Brian Viner: British tennis can follow example of Lyle rivalry

Royal St George's, where the 132nd Open Championship commences on Thursday, is the course at which, with Sandy Lyle's victory in 1985, British golf regained its self-respect. Conveniently England and Scotland had a claim on the champ. Whatever his name and heritage, Shrewsbury-born Lyle was at least as much Sassenach as Scot. When Alan Hansen - later to become a moderately successful footballer for Liverpool - played golf circa 1971 for Scottish Boys against English Boys, a young Lyle was the England team's trump card.

By 1985 it was 16 long years since a Brit had won the Open, in the dashing form of Tony Jacklin at Lytham St Annes. Before that it had been 18 years, in the even more dashing form of Max Faulkner, at Portrush in 1951. Neither victory had exactly opened the floodgates through which compatriots poured, but Lyle's gave his contemporary and rival, Nick Faldo, renewed impetus to get his own hands on the Claret Jug. Which he did, three times.

The odd thing, looking back, is that Lyle's victory, even though it couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow, did not unleash, in British golf fans let alone Britain at large, much in the way of jubilation. On the contrary, there was a feeling that Lyle had only conquered because others had failed, in particular Bernhard Langer and David Graham.

It is commonly thought that if Tim Henman were to win Wimbledon, Britain would be buried in bunting and champagne corks. But perhaps we cope with failure easier than success. Once we've made a national hero out of a plucky loser, what the hell do we do with a winner?

A few columns ago, incidentally, I wrote that British tennis should take heart from the example of golf, which in terms of world-class players, was as much in the doldrums in the Seventies and Eighties as tennis is now. A reader, Fergus Horkan, politely took me to task, writing that my golf-tennis parallel was illusory. "Golf has many thousands of players, many great courses, is weather-proof and has successful youth programmes," he wrote. "Tennis doesn't." Perhaps, but in my reply I argued that Lyle and Faldo's successes were the products not of a coordinated youth programme but of vast natural talent (Lyle) and almost freakish will and dedication (Faldo).

Despite an infrastructure which in many ways seems geared to discourage the emergence of a British tennis champion - the snotty attitude of many clubs towards juniors, for example, and the emphasis on doubles - a tennis-playing version of Lyle or Faldo, or for that matter Laura Davies, will sooner or later appear, Harry Potter-like.

In the meantime, at least the Lawn Tennis Association has recruited John McEnroe to the cause. Which reminds me of the rumour that did the rounds a few years ago, to the effect that McEnroe's ex-wife had been seen with Sandy Lyle, and that they might get married, which would make her Tatum Lyle. It's a notion almost as delightful as the thought that the footballer Imre Varadi might have married an Olive...

To return to the prospect of a young British tennis player emerging with the game to win Wimbledon, you just never know. Like the No 16 to Cricklewood Broadway several might turn up at once. It happened at Manchester United, with the uncommonly gifted class of '93, and it happened in European golf, with Lyle, Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer and above all Seve Ballesteros, all born within a year of each other. In golf, as will surely happen in tennis one day, success bred success.

Although Paul Lawrie, in 1999, is the only British winner of the Open since Faldo (another triumph which we ungenerously ascribe to the failure of another, namely Jean Van de Velde), and although Colin Montgomerie's chance has probably passed, nobody should be in any doubt that the field at Sandwich contains several potential British winners.

My own fancy is Darren Clarke. The hefty Ulsterman is marginally less hefty than he was, has been playing well, and grew up playing golf on the gale-ripped coast of Co Antrim. A light breeze off the English Channel won't bother him, and he has all the shots that links golf requires.

Moreover, the presence of an in-form Tiger Woods won't intimidate a man who has comprehensively beaten Woods in 36 holes of matchplay. If his putter is as hot as the end of one of his Churchillian cigars, Clarke can win.

Of the other Brits, Justin Rose seems equipped to win a major title at least once in his career, and as suggested in these pages on Saturday, he is the Faldo to Paul Casey's Lyle, or vice versa... they feed off each other's achievements. Casey, who thumps the ball a country mile, could be a good each-way bet. Then there's Lee Westwood, who has recaptured some of his lost form, while Faldo and Woosnam can still shrug off the years.

Unfortunately, one Brit we can discount is the 1985 champion. Alas, at 250-1, Lyle is probably underpriced.

b.viner@independent.co.uk