) and Ian Woosnam (2) helped cement the event as the biggest outside the majors on the European Tour.

The burgeoning success O’Grady describes wasn’t all about the willingness of star players to show up, albeit they were and are an obvious prerequisite for any aspirational tournament. Another big plus was extensive BBC TV coverage, the viewing figures enhanced by the event finishing on Monday, the May Bank Holiday in the U.K. Throw in the annual World Match Play Championship that ran from 1964 to 2007 at Wentworth and a special connection was thus created between fans and venue. Reminiscent of the relationship that exists between golf fans and Augusta National, Wentworth’s holes are today familiar to millions who will never see the course in person. All in all, the end result represented a potent package, one only enhanced by a shift to September when the now twice re-designed lay-out is typically in better shape.

“It’s a title we all grow up craving to win, more than any other on the European Tour,” says former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley, neatly summing up the prevailing view.

Further adding to the mix is the unpredictability of the eventual result. Not every champion at Wentworth has been a bonafide superstar. Journeymen have popped up now and then. Simon Khan. Scott Drummond. Andrew Oldcorn. Anders Hansen (twice). Chris Wood. Tony Johnstone. All have lifted the trophy. And for all, victory was life-changing.

“The PGA Championship was a huge event by the time I won it,” says Johnstone, who outdueled Faldo on the final day in 1992. “That the top guys all played throughout the 1980s was huge in terms of establishing the credentials of the event. The big thing for me though was the 10-year [tour] exemption [now reduced to three] that came with the £100,000 winner’s check. That meant I could have a bad year, or an injury and still have my card the following season. I did keep my card every year without the exemption, but that was at least partly because I knew i had that safety net. I was able to just go out and play, which was a massive relief mentally.”

Andrew Redington
Having the likes of Rory McIlroy in 2014 (shown), Francesco Molinari in 2018 and Danny Willett in 2019 win the title helps connect the tournament to the current generation of European Tour stars.

Through all of the above one thing has been noticeably missing: anything more than sporadic American participation. But even that was showing signs of change. In 2019, Billy Horschel, Patrick Reed, Kurt Kitayama, Andrew Putnam, Julian Suri, Tony Finau and David Lipsky made up a record seven-strong contingent. This year, however, has a different look. Of those seven Americans, only Reed, Kitayama and Suri are returning. Like the European Tour on which it stars, the BMW PGA is, in many ways, poorly positioned to cope with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

It remains to be seen, for example, how many of the U.S.-based European stars will cross the Atlantic to play at Wentworth in years to come. McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Viktor Hovland and Henrik Stenson aren’t flying over this year. The most recent European winner on the PGA Tour, Sergio Garcia, citing tax issues, never more than an occasional visitor, is another absentee. The six events on the so-called U.K. Swing earlier this year featured fields well below the norm. Top 50 players were hard to find. The fear is that, even boasting an exceptional purse, the BMW PGA Championship will suffer a similar fate.

“We’ll get through it though,” insists McGinley, who serves on the European Tour’s board of directors. “It’s just a question of what is left at the end of it. How swiftly can we come back? We’re dealing with some really difficult curveballs. The restrictions imposed by the British government are so severe. We have to deal with international players. And we have to deal with the travel that comes with being a truly international tour. So we have a number of headwinds against us.”

McGinley’s ultimate optimism is likely justified. In the 65 years that have passed since its low-key inception, the Schweppes/Viyella/Penfold/Colgate/Sun Alliance/Whyte & Mackay/Volvo/BMW PGA Championship has always found ways to survive and thrive.

The post The strange, sometimes rocky story of how the BMW PGA Championship became the European Tour’s ‘flagship’ event appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers

Wiener schnitzel (Bernhard Langer, 1986) (pictured above)
The German was one of the first players to really personalize the Champions Dinner menu and he chose wiener schnitzel (breaded veal) and Black Forest cake, two popular foods in his native country. When he won his second green jacket in 1993, he stuck with the cake, but switched to turkey and dressing for the entree.

