Sandy Lyle has backed Colin Montgomerie’s case for the Ryder Cup captaincy in 2014 despite a three-year-old rift between the two greats of Scottish golf.
A face-to-face meeting has failed to heal the wounds of the pair’s Turnberry fall-out, Lyle has revealed.
In the run-up to the 2009 Open a Scottish golfing civil war erupted after Lyle resurrected the Jakarta cheating row which had dogged his compatriot.
What followed was a tit-for-tat exchange between the two on the Ayrshire coast, ending with Lyle suggesting they got together privately to settle the matter.
The sit-down has taken place, but Lyle told Courier Sport the seven-time European Order of Merit winner didn’t feel able to let bygones be bygones.
”There’s still some lingering smoke,” he admitted. ”We did speak but that was about as far as it’s gone. He’s not taken it that well. What happened at Turnberry if he was going to go at anybody he should have gone at some of the press guys for turning it round.
”What I was supposed to have said was not my true words.”
Lyle would love to succeed Jose Maria Olazabal as Ryder Cup captain in Perthshire in 2014, but he is realistic enough to appreciate that his chance has almost certainly passed him by.
If it isn’t to be him, however, he still hopes a Scot will get the role. And he believes Monty’s success at Celtic Manor in 2010, coupled with his association with Gleneagles, would stand him in good stead.
”It wouldn’t stop me saying he’d be a good captain,” Lyle pointed out. ”As far as myself, I don’t think that will happen. I don’t think they’ll even be thinking about me now. My name probably won’t even flicker.
”You’ve got to think that with the Ryder Cup coming to Perthshire next and Monty only living a few miles up the road, he might have a chance of being captain again.
”He’s a winning captain and he knows Gleneagles as well as anybody. A Scottish captain in Scotland would be very well received. I think he’s got a strong case, put it that way.
”Paul Lawrie would be a good captain too. It would be nice to have a Scot.”
Many in golf believe it is a disgrace that two-time Major winner Lyle is the only one of the golden generation of 80s European golfers to be passed over for the position. And the man himself doesn’t agree that he’s too old at 54.
He said: ”They wanted to have a younger captain who was still playing on the European Tour and didn’t want to go above the age of 50. So that counts me out.
“I’ve not been involved with the Tour for a while. Whether that affects you being a good captain though, who can say? If you’ve got a good team a 10-year-old could run it. You put them out and they do their bit.
”A good captain is needed when things aren’t going so well getting games turned round and getting attitudes improved. That’s where experience comes in. You don’t lose that.”