Sandy Lyle Accuses Monty of Being a Cheat, Gives Up Hopes to Ever Be Ryder Cup Captain

Sandy Lyle, former Masters champion, is telling multiple papers in the United Kingdom that Colin Montgomerie is a cheat and should have had that consideration weighed against him when determining the 2010 Ryder Cup captaincy. 

This quote comes from Lyle's interview with The Independent's James Corrigan:

When asked whether he believed his decision to sacrifice a precious Open berth so early into the first round at Birkdale last year had affected his own captaincy chances, Lyle replied: "You would have to ask the committee that. But you've got Monty with his situation where he was dropping the ball badly overseas. And that is far worse than someone pulling out because he has got sore knuckles. It's a form of what [could be called] 'cheating'. If that was going to go against Monty you would think: 'Yeah, that's a case where he is breaking the rules'. There have been a few times where he has been called in to see the videos."

Keep in mind that Lyle was an underdog to get the post that was originally slated for Jose Maria Olazabal and then went to Montgomerie instead.  Even more puzzling is that Montgomerie came out in favor of Lyle's candidacy on multiple occasions before he was ultimately named Captain.

Still, as John Huggan notes at Golf Observer, the accusation is nothing new - or unique to Lyle's tongue.  He describes the incident in question from 2005, known in Euro golf circles as "Jakartagate."

Monty, competing in the Indonesian Open in Jakarta, perpetrated what appeared to be a blatant breach of the rules when he replaced his ball in what was obviously a more than advantageous position after a lightning storm had halted play one day earlier.

Additionally, Lyle made reference to a 2002 Volvo Masters incident in which Monty was asked to review tape of an incident on the putting green.  Lawrence Donegan describes:

[Lyle made] a reference to the 2002 Volvo Masters, when Montgomerie was asked by rules officials to look at footage which appeared to show his ball moving as he was about to address it. No penalty was imposed after the Scot confirmed to those officials he had not grounded his club and he went on to share the title with Bernhard Langer.

At the same time, Lyle is not exempt from criticism - albeit for a much different reason.  In a move that many feel ultimately cost Lyle his chances at the Captaincy, he withdrew from last year's Open Championship on the 10th hole after declaring "enough is enough." He received quite a bit of lambasting for the decision - even prompting an apology to the R&A's Peter Dawson.

In the interview, Lyle explained the rationale behind the withdraw.

"They [the committee] might say the decision between me and Monty came down to what happened at that Open, I don't know," Lyle said. "But the injury I had there was genuine and the abuse I received was uncalled for. When I teed off the weather was extreme and I was just saving myself from getting into further injury because my hand was virtually going numb.  I'd had an annoying injury in my knuckles over the last two years. The swing was causing a jamming effect on my nerves and it got worse when I hit bad shots. Some of the caddies who had caddied for me over the last couple of years would testify I had been putting plasters on my hands to try to avoid the shock situation."

The campaign by the miffed Lyle to degredate Montgomerie's name seems rather ill-timed considering that the Open Championship is this week.  Then again, the sore reminder of last year's Open pain may have been enough to uncork Lyle.