Haggis (Sandy Lyle, 1989)
Lyle was so fired up about getting to host the Champions Dinner that he wore a kilt and served the Scottish specialty made of minced sheep organs. “That seemed to make quite a statement,” Lyle told the Augusta Chronicle. “The older guys, like [Jack] Nicklaus, had been to Scotland and knew what haggis was. But the newer ones, guys like Lar-ry Mize, they weren’t too sure about that.”

Chicken Cacciatore (Fred Couples, 1993)
Freddie payed homage to his Italian roots by serving chicken cacciatore with spaghetti on the side (his paternal grandparents immigrated from Italy and changed their last name from Coppola). Couples’ choice thrilled at least one other Masters winner with an Italian background. Gene Sarazen called it his favourite Champions Dinner.

Cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes (Tiger Woods, 1998)
It’s not a coincidence that the youngest winner of the Masters essentially served a kid’s meal. “Hey, it’s part of being young,” Woods said. “It’s what I eat.” Byron Nelson, for one, didn’t complain. He reportedly told Tiger he was glad he ordered cheeseburgers, “because I don’t get this at home.”

Chicken Panang curry (Vijay Singh, 2001)
Singh served a Thai-themed feast that also included seafood Tom Kha, Chilean sea bass with chili and rack of lamb with yellow kari sauce. Singh reportedly had the chef make the spicy chili sauce milder than usual to better appeal to the other guests. Aww, what a guy.

Elk and wild boar (Mike Weir, 2004)
The only Canadian to win a major championship served plenty of big game from the Great White North. There was also fried chicken and filet mignon for the less adventurous. And a selection of Canadian beer, of course.

Lobster ravioli (Phil Mickelson, 2005)
Lefty went Italian for his first Champions Dinner, which also included caesar salad and garlic bread to go with the ravioli in a tomato cream sauce. Apparently, this is a year-round favourite in the Mickelson. Phil and Amy later shared their recipe for the dish with WorldLifestyle.com.

Chicken and beef fajitas (Tiger Woods, 2006 & 2020)
Tiger graduated from burgers and fries to steak, chicken and sushi in 2002 and 2003. Then in 2006 he served fajitas with Mexican rice and refried beans, which friend Mark O’Meara happened to serve in 1999. It was good enough then that Woods had said it was returning to the menu for his 2020 Champions Dinner, which sadly has to wait until this November.

Veal osso bucco ravioli (Zach Johnson, 2008)
Actually, this dish isn’t as curious when you consider how many things Johnson served at his dinner. The menu also contained chilled jumbo shrimp, crab cakes, lobster bisque, filet mignon, seared ahi tuna, Iowa corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, and flourless chocolate cake. Hey, you never know when you’re going to get this chance again, right?

South African bobotie (Trevor Immelman, 2009)
This South African dish is a minced meat pie with egg topping. Immelman also provided a variety of South African wines that were probably a lot more popular with the other guests.

Argentinian barbecue (Angel Cabrera, 2010)
Cabrera served a spread from his home country of chorizo, short ribs, beef filets mollejas (sweetbreads) and blood sausages. When asked about the host’s selection, Jack Nicklaus joked, “Oh, I hope he enjoys it.” Oh, we’re sure Cabrera did.

Spanish seafood paella (Phil Mickelson, 2011)
Mickelson honoUred cancer-stricken Seve Ballesteros, who couldn’t make the dinner, with his meal in 2011. Aside from the paella, machango-topped filet mignon, tortillas and Spanish apple pie were also served. “I just want him to know we all wish he was here and we are thinking about him,” Mickelson said. Sadly, Ballesteros died the following month.

Moreton bay bugs (Adam Scott, 2014)
Adam Scott flew this personal favoUrite in from Australia to accompany the New York strip steak. “They are legitimate bugs, the real deal,” Scott said of the critters that are actually just insect-like lobsters. “I’m not going to serve up anything second rate tonight. I’ve got to go all-out to impress these guys.” Interesting tactic.

Tres leches cake (Sergio Garcia, 2018)
And not just any tres leches cake. Sergio served “Angela Garcia’s tres leches cake.” We believe this marks the first time that a WAG’s name has appeared on the official Champions Dinner menu. Regardless, it sounds like the green jacket winners were in for quite a treat.

