10 Things You Didn't Know About Sandy Lyle

10 Things You Didn't Know About Sandy Lyle

Winner of the 1985 Open Championship and 1988 Masters, we get to know Scottish Hall of Fame golfer Sandy Lyle with these 10 things you didn't know about him.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Sandy Lyle

1. Sandy is just his nickname. His real name is Alexander Walter Barr Lyle.

2. Often thought of purely as a Scot, he was in fact born in 1958 in Shrewsbury, England.

3. This was because his parents moved from Scotland to England so that his father Alex could become the head professional at Hawkstone Park Golf Club. As a result Lyle took to the game quickly.

4. Over Lyle's career he put together several important moments. For example he won the Open in 1985, in the process becoming the first Briton to win the tournament since 1969. He then became the first European to win The Players Championship in 1987 and he then became the first Briton to win the Masters in 1988.

5. Lyle married Christine Trew who was once an international-class swimmer and was a founding member of the Ladies European Tour. They would eventually split and he remarried to Jolande in 1989.

6. As a youngster Lyle built up his arm strength by clearing the dew off the Hawkstone Park greens with a bamboo pole roughly 20-feet longer than he was.

7. Lyle is the only member of the European 'Big Five' not to get to world number one. Despite this Severiano Ballesteros once said; "Sandy was the greatest God-given talent in history. If everyone in the world was playing their best, Sandy would win and I'd come second."

8. In fact his best world ranking is third.

9. Lyle has five children called Stuart, James, Alexandra Lonneke, and Quintin.

10. He played on five Ryder Cup teams winning twice and losing three times. He is yet to be named as a captain which is often seen as a controversial omission from his resume.