Australian PGA Championship Turns Yellow In Memory Of Jarrod Lyle

Players and fans wear yellow at Royal Queensland to honour late Australian golfer and raise money for cancer charity

Jarrod Lyle
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Paul Higham
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published

Friday saw the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship turn yellow as players and fans turned out to honour the late Australian golfer Jarrod Lyle.

Yellow is the chosen colour to support Jarrod’s Gift which helps to continue the late golfer’s work in raising funds for the charity Challenge, which helps children and their families living with cancer.

Lyle’s wife Briony says that Yellow Day at the Australian PGA is the finishing touch for a fundraising campaign supported on social media by the hashtag #DoingItForJarrod.

Lyle was just 36 when he sadly passed away after suffering with cancer, and there was plenty of yellow on show at Royal Queensland to showcase just what a popular pro he was on the circuit.

“It’s growing rather than diminishing and that makes me very proud,” said Briony. “There are always spectators in their yellow Hawaiian shirts. The fans get involved as much as the pros.

“Jarrod’s friends from the pro tour make a point of saying they have a yellow cap or shirt packed in their luggage just for this day.

“This year, we have on-course volunteers in yellow polos, yellow caddie bibs and signage that can be flipped to display in yellow.”

Various yellow-themed golf items have been on sale at Royal Queensland, from bucket hats to headcovers, with proceeds going to Challenge.

Briony Lyle was also a special guest announcer at Royal Queensland as she welcomed the marquee grouping of Adam Scott, Cam Smith and Ryan Fox to the first tee box on Friday.

Lyle passed away in 2018 after a second recurrence of the leukemia he suffered as a teenager – with the first coming in 2012 before treatment enabled him to return to golf.

Lyle famously hit a hole-in-one at the famous 16th at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in 2011, and the tournament paid tribute the year after his death by placing his golf bag and a commemorative plaque on the tee box at 16 at TPC Scottsdale.

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Paul Higham
Paul Higham
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Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush. 

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