The post 14 Curious Masters Champions Dinner Choices appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
James Williams is a stress-free interview. Simply press record, sit back and enjoy a captivating journey through a lifetime in golf as colourful as that famed tan, one that strangely never acquainted itself with his legs. It seems there is a reason seasoned golf professionals wear trousers and if you ask nicely, Emirates Golf Club’s newest “old” pro will likely hitch said slacks to keep a running joke rolling. Self-deprecation is one of the Shropshire product’s endearing trademarks.

But we digress. Back to an interview where probing lines of enquiry, beyond the initial conversation starter, are rarely required.

So, how did you get into golf?

“My golfing life started…actually, I was a much keener cricketer to the extent that I did play a lot of county cricket and got selected for England training. Didn’t get on the team, but that was my true love. Left-handed cricketer, totally right-handed person.”

Williams is a totally natural storyteller too, and clearly just warming to his task as the next 112, almost pauseless minutes prove.

It transpires his introduction to golf came through his father, a bank manager who took up the game later in life. Williams’ Snr saw a neighbour throwing out an old set of clubs one day and seized on an opportunity for young James.

“It was a rusty old pencil bag with about eight clubs in there. Believe it or not they were hickories. We cut them down and of course I gripped it cack-handed because they’re right-handed clubs. I probably would have been world No.1 if I didn’t remain left-handed,” Williams says with a hearty dollop of English jocularity.

He may never have become a world-beater but the then Shrewsbury G.C. member was good enough to get down to a one-handicap and play county golf. And in some illustrious company too.   

“I come from a county that at that time had five courses so we had to join forces with a neighbouring county. We played in the Midlands league… [European Tour Dubai chief] Nick Tarratt probably played against me years ago, we didn’t know each other then. [Golf in Dubai President and former R&A chief] Peter Dawson actually played for Warwickshire. They’ve got like 20, 30, 50 golf courses, we had five, got thrashed every time.

“The incredible thing was, we had as our No.1 and No.2, AWB [Alexander Walter Barr or “Sandy”] Lyle and Ian Woosnam. So the other 10 of us turned up and lost most times and those two played together in the foursomes and always won.”

Williams eventually fell into a PGA traineeship and deeply in love with teaching. After cutting his teeth in the UK, foreign adventures beckoned and he soon found himself mixing with 4-Star Generals at Woodlawn G.C., a course within the Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany which remains today the U.S. Air Force’s European HQ and home to the NATO Allied Air Command.

It was an enlightening life and golf experience but the icy German winters eventually wore thin so Williams applied for a role at a club soon to open in the UAE. It was 1987 and his military pals were worried.

“No one had heard of the UAE but I speculated and put in an application.” Williams sat back and waited for a response. And waited. Six months later he’d almost given up but decided a call to Emirates Golf Club was in order, if only to politely register his disappointment at the lack of a courtesy call to say he’d missed out.

An apologetic Rodney J. Bogg, Emirates G.C.’s first general manager, answered and had a surprise, inviting Williams out for a trial along with two other hopefuls.

“I stayed for a week – gobsmacked! Horrible word, but just gobsmacked by the whole place. I remember walking on the driving range. I’ve been to many golf courses by this time but I was tip-toeing across the grass. I have never seen anything so level, every blade of grass vertical to the ground like a brand new scrubbing brush. ‘Well hit a few shots, guys.’ You know I’m a big ball and turf guy which golfers should be if they are going to strike the ball. But I didn’t dare take a divot, I was just clipping it off the top, didn’t want to be the guy digging up their new range.”

Williams became part of the furniture at Emirates G.C. for the next decade as Dubai grew up around its pioneering grass golf course. The next chapter in his career spans 20 years at Jebel Ali where, as golf operations manager, Williams was the perpetually smiling face of the resort course. Recently though, the grin started to fade as he did a stocktake of his career and realised he was no longer in the customer-facing roles he loved. A hankering to get back to those happy old teaching days become impossible to ignore and thankfully Emirates G.C. were receptive to a home-coming.

