14 | pembroke college
Malcolm Lyons Remembered Ian Pattinson (1970) Ian Pattinson studied Law at Pembroke from 1970–1973. He is currently Chairman of the R&A Board and Chairman of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. He has worked as the Rules of Golf Advisor at the Open Championship for both the BBC (from 2004–2015) and Sky TV (from 2016–2018). Here he shares his memories of Malcolm Lyons.
I first met Malcolm in his rooms in College over 50 years ago, not many yards from the chapel where we were due to gather last year in his memory and to celebrate all that he had achieved. It is no exaggeration to say that this was an encounter that would set the course of my life. With a father who was at Pembroke in the ’30s and a brother in the ’60s, my destiny was (in theory) prescribed, but attaining this holy grail proved much more problematical. In those times, the strict entry procedure was to sit A-levels first and follow these, a few months later, with an entrance exam. For the lucky (or was it the questionable) candidates, an interview with both tutors for admissions might then follow. My academic record, while not a disaster, was far from outstanding – even so, it was not the start I expected when my first interviewer inauspiciously opened with the simply shocking question: “Pattinson – what went wrong with your A-levels?” But later, I carefully edged around vast, untidy piles of books to enter the room of (the then) Dr Lyons to the greeting: “Come on in, Ian; it’s good to see you – I hear your golf handicap is now 2.” Having eventually been admitted to read law, I was not exposed to Malcolm’s prodigious scholarship or intellect, which was fortunate for me, as he was probably a genius and I was possibly a dunderhead. But whenever I saw him in College, I was warmly and reassuringly greeted as though I was part of the community of Pembroke, which was all I needed to know. Malcolm later introduced me to Ursula, who was both charming and elegant and an exceptional academic in her own right, as well as a gracious and welcoming hostess at Bottle Hall and later – after I had left Pembroke – at Walnut Tree Cottage. Within the prolific range of her own talents was the ability to make a simply consummate cassata, which remains unforgettable to this day. But I digress. Sir Roger Tomkys (in issue 94 of the Gazette) has recounted the circumstances of the Lyons’ family move to St Andrews, the Home of Golf, during Malcolm’s early life. There he taught himself to play golf; of that I am convinced. No-one who saw Malcolm play in later years could possibly believe that he had ever received a lesson in his life. A classical, balanced golf swing is a thing of beauty. By contrast, Malcolm’s own technique was simultaneously both fascinating and mildly excruciating to watch. His action was eccentric and unorthodox. He eschewed conventional – ie spiked – golf footwear and wore instead, stout walking shoes with sensible rubber soles. When first we played, his antique golf bag contained an unmatched set of clubs from another era. Malcolm was not, in truth, athletic and he assumed an ungainly and awkwardly narrow stance prior to making a golf stroke. A look of extreme concentration would totally absorb his
