Sandy Lyle

Sandy Lyle is a professional golfer and a golf course designer, born on February 9, 1958 at Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England. His full name is Alexander Walter Barr Lyle. His father Alex, a Scot, had taken the club professional’s post at Hawkstone Park in 1955 and moved the family to England, so Lyle grew up beside a golf course. He turned professional in 1977 and chose to compete for Scotland. In 1985 he won the Open Championship at Royal St George’s Golf Club, the first British winner since Tony Jacklin in 1969. In 1988 he took the Masters and became the first Briton to put on the green jacket. He won 18 times on the European Tour and topped its Order of Merit in 1979, 1980 and 1985. In 1987 he also won the Tournament Players Championship, now The Players Championship. He played five Ryder Cups in a row from 1979 to 1987, entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012 and was appointed OBE in 2024.

As a designer he laid out the 18-hole Sandy Lyle Platz at Golfpark Schloss Wilkendorf in Altlandsberg, in the German state of Brandenburg. The club’s site describes it as a championship course designed by Lyle. Planning began in 1991, members started playing the 13th to the 18th holes in October 1994, and the course opened formally on May 27, 1995. The holes follow the rolling ground and the old stands of trees were taken into the design, and the club says that in 2010 it was voted the sixth most beautiful golf course in Germany.

As a player he won in Asia as well, taking the Casio World Open on the Japan tour in 1984. In 2011 he won the ISPS Handa Senior World Championship, played in China, his first victory on the European Senior Tour. GoGolf does not at present list any course designed by Lyle.

See the other golf course architects here.

Photo: Jonathan Palombo / CC BY 2.0