“I was the first pro to get here, and sadly now I’m the oldest pro,” Williams jokes of being back on the tools as part of Dubai Golf’s Peter Cowan Academy Dubai team.

“It is fabulous fun. I’ve got to rebuild my clientele but a lot of the original members have already come back. It never goes fast enough for me because I want to show that it’s worth Emirates having me back but it’s been very encouraging so far. I hope it’s been for the club. I couldn’t be happier.”

Mustufa Abidi/Motivate Publishing
James Williams and son Robbie are now working side-by-side at Emirates G.C. where Robbie is part of the Golf in Dubai team delivering the Omega Dubai Classics and MENA Tour.

The role means Williams now has the joy of working even closer to his 25-year-old son Robbie who is part of the Golf in Dubai team behind the Omega Dubai Desert and Ladies Classics and increasingly the face of the MENA Tour. Like his father, Williams Jnr’s first love wasn’t golf either, rather football. He was good enough to play for England Schoolboys and sign junior papers with Wolverhampton Wanderers but also cunning enough to see a good opportunity when the father of Emirati golf, Mohamed Juma Buamaim, offered him an internship.

“As a Dad, to see him growing and getting all this experience, yeah, I’m very proud. I will say that there is no one prouder than me seeing him on television doing the Desert Classic presentation. I’d be shaking like a leaf and apparently he was but he doesn’t stumble over his speeches like me.“

James Williams is equally proud of his daughter Anna-Louise, a physiotherapist in London, and grateful to his understanding wife Heather for allowing him to pursue a career where weekends and family time are a precious commodity. “She’s been very patient with her husband. You’d better get that in writing before she divorces me!”

Conversation reverts back to his beloved cricket but this time with a golf spin, not unlike the leg-breaks he used to “turn a yard”, at least the ones that bounced anyway. His childhood hero was the elegant left-handed West Indian batsman Sir Garfield Sobers so imagine the thrill when, during his initial stint at Emirates G.C., Bogg asked him to look after the visiting cricketing knight one day.

“He was just the greatest guy to talk to. When your hero turns out to be as nice as that, it’s one of the biggest things that has happened to me out here. Perhaps in our own countries we would never meet all these famous people. Is it a big deal? To me it has been. To actually see these people and find out they are normal like us has been a thrill.”

Williams played in the first three Desert Classics but his biggest playing kick came before the inaugural event in 1989 when he was asked to guide another idol, Tony Jacklin, in a reconnaissance lap of the Majlis course. The 67 he shot in the company of the Ryder Cup legend is a treasured memory and made all the practice beforehand, and some predictably nervy play in the tournaments proper afterwards, worth it.

“We were working 14 hours a day preparing everything for the first Desert Classic so I’ve hardly played and I’m going to look stupid in front of the members. All of a sudden I’m feeling a lot of pressure. So three weeks before I fished my clubs out. I would finish giving lessons at 10 o’clock at night, quickly run home, have a shower, half an hours kip, and then put the range lights on and belt balls all night long, over and over and over again until I actually had an awful cut down here [pointing to his left palm] because of a poor grip and soft hands. I don’t think we paid for the electricity in those days but I’ve paid with a scar for life.”

Williams would love to play more often and has a goal of teeing it up in the Sharjah Senior Masters if he can get his game, and his now 59-year-old body, to co-operate. But it’s teaching that really inspires him.

“I don’t think I’m really somebody, maybe not good enough, to be at the sharp end teaching top professionals but that was never been my goal. I actually don’t think you get as much satisfaction as seeing someone that’s come along, dead keen, they finally get the ball up in the air, they’re running around jumping in the air, like whoopee!

“I’m sure some people here think I’m a bit of a pain in the arse, but for people to say its really nice to have you back, and there’s been too many saying that for it not to be half true, it’s humbling. I think maybe they just like my enthusiasm, that I care. It is lovely to be back.”

The feeling from friends old and new at Emirates G.C. is mutual. For lessons, and yarns, delivered with genuine enthusiasm, the club couldn’t have hired anyone better.

The post James Williams is back on the tools at Emirates G.C. delivering lessons – and legendary tales – with unbridled joy appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.