Like he was never away, two-time cancer survivor Jarrod Lyle returned to competitive golf in the USA with a bang, carding a bogey free four-under 67 in the opening round of the Web.com Tour’s Midwest Classic in Kansas.
Lyle was sublime in the first of his three warm up events on the secondary tour before he dives in to the regular tour in October despite not having played in the USA since February 2012 after being diagnosed with leukaemia for the second time.
It took just eight holes of his return for his name to share top billing; birdies on the third, fourth and eighth holes and another on the ninth had the Victorian flying at four-under.
“I noticed I was in front and I said to Briony (wife), `quick go and get a photo of that before I stuff it up’,” Lyle joked.
His back nine failed to bring any more birdies but netted no mistakes either, leaving him tied for seventh after the morning wave, just three off the pace set by American Paul Haley II at seven-under.
“It was pretty solid today and it was very boring with fairways and greens and two-putt pars but I was very happy with it and it was better than I expected,” Lyle told AAP.
“If I had shot ten over there would still be positives in it as well.
“Things are feeling right; I feel part of it again. Even though I’ve only played one round I feel like I haven’t really left.”
Lyle proved he is still born for the links by, as any golfer does, pinpointing where things could have even been better.
He missed makeable birdie putts on the 16th and 18th holes but was still smiling as he headed to a nearby dinosaur museum with Briony and two-year-old daughter Lusi.
“The back nine I played really well and I didn’t get myself in any trouble all day and I could have scored a little better but there was a little bit of rust,” Lyle added.
“When you’re not reading greens for a long time you don’t see things that are there and you see things that aren’t there but I am happy with the round.”
The 32-year-old refused to get ahead of himself despite jumping right into the mix, keeping his focus on just making the cut on Friday.
“It’s just business as usual. I am really just using these three warm-up events to get a gauge on how everything is going,” he said.
“I have played one round over here in two and a half years and I know you can’t get a huge gauge off that but it is nice to be somewhat near it after one round and hopefully we can go out and achieve my main objective of the week which was to play four rounds.
“Whether I finish 50th or fifth it doesn’t matter, as long as I can get as much golf into me as I can.”
Fellow Australians Alistair Presnell and Steve Allan also started solidly at three-under.
Lyle also plans to play in the Price Cutter Charity Championship and News Sentinel Open next month as lead ins before he will have 20 starts on the PGA tour next season to earn $283,825 to fulfil the obligations of his major medical extension.
