To celebrate what would have been Jarrod Lyle’s 40^th birthday, Challenge and the PGA have asked Jarrod’s family, friends, colleagues, and the infinite people he influenced, to share their favourite stories of the affable Tour Professional.

In December 2015, Jarrod had flown to the Gold Coast to play in the Australian PGA Championship golf tournament, which was to be played at the RACV Royal Pines Resort.

I accompanied Jarrod on this trip as his travel buddy, to keep him company, to help with his golfing preparations, and to ensure that he was eating properly.

For the week of the tournament, the RACV Resort generously provided Jarrod and I with a magnificent and very spacious two-bedroom apartment with its own fully-equipped kitchen for our use. Things were looking good.

On the eve of the tournament, Jarrod and I attended the Greg Norman Medal dinner, during which Jarrod was presented with the US PGA Tour Courage Award by Ian Baker-Finch.

In typical Jarrod Lyle fashion, he accepted this award with his usual grace and humility, with golfing legends including Greg Norman himself showering Jarrod with accolades, handshakes and shouts of congratulations. 

Jarrod was the toast of the evening. He could do no wrong.

That all changed in the space of 48 hours.

On the Saturday evening of the tournament, Jarrod and I had decided to have a cook up in our resort room.

The task was simple. Jarrod volunteered to cook the steaks in a saucepan on the hotplate and I scored the job of preparing the salads. What could possibly go wrong?

What went wrong was that Jarrod had poured a very large amount of cooking oil into the saucepan, thrown the steaks in and then turned the heat level to the max.

Within about three minutes, smoke had totally engulfed the apartment and I couldn’t even see Jarrod from the other side of the kitchen bench.

The smoke detectors were set off with such a high-pitched scream that I thought there must have been a leak at a nearby nuclear reactor.

Just a few seconds later we could hear the sounds of emergency vehicles outside the complex, just as security staff from the resort burst into the room to see if there were any survivors.

They couldn’t see us, but they could hear Jarrod laughing his head off. Crisis averted. 

For some strange reason when we returned to the Royal Pines Resort in 2016 for the following year’s tournament, there was no offer of complimentary accommodation for us. 

We could only assume that the invitation had been lost in the mail.  

Fortunately Jarrod’s skills on the golf course were infinitely better than his steak-cooking skills, so I didn’t think any less of him!

The memories that I have of him from golf trips like that will stay with me forever. 

I miss walking golf courses to watch him play and I miss seeing him with his precious girls.

I know he would be incredibly proud to see the girls grow and develop into young ladies.

Jarrod will never be forgotten. 

To find out more about Jarrod’s ongoing legacy as part of Challenge – supporting kids with cancer, head to challenge.org.au/jarrods-gift/

Ian and his wife, Thelma, have been long-time residents of Shepparton, members at Shepparton Golf Club, and close friends of Jarrod and his family.