Lyle revives fading power to compile 65

Once, where there was a Nick Faldo, there was a Sandy Lyle not far away. So it is again. While Faldo made then leaderboard at Wentworth last week, Lyle yesterday produced a brilliant 65 on the Marquess course in the second round of the British Masters. The score was then matched by Phillip Price, who promptly took the lead at 11 under par.

Price, who has had to wait an extra year to make his Ryder Cup debut and admits to being under pressure to justify his place, was two in front of Ian Poulter, who scored 67. Lyle, among those at seven under, has not appeared in the Ryder Cup since 1987.

There is a generation of European Tour players who have not seen what Lyle once was. Poulter was nine when Lyle won the Open in 1985. Justin Rose, Poulter's house guest this week, was five. Yet since 1988, when the Scot memorably won the Masters, he has won just three times, and nothing since 1992.

"There are days when you feel like hanging up the shoes," Lyle said. "You are always fighting the gremlins and the disasters of the past but the gremlins were forgotten today. You have to have perseverance and keep it simple. I don't have much technique now."

Lyle's problems began when he tried to improve his technique, to play a different way. It might look like a mistake now but at the time he just wanted to play better and better. A month ago he quit during the first round of the French Open moaning about aches and pains and giving the appearance of one whose time had passed.

Yesterday it certainly had not. He rolled in a 12-footer, with his broomhandled putter, for a birdie at the second and thought it might be his day. Four birdies came in a row from the fourth. Two vital par-savers on the back nine kept a bogey off his card. But it was his swing that was once again reminiscent of his heyday.

The thanks for that go to John Jacobs. Lyle was chatting to the veteran coach when he asked how he could hit a fade. "John told me to push my hands forward slightly and open my shoulders," Lyle said. "I've been looking for that fade for 12 years. It feels much more controllable."

Many things have moved on since Lyle's era. After chatting with reporters he said: "I'll let you get back to your typewriters." This ranked with Phil Golding, who finished at eight under, wondering why he drew a smaller audience in the press centre than the opening match of the World Cup.

Lee Westwood, after missing the cut in the last three tournaments, qualified for the weekend at three under par. Westwood's poor run saw him fall out of the world's top-50 and miss out on a spot at the US Open.

"I can take two weeks and actually have a proper summer holiday," Westwood, the husband and father, said. Westwood the golfer feels he is going in the right direction. "I've finally got a feeling with my swing that I'm working on the right things," he said.

It was the sudden awakening of his putting form that inspired four birdies in five holes on his inward half, after three-putting the par-five second to leave himself in danger of another early departure. Thomas Bjorn, his Ryder Cup team-mate, did depart after only three holes of his second round, the Dane suffering from shin splints.

BRITISH MASTERS (Woburn) Leading early second-round scores (GB or Irl unless stated): 133 P Price 68 65135. 135 I Poulter 68 67. 136 P Golding 69 67. 137 S Hansen (Den) 68 69; S Lyle 72 65; S Khan 72 65. 138 R Russell 68 70; G Evans 69 69; R Karlsson (Swe) 69 69; T Levet (Fr) 68 70; S Luna (Sp) 67 71. Selected: 139 C Montgomerie 70 69; J Rose 70 69; S Torrance 71 68; 141 L Westwood 71 70.