Sandy Lyle found long-lost sparkle in a potentially ominous week when equalling his best-ever start to the US Masters. Three days after his two youngest children escaped uninjured from a Florida car-accident, the AngloScot shot a hugely encouraging, one-under-par 71 yesterday.

It came in the wake of three weeks of enforced idleness for the 41-year-old, who lost his playing privileges in the US at the end of last season. It also matched the start he had at Augusta in 1988 when he captured the title.

Indeed, in his progress up the 18th, there were sharp resonances of the final round of 11 years ago. Memories are still vivid of a glorious, seven-iron bunker recovery of 161 yards, which sent the ball to within 10 feet of the pin from where he made a closing birdie to win by a stroke from Mark Calcavecchia.

This time around, his two-iron tee-shot wasn't hit sufficiently well to reach the cavernous trap. But like 1988, he hit a fine second shot, this time a five iron of 200 yards, to finish six feet from the pin. Again the putt went down for a birdie.

Looking trim, tanned and clearly very pleased with himself, Lyle remained the same, courteous craftsman he had been when golf gathered him as a favoured son. "It wasn't easy having to take three weeks off while the other guys were playing in Florida," he said. "I decided to use the time working on my game. I also had a new, 60-degree wedge specially made, which has far less bounce than my old model. So I came here feeling good about myself.

"Normally I would be so nervous on the first tee that I'd be happy not to take a divot. But this time I felt really calm and totally in control of my game."

The outcome was an admirably solid drive which split the first fairway, setting up a confidence-building, opening par.

Lyle came here with a Masters record of three missed cuts in the last four years, a reflection of a crushing reversal of fortune which to his eternal credit he bore with a patient shrug.

Lyle hadn't broken par here since his second round in 1995. And on that occasion it wasn't sufficient to save him from missing the cut. But there is nothing like a driver in good working order to restore confidence. "I hit some really nice drives early on which settled me down," he said.

Ironically, there was a downside to his solid play. "It meant I was the guinea-pig at the par threes," he said. "And I made a few wrong club selections."

As it happened, he was in the face of the front bunker to card a bogey at the short fourth, but got up and down for par from over the back of the short sixth.

Then his second birdie of the round came at the 365-yard seventh, which he reduced to a two iron, wedge and 10-foot putt. This guided him to the turn in 35 - one under par. And the lift of enthusiastic applause from a large gallery en route to the 10th tee, increased his resolve.

If there was to be a bogey on Lyle's back nine, the chances were it would be at the treacherous, short 12th. This is the hole which almost scuppered his title hopes in 1988 when he carded a doublebogey there on the final day. In playing it 54 times in competition, he had been 19-over-par there, making the relatively modest total of 32 pars and only five birdies.

The bogey duly came when he missed the green with a nine-iron tee-shot. But he was unfortunate not to recover the stroke at the next, where a six-iron approach slipped off the slick putting surface.

From there on, Lyle continued to hit exemplary drives, notably at the reshaped, 425-yard 17th where he needed only a wedge approach to set up a solid par. On most occasions when he missed the target on previous holes, the newlycrafted lob-wedge did its work splendidly in cut-up recovery shots of which Phil Mickelson would have been proud.

"This is the sort of course where I know I can score well, if I'm playing half decent," he said. Yet for all that, he has broken 70 in only five of his 55 rounds since making his Masters debut in 1980.

Lyle's had more to do with the feel-good factor inevitably associated with a return to fruitful terrain. Whatever the reason, it was a welcome sight for his many admirers.