Disaster for Lyle, Nicklaus

Press, 12 July 1988, Page 48

Disaster for Lyle, Nicklaus

NZPA-Reuter

St Mellion, England

Jack Nicklaus shot a soul-shattering 13-over-par 85 on a course he designed himself while the United States Masters champion, Sandy Lyle, went round in a disastrous 84 at the rainsoaked St Mellion Golf and Country Club yesterday. Lyle and Nick Faldo, with a better ball score of three-over-par 75, beat Nicklaus and Tom Watson by one shot in a challenge match to mark the opening of the £3 million complex in the south-western county of Cornwall. In their illustrious careers, the two Britons and two Americans all number the British Open, among many other tournaments, to their credit

But yesterday, a blustery wind and continuous driving rain made good golf impossible. It ruined the match as a spectacle and left four of the world’s greatest golfers with scores they would like to forget.

Both Faldo and Watson shot 78 with Faldo, the present British Open champion, being level par for the first 11 holes before the worst of the weather took its toll.

Nicklaus, who began the design of the course five years ago, might have had an even worse score had it not been for a magnificent 30-foot putt for a birdie three at the 472-yard final hole.

Conditions were so bad that only five birdies were shot all day — two to Faldo at the seventh and sixteenth and one each to Watson, at the fifteenth, Lyle at the. sixteenth and Nicklaus at the last. The 18 holes took five hours 35 minutes to complete, not so slow considering the entire match was televised and the fact that the greens had to be swept clear of puddles.

The fairways were also littered with puddles. Before the start, there was a nasty accident when a buggy driven by a television technician went out of control striking the club manager and the wife of one of the owners. Both escaped with a shaking.