looking back AFP
Sandy Lyle, 2010 Masters Tournament 40
HK GolferăƒťAPR 2011
HKGOLFER.COM
"The Bunker Guy" In 1988, Sandy Lyle produced one of the most famous shots in Masters history when he fired a brilliant seveniron from a fairway bunker to birdie the eighteenth hole and claim the coveted green jacket. He shares his memories of that wonderful moment with HK Golfer
T
his will be the thirtieth time I've teed it up at the Masters and I'm really looking forward to returning to the challenge of Augusta. Although it's over 20 years since my win in 1988, I've played pretty well there in recent times and funnily enough, the 69 I had in the first round in 2010 was the best start I've ever had. I normally open with a 74 or something and thought it would be a breeze to make the cut. But I experienced the highs and lows of Augusta by adding an 86 on the second day. That's the Masters for you! Augusta looks after its winners very well and I always enjoy the Champions Dinner that's held on the Tuesday of the tournament. It doesn't happen anywhere else – aside from St Andrews when the Open returns there – and it's nice to catch up with all the gossip that's going on. Looking down that table with all the familiar names is great, although I do miss some of the old characters, like Sam Snead. In past years we'd all huddle around Sam and he'd tell his dirty jokes at the end of the evening. It's a good night and something very few people have the opportunity to do. When it was my turn to host the dinner [in 1989] I chose to serve haggis, which took a bit of explaining to Larry Mize and others who hadn't ventured over to the UK that often. But the hardcore – the likes of Watson, Nicklaus and Palmer – they'd all had it before. Besides, if I hadn't HKGOLFER.COM
HK Golfer・APR 2011
41
"I knew that the main thing I needed to do was stay out of the fairway bunker, so I hit a one-iron up the hill thinking I would be safe. Wrong again!"
Getty Images
Sandy Special: Lyle blasts his famous seven-iron shot at the eighteenth in 1988 42
HK Golfer・APR 2011
have served it I'm sure I would have been booed all the way from Scotland. The haggis got a lot of attention in the press but it was only an appetizer; I chose beef for the main. Heading into the final round in 1988 I had a two-shot lead over Ben Crenshaw, who I was partnered with, and Mark Calcavecchia. I started well, and made a nice birdie at the ninth and a good par at ten to maintain my two-shot lead. Coming into Amen Corner I was feeling pretty good about things. I thought that if I could just get through the eleventh and twelfth holes then I've got two par fives to come – at thirteen and fifteen – and the seventeenth and eighteenth holes didn't scare me as much then as they do now. "We've got a good chance here," I told myself.
Unfortunately Amen Corner wasn't too kind on me that day. I hit a good drive down the eleventh but when I got up to the ball I saw that a big chunk of red Georgia clay was hanging to one side of it. I couldn't figure out where the ball was going to go – how the mud would affect the ball flight – but knew I had to keep it safe, which meant not going left and dicing with the pond there. I hit a pretty good shot but the ball was wavering about in the air and drifted right and ended up a couple of feet off the green. That's OK, I thought, I can get my putter to that. I get down to the green and the blinking mud is still there – and to make matters worse it's right on the contact area, precisely where I'm going to hit it with my putter. What bloody else can I get served up here, I thought. In retrospect I should probably have bladed it with a sand wedge as my putt finished eight feet short and I missed the next. Bogey! I just had to accept it and remind myself that the Masters Golfing Gods are sending these little things down just to
test me, to try me out. I quickly realized that I wasn't going to get it served to me on a plate. The twelfth wasn't playing as wicked as we know it can – the wind wasn't swirling. When I was on the eleventh I had seen Bernhard Langer hit a seven-iron to the back of the green, which meant I could hit an eight-iron because I'm a bit longer than him. Again, I felt comfortable with what I was doing and took aim for the right side of the front bunker, which was in line with where the flag was located. I hit it about 96 per cent, perhaps one groove too high on the clubface, but felt it was plenty good enough. I was wrong. The ball caught the front of the green, dug its heels in and spun back into Rae's Creek. The curse of it was that if it had carried two feet more I'd have stiffed it for an easy two. After pitching up from t he drop zone about 70 yards out I did well to two-putt from just off the green for a double bogey. I had lost my lead. A l l wa s not l o s t h o w e v e r. At the par-five thirteenth I hit a