Sandy Lyle calls time on tour career

Sandy Lyle has announced that he has played in his last PGA Tour Champions event, effectively confirming his retirement from tour golf.

The two-time major champion finished last in this week’s Galleri Classic in California, shooting 18-over-par for 54 holes, and promptly revealed that it had been his final appearance on the over-50s US circuit.

Lyle, 65, said: “This is the last one. I’ve travelled the world for 50-odd years now and I know the Champions Tour is a travelling circus like all the other tours, and you get to know the guys you play with and compete with, and yeah, I’ll miss them to a certain extent, but I’ll still see a lot of them on television.”

Lyle announced last year that next year’s Masters would be his final competitive appearance in the opening major of the season.

Lyle, who made his 100th major championship appearance at Augusta last year, has a lifetime exemption to play in The Masters but, speaking after his second round in 2022, he admitted the curtain was falling on his association with the tournament.

“I think next year might be the end of Lyle attack on the golf course,” he said. “My older son is coming out with a few of his buddies, and I think my younger son is probably coming out, too. It’ll be the full family here, so I think it will be time to call it a day.”

Lyle made the first of his 41 Masters appearances in 1980 and, in 1988, became the first player from the UK to win the green jacket.  That was the only time he has finished inside the top 10 at Augusta, his next best finish being a tie for 11th in 1986.

A winner of The Open in 1985, Lyle played in the game’s oldest major for the final time at Carnoustie in 2018. Unlike The Masters, The Open has an upper age limit of 60 on appearances by players playing on past champion status.

Six times a winner on the PGA Tour, Lyle won 18 times on the European Tour. His most recent victory on a major professional circuit was the 2011 ISPS Handa Senior World Championship on the European Senior Tour.

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