SANDY LYLE walked out of the rain and into hot water after quitting The Open halfway through the opening round. The 1985 winner had completed just nine holes at a wet and windy Royal Birkdale before deciding he'd had enough.
"It is not very nice when you are only an hour and a half, two hours into The Open and you have basically chucked it," Lyle said. "I don't make a habit of it. This is the only course I have walked off twice, which is not good." R&A chief executive Peter Dawson had no sympathy for 50-year-old who still has ambitions to be Europe's Ryder Cup captain in 2010.
Dawson said: "It is disappointing. I have to say professional golfers should complete a round. "That is what they are paid to do.
"You wonder what they would think if the recorders went home at lunchtime saying there were having a bad day." Lyle struggled to get to grips wit the atrocious weather conditions and was 11 over par at the 10th hole when he stashed his clubs and walked off the course. Having finished his outward nine holes with two double bogeys and a triple, Lyle said: "I was all over the place.
"I lost momentum, I couldn't really hit the ball - hardly at all - and it was total meltdown to be honest. "I did myself more harm than good staying out there so I had to get back in. It just wasn't worth continuing; it was cold, my hands were hurting a bit from a few real skanky shots. "I think I was a bit disheartened before I got out there as I didn't think I could survive. "Normally I'm usually quite good at surviving in hard conditions but once you get beyond that point of being able to make 75 or 76 it was senseless to carry on."