COMMENT: The Karl Morris column

It is unfortunate that a lot of today’s golfers forget or never even knew just how awesomely good Sandy Lyle was at the peak of his powers and what an incredible legacy he left to European golf.

It was his win in the Open Championship at Sandwich in 1985 that opened the door for an unprecedented and glorious period of European success.

And prior to that landmark victory the barren spell of winless European Major winners stretched as far back as Tony Jacklin at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1969.

The great Severiano Ballesteros has often said about that period that if all those great European players from the 1980s – Faldo, Woosnam, Langer, Ballesteros himself and Lyle – were playing their best golf on any given day, it would be the Scotsman who would have won. He really was that good.

To some degree because of Lyle’s laid-back and quiet temperament, his is not a name that is usually given quite the respect his achievements deserve.

Probably Lyle’s finest golfing moment – and a shot that will forever live in the annals of the game – was when he knocked a seven iron out of a fairway trap on the 18th at Augusta Masters to 10 feet.

He then knocked in the putt to win his Green Jacket in 1987 and his Masters triumph gives us a very important Mind Factor lesson.

Lyle had an incredible rollercoaster round that day. At one point he was cruising to victory, then seemed to let it all slip to before being faced with one of the game’s toughest scenarios – a long fairway bunker shot.

He knew that a bogey would have relegated him to the files of yet another ‘nearly man’.

What Lyle (pictured below crossing Hogan’s Bridge in the final round in 1988) did in those incredible moments was to completely absorb himself in the task at hand. He focused totally on what needed to be done at that moment.

What club was required, the yardage, the probability, the aim – these were the only things in that seminal moment in history that Lyle had ANY influence over.

The lesson for us all is crystal clear yet we lose sight of it not only in our golf but in our work: ‘What do I need to fully attend to NOW?’

Forget this nonsense about multi tasking and the ever-so-clever sounding notion of being some kind of hero if you can have numerous plates spinning all at once.

Bring your attention to what is right in front of you at this one and only moment in your life. Be FULLY with what you are doing.

We think that we are the wise creatures on earth but the animal kingdom can teach us so much.

Can you imagine a dog chasing after a stick thinking ‘its all well and good running around after this but my priority is actually getting back to the house so I can clean my basket’?!

Never! He runs after this stick with full attention and then gives full attention to his next task.

We can learn a lot from other creatures in how to be effective.

We can also learn from Lyle that the only thing that we can do now is play the next one – because what has happened, however much we rant about it, will never come back and we haven’t got a clue what will happen later so let’s dive into NOW.

Keep this principle alive in your golf and it will pay a HUGE dividend but it could also be well worth looking at the concept in the wider area of your life in general.

Sandy Lyle had his moments of glory and next time you see him – perhaps it will be in this month’s championship at Royal Birkdale, just remember what a truly outstanding player he was.