By Travis Puterbaugh, Curator

At the time of the 1985 Open Championship, it had been 16 years since the last victory by an English golfer (Tony Jacklin, 1969). During that span, The Open had come to be dominated by American golfers like Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Lee Trevino, who each won multiple times during that span. Just occasional interruptions of American dominance came by Gary Player in 1974 and Seve Ballesteros, who won twice in 1979 and 1984. One had to go back even further in time to identify the last Scot to win The Open: Tommy Armour in 1931.

This is the history that confronted 27-year-old Sandy Lyle – who was born in England to two Scottish parents and represented Scotland in international competition – as he sought to put an end to not only those lengthy droughts, but also try to take his next major step forward in the game of golf.

European golf had been on the rise for years, and Lyle along with the likes of Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam (a group sometimes referred to as “The Famous 5”), represented the greatest challenge to American dominance of the PGA TOUR. Lyle, in particular, had been designated by many pundits as the next great golfer from Great Britain. He won the European Tour Order of Merit in 1979 and ‘80, and with more than a dozen worldwide wins to his credit, was a consistent top-five money-earner in Europe. Still, his resume needed padding if he were to become recognized as one of the world’s elite golfers.

The true measure of greatness – winning a Major Championship – had eluded Lyle as well. His best performance in a Major had come three years earlier at the Royal Troon Golf Club in 1982, when he found himself just two shots behind leader Bobby Clampett heading into Sunday. While Clampett fell apart with a 5-over 77, Lyle’s final-round 74 torpedoed his own chances at the Claret Jug and left him T-8 as Tom Watson rallied to win his fourth Open.

The 114th Open Championship, held three years later at Royal St George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England, presented Lyle with an opportune moment to leave his mark on history. Lyle, who had yet to win in 1985, still felt that although the challenging Royal St George may not have been his kind of course with its unforgiving nature and Par-70 layout, he could not only contend there, but win. He confidently stated before the tournament began, “I’ve served my apprenticeship. Now it’s about time I won this title.”

Lousy weather – windy, cold and rainy – helped define the playing of this edition of The Open. Dan Jenkins wrote that the wind “frequently blew so hard it made the most grizzled historians look up from their glasses of gin and volumes of Bernard Darwin.” The conditions were so adverse that no golfer managed a round without at least one bogey, and only two golfers, Christy O’Connor, Jr. (64) and Tom Kite (67), managed to post a score any better than two-under par the entire week. The five most recent Open champions – Nicklaus, Ballesteros, Watson and Bill Rogers – owned 11 Claret Jugs between them, but even they were not spared and finished a combined +55.

With an opening round 68, Lyle found himself just four shots back after O’Connor’s stunning 64 in the first round which featured seven consecutive birdies. When O’Connor crash-landed back to Earth in the second round with a 76, that left Lyle in a tie for first place with David Graham. Both golfers shot matching rounds of 71 on a treacherous Friday which saw only two scores below par.

By the start of the final round on Sunday, however, Lyle had fallen three shots behind leaders Langer and Graham after posting a 3-over 73 on Saturday. Neither Langer nor Graham took advantage of their good fortunes and each shot 5-over par on the day. Payne Stewart, who had not been a factor in the previous three rounds, took the lead in the clubhouse with a superb final-round 68.

Playing in a so-called “cloud of unconscious competence” by BBC broadcaster Peter Alliss, Lyle minimized his mistakes and made key putts when he needed to most – a tried-and-true winning formula. Back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th kept him in contention, and he arrived at the 18th hole with a one-stroke lead over former co-leaders Graham and Langer.

On his third shot, a chip from below the green, Lyle realized right away that he failed to get the ball over the slope and he memorably dropped to his knees and buried his head in the grass as the ball rolled back towards him. This moment potentially could have scuttled his round and confirmed the calls from critics who said Lyle folded during the biggest moments. Instead, on his next attempt he putted to within 18 inches and salvaged the hole with a bogey.

Now the leader at 2-over, Lyle had to wait and watch as Graham and Langer both played the 18th with a chance to force a playoff. While Graham played himself out of the hole, Langer, needing to hole-out for birdie, nearly did so when his chip from the fringe just narrowly missed the hole and rolled a few feet past. With his miss, the Claret Jug once again belonged to a Scot, and at last, a Major Championship belonged to Sandy Lyle.

When asked if he had finally turned the corner and shown the world what he can do by winning a tournament he’d dreamed of capturing since childhood, Lyle replied with his trademark humility, “Well, I don’t know. But it is certainly a step in the right direction, isn’t it?”

That step helped propel Lyle to five additional victories on the PGA TOUR over the next three years, including wins at THE PLAYERS Championship in 1987 and the Masters in 1988. His win at the Dunhill British Masters in 1988 and contributions as a member of Ryder Cup-winning teams in 1985 and 1987 left little doubt in anyone’s mind about Lyle’s legacy as one of the great golfers of his era.