BBC SPORT | Special Events | US Masters | Augusta limelight for Lyle

Tiger Woods and Sandy Lyle will be having dinner together in Augusta on Wednesday evening.

And come Thursday they will doing something almost as rare - appearing in the same tournament.

While the 2001 Masters is a chance for Woods to clean up in the Majors, for Lyle it is a chance simply to play.

The champions dinner, hosted by last year's winner Vijay Singh, and the tournament itself put Lyle briefly back amongst the elite in the game.

Having lost his US Tour card for this season, the Scot finds himself in the golfing wilderness.

While Woods has won on his last two starts, Lyle has played just twice all year - and missed the cut both times.

"It's not much preparation for a major championship, but I'm trying to make the best of it," said Lyle, who captured the coveted Green Jacket in 1988 and who the following April put haggis on the menu for his champions dinner.

Great memories

The Masters was one of three victories he had on the US Tour that season, but now the 1985 Open champion has to go back nine years to his last win anywhere.

That, of course, is if you don't include his back-to-back successes in the eve-of-Masters par three competition in 1997 and 1998.

Lyle was Masters champion in 1988

Based at Ponte Vedra Beach, Lyle practises at the Sawgrass course where the Players Championship takes place each year and where he won in 1987.

"Vijay plays there as well, although I haven't seen much of him this year because he's been doing a lot of travelling, but there are always quite a lot of players around."

He is hoping to feed off all the great memories Augusta National holds for him.

And those recollections are not only of his win and the fantastic fairway bunker recovery he produced on the final hole to beat Mark Calcavecchia by a stroke.

Tummy-button method

The previous year Lyle finished 11th, but had the thrill of partnering Jack Nicklaus as he scored a dazzling, emotional last day 65 to grab a record sixth title at the age of 46 from under the noses of Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros and Tom Kite.

Two top 10 finishes on the US Tour last season indicated that his form has not totally deserted him and he certainly impressed his practice partner Tony Jacklin.

The former Ryder Cup captain is not competing this week, but as a major winner he is entitled to play in the preliminaries.

"Sandy still hits the ball great and now he's using the tummy-button method on his putting maybe he can get going on the greens as well," said Jacklin.

The putting method, where the top end of a long putter is jammed into your midriff, is also employed by Singh and a number of other US Tour players.

"These greens are unbelievable, though," added Jacklin. "For this early in the week they are so quick that I hate to think what they might be like for the tournament."


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