Larry Mize, Sandy Lyle finish Masters careers; Jason Kokrak sticks up for Lyle

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Larry Mize’s Masters career is officially over.

It just took an extra 45 minutes on a cold, rainy Saturday morning at Augusta National Golf Club, with almost half the clubs in his golf bag.

The 64-year-old Mize, called off the course because of inclement weather – and falling pine trees – on Friday evening with two holes to play in his 40^th and final Masters appearance, hit driver, 3-wood before chipping onto the penultimate green and carding bogey. He then popped a driver just 199 yards on the par-4 finishing hole and needed both a 5-iron (which traveled a chunky 125 yards) and 6-iron (110 yards) to reach the putting surface, 42 feet away. Mize lagged his yellow ball up to tap-in range, waited for playing competitors Min Woo Lee and Harrison Crowe to clear the stage, and sank the short putt.

“My nerves weren't holding up,” said Mize, who posted 79-80. “The back nine wasn't very good. The putter was really shaky, and I missed a lot of putts on the back nine. Obviously as a competitor, you hate to play that poorly on the back. It's OK. I just did the best I could, and it was a great two days.”

Full-field scores from the 87th Masters Tournament

An Augusta native, Mize worked the scoreboard on No. 3 as a kid. Over a decade later, in 1987, he traded red and black numbers for a green jacket, pitching in on No. 11 to beat Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros, world Nos. 1 and 3 at the time, in a playoff.

Now, he was being showered with applause from the few hundred patrons who had woken up early to brave the elements – and who weren’t holding umbrellas.

“To get a reception like that in weather like this, I didn't expect that,” Mize said. “I didn't expect that at all.”

Perhaps the nicest gesture came from Sandy Lyle, who like Mize, wrapped up his last career round at Augusta National on Saturday morning. Lyle, a year older than Mize and with two more Masters starts under his belt, delayed his going-away interviews to watch Mize, two groups behind, play No. 18.

When Mize finished, Lyle, the 1988 Masters champ, walked out to him on the green, handed him a tissue and gave him a hug.

“I thought about it,” Lyle said after returning to the flash area, “and said, yeah, I'm going to go back out there and welcome him to a new era.”

Part of Lyle also wanted to give Mize the sendoff that he didn’t get.

Before the second round was suspended on Friday evening, because multiple pine trees fell near the 17th green, Lyle was facing a 12-footer for par from the first cut at No. 18. But before the Scot could putt out and receive his standing ovation from the 500 or so patrons gathered around the green, the horn blew, and tournament officials called he and playing competitors Jason Kokrak and Talor Gooch off the course due to dangerous conditions.

The threesome, led by Kokrak, pleaded with an official to let Lyle finish properly.

“But, no, they stuck to the rules,” Lyle said later, “and rules are rules and we had to abide by that.”

Kokrak was less understanding. He considers himself somewhat of a “bodyguard,” and in this instance, he felt the need to defend the past champion. He didn’t mince words either when talking to Golf.com on Friday night.

“It’s chicken s---,” Kokrak said of the decision not to let Lyle complete the hole.

A few hours later, after hitting a pair of early-morning putts of his own and missing the cut in what he called his “possible final round here at Augusta,” Kokrak, a LIV Golf member, reiterated his disappointment. Only now, it was compounded, he said, by patrons not being allowed to walk onto the course until right when play was restarting, and Lyle was already finishing up.

“As I said yesterday, I really think that he should’ve been able to finish,” Kokrak told GolfChannel.com. “It didn’t matter about Talor and I. … It mattered for him. His family was obviously here this morning, but to not have the patrons let in at 8 a.m. to be around that green is damn near unforgivable. I think it’s the most ridiculous thing. I mean, I stand behind the comments I made last night. To not have a temporary exemption for something like that. … I think they could’ve done something else. But they didn’t see the urgency, didn’t seem to care. So, I think it’s something that will be lost.”

Lyle shared Kokrak’s sentiment: “We saw them [patrons] sort of stacking up there by the scoreboard, and I thought, any minute now there's going to be a stampede. But yeah, it would have been nice if probably a few more minutes and the crowd could have given me a good sendoff.”

Instead, Lyle, with a golden replica putter of the one he used in 1988 in hand, put the final two strokes on his Masters career as patrons were shuffling toward the green. He still managed to draw some applause and cheers, but the crowd wasn’t multiple rows deep like it has often been for past career-ending holes.

Regardless, Lyle has felt the love from the patrons and this special tournament for over four decades. And after shooting 81-83 and finishing last at 20 over, five strokes behind Mize, he was at peace with his decision to call it quits.

“I knew my time was coming up pretty soon the last few years, and you can tell by the scores that the course is killing me out there,” Lyle said. “So, I went out this year with a little bit of hope because I was working hard on the game to get some sort of game together. But it's a grinding machine out there at the moment with the length for older players.

“Maybe in time they will have another little tournament going on within the Masters tournament for the over 60. You never know. Play off the front tees. It would be entertaining.”

Once Lyle stepped down from the interview podium, Mize hopped on. As the rain continued to spit, Mize, standing underneath a white and green umbrella, was tasked with finding the correct words for the moment.

“I don't think it changed me as a person, but other than that, it changed a lot,” Mize said of winning a green jacket. “It gave me opportunities. It gave me and my family opportunities to do things we wouldn't have otherwise done. The recognition I've gotten. I mean, it's amazing to win the Masters, and then to do it in that fashion kind of just enhanced it.

“It's hard to put into words. It's been a tremendous blessing to have won here. It has changed my life for the better, no doubt.”