Monty Not Impressed by Lyle's Apology

At last week's Scottish Open Sandy Lyle, apparently tired of talking about his decision to walk off the course after 10 holes at last year's Open Championship, pointed out that Colin Montgomerie was once accused of cheating during a 2005 tournament in Jakarta.

Not sure the connection, but that's the excuse Lyle was using yesterday when he apologized to Monty by reading a prepared statement with all the emotion of a Monty-hating robot. And then Lyle proceeded to make matters more awkward.

Via the Irish Times:

After reading his statement, Lyle partook in a QA session in which he expanded on the issues and, basically, backed up his original comments. Of the drop in Indonesia, which he reminded everyone was "all on video, it's not like I'm prefabricating (sic)", Lyle expanded: "It was a pretty poor drop. And it was one of his mistakes. I didn't make him do that mistake, it was his mistake. And it will probably live with him for the rest of his life; it'll be cropping up. I can't do anything against that."

Monty was unimpressed: "It was a rather strange apology to be honest with you ... I have read the apology, I am digesting it and I will let you know when I have digested it further. I am just trying to come down here and compete in The Open and my preparations have been slightly dented. I am not very happy about that at all. It was a very, very strange apology to be honest with you and you will hear from me later on."

I don't disagree that Lyle's comments were bizarre, but I feel safe in writing that they won't have any effect on Monty's performance at Turnberry. After nearly two decades of major championship futility, I don't think that this was his week to finally break through. But hey, who knows, Mrs. Doubtfire is a tough old broad who responds well to criticism.