good drive round the corner and only had a seveniron left. The old gremlins started to come in then b e c au se I had a bit of a hook lie. I was desperately trying not to tug it left or hit it short and into the water, and once again I hit it good. Unfortunately I carried it a bit far – the ball pitched hole high and released into the back bunker into an awful lie. It was a treacherous place to be because the green slopes all the way back down to the water and with the lie I had there was no way I was going to be able to get any spin on the ball. I had to play cagey by aiming away from the pin. The result wasn't bad – I left myself a 15-footer for birdie – but could only two-putt. I had played Amen Corner in three-over-par and was now one off the pace being set by Calcavecchia. Two pars over the next two holes steadied the ship somewhat – although the fifteenth should have been a good birdie opportunity for me – and I managed to birdie the short sixteenth with a nice putt, parred seventeen and now I'm standing on the eighteenth tee in the knowledge that a par would mean a play-off with Calcavecchia; a birdie would clinch it. I knew that the main thing I needed to do HKGOLFER.COM
was stay out of the fairway bunker, so I hit a one-iron up the hill thinking I would be safe. Wrong again! The ball ran straight up in there. The lip on the bunker wasn't too bad but I knew the way the ball rolled in that it would be up against the face. So I'm walking towards it with a black cloud descending, thinking this was not looking too great. It turned out to be a bit better than I thought – the ball was on an upslope but there was just enough room to clear the lip. The number I had was 146 yards to the pin, and just over 150 yards to the landing area beyond that. An eight-iron was exactly the distance to pin but a seven-iron was the safest because being short was far worse than being big. I knew when I'd hit it I had caught it well, and as the applause from the crowds grew louder and louder I figured the ball had caught the slope on the green and come back to within only inches of the pin. I was actually disappointed to see where it had stopped. Everyone says I only had a six-foot putt but the camera foreshortened the length – it was a good fifteen feet away. I had about 10 minutes to work out the line, because Crenshaw was butchering the hole. The nice thing was that the putt couldn't get away
from me because there was a slight upslope beyond the hole. That meant the two-putt – and a spot in the play-off – was assured. My backstroke was about three inches long but that was enough to send it wandering down in the general direction and it just managed to fall in. The relief was amazing. The little jig I did in celebration was supposed to be a somersault but the legs had gone. Having won the week before [at the Greensboro Classic] I had had quite a lot of media attention, which kept me busy off the course, and by the time that final putt had dropped I was absolutely shattered. I am constantly reminded of what I did on the eighteenth. When I'm in America I hear about it every week. I'm remembered as the "bunker guy", which I don't mind at all; in fact I quite like it. What I'm especially proud of is the fact I was the first person in a long time – I think since Arnold Palmer – to birdie the eighteenth to win the Masters. Of course it's happened quite a few times since then – Mark O' Meara's done it, as has Phil Mickleson – but noone apart from me has done it from that horrible little bunker. –As told to Alex Jenkins
Game On: Virtual Augusta
T
he vast majority of golfers are never going to be lucky enough to arrange a tee time at Augusta National, but now we can all get as close as possible without flying to Georgia – via our video game consoles. For the first time ever, the Alister MacKenzie-designed course is now available to play on EA Sports' latest edition of their long-running and hugely popular Tiger Woods PGA Tour game. "People have been asking us when Augusta is going to be in the game for as long as I can remember," EA Senior Designer Mike Devault says. "I think now is the perfect opportunity with the new generation of consoles meaning that the detail we can provide on the course has finally reached a level that Augusta are comfortable with and they are happy to let us do it." It has taken two years to ensure that the world's most famous course is accurately represented in the game, but don't think this is just a way for the club to make a bit of cash. 100 per cent of Augusta National's proceeds will go to the newly-founded Masters Tournament Foundation, which will invest in worldwide golf development programmes. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters is on sale in Hong Kong from March 29 and will cost HK$329 on Xbox 360 and HK$380 on PlayStation 3.
HKGOLFER.COM
HK Golfer・APR 2011
43