Exclusive:Sandy Lyle makes Masters vow to Bob MacIntyre if he can emulate him at Augusta

For the first time since bringing down the curtain on his lengthy playing stint at Augusta National three years ago, Lyle, the 1988 winner, is attending the season’s opening major, admitting he is particularly excited about tucking into a wagyu filet mignon dish on Rory McIlroy’s lip-licking extensive menu for the Champions Dinner on Tuesday.

It will be the first time the 68-year-old Scot has had the chance to get a proper chat with McIlroy, who became just the sixth player to complete a career grand slam when claiming a Green Jacket at long last 12 months ago, while he’s also looking forward to catching up with six-time winner Jack Nicklaus and other “old pals”.

Lyle said he might get a blether with world No 1 Scottie Scheffler as well in the Champions Locker Room in the Augusta National clubhouse and he is also hoping to bump into MacIntyre before the Oban man launches just a fourth bid to follow in his footsteps at the Georgia venue.

The pair struck up a friendship after first meeting on the range at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach when MacIntyre was starting out on the PGA Tour and Lyle lived nearby with his wife, Jolande. They then played a practice round together in MacIntyre’s second appearance in the Masters in 2022 after finishing joint-12th on his debut the previous year.

Watching on TV at his home in Balquhidder near Calendar, where he spends most of his time these days “shovelling s***” and helping with various other tasks on son Quintin’s farm, Lyle was cheering MacIntyre on in last month’s The Players Championship before he came up just short in his bid to emulate the 1987 champion by winning that big event.

‘I think he’s got a great chance’

Like lots of other Scots, Lyle is now feeling excited to see what MacIntyre can produce in the Masters, with Curtis Strange, a two-time US Open champion, having talked this week about how he believes the 29-year-old is the “explosive-type player” who can make hay at Augusta National and declaring that it “would not surprise anyone at all if he played well there and won”.

Speaking exclusively to The Scotsman, Lyle said he shared that view. “I think he’s got a great chance - I really do think that,” said the two-time major winner. “What he did at The Players was impressive. It wasn’t an easy course and I think Bob did very well (finishing fourth behind Cameron Young).

"I know he would be frustrated to make a bogey at the 16th before being a bit unlucky at the last, where he hit a great tee shot and a good second shot, which was a yard too far in the air. I think he has an excellent chance next week and, if I was a betting man, I think he would be good odds right now.”

Like lots of other Scots over the years, MacIntyre jumped at the chance to try and pick Lyle’s brains after starting his own journey in this event. “I met him quite a few times at TPC Sawgrass when I was based here and he was interested in what I had to say about Augusta,” admitted Lyle, who made 42 Augusta appearances, including 39 on the trot, and created history when he became the first British golfer to have a Green Jacket slipped over his shoulders. “He’s good at asking questions and I mentioned a lot of the blade shots that are required around the edges of the greens and the sticky fringes.”

MacIntyre came close to a first major win in last year’s US Open at Oakmont, where it looked as though he was going to pull it off until J.J. Spaun produced a brilliant birdie-birdie finish. Having backed that up with a top-ten finish in The Open at Royal Portrush the following month and then producing his eye-catching effort more recently in The Players, Lyle observed: “You know, he is gathering momentum and he isn’t frightened of the occasion. There have been some great players over the years who have been wonderful looking and great strikers of the ball and, when it comes to the big day, they can’t seem to produce the scores.

‘We stay in contact’

“However, I think Bob has enough determination to do what I did. It is always nice to be thought of and the early times I met him a few years ago we struck it off pretty good. We send messages on a fairly regular basis, encouraging him to keep doing what he’s been doing or saying and good stuff, hard day at the office or whatever it might be. We stay in contact and I might get the chance next week to have a chit chat and find out what he is thinking about the course.

“With Augusta, I think you’ve got to be very careful and not go in with all guns blazing or all four cylinders firing and try to bulldoze the golf course because it could just eat you up. I think in the first two rounds the course will be very tricky as it has always been that way. The pins will be in horrible spots as they’ll want the cut to be one over or level par. So you’ve got to be cagey just to stay around.

“Yeah, if there is a 66 on the cards and things are going your way, by all means keep going. But you don’t want to go out trying to bulldoze the golf course and come out with a 75. Go steady. Par the first and maybe make a birdie on the second and then just stay around until the back nine on Sunday.”

By then, Lyle will be back in the Jacksonville area, with his plan being to leave Augusta on Thursday morning after playing in the Par 3 event on Wednesday afternoon. If MacIntyre wins, though, he’ll be jumping straight into his car and heading up i-95 north to Savannah then going west from there to Augusta on the i-16.

“I’ll promise him that, if he wins, I will drive four-and-a-half hours to shake his hand and hand the baton over, so to speak,” declared Lyle, smiling and, as wife Jolande later confirmed, meaning it due to the fact he will be genuinely rooting for MacIntyre. “And I want him to wear a kilt at the Champions Dinner (as Lyle did when he served haggis, neeps and tatties on the 1989 menu) - and I will, too!”