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.

To be honest, even though I had taught a lot of really good golfers before Jarrod Lyle, it wasn’t until I had spent a few years coaching him that I understood what “it” actually was. 

If you asked someone who knew nothing about golf to walk the driving range at a tournament and pick the best player, they would rarely get it right and if they did it would probably be a lucky guess. 

The reason? It’s not about swing, physical build, etc but rather what’s inside the golfer’s head. 

Professional golf, in reality, is a simple game: have one shot less than the cut line and you play the weekend. Have one shot less than everyone else and you win the trophy and a big cheque. 

Some players always seem to come up one shot short when it matters, but Jarrod was typically the player who managed to come up one shot better. 

I saw this time and time again when Jarrod was still an amateur – he would beat players who looked more athletic and textbook when it came to their games, but when it mattered they couldn’t beat him. 

This ability to hit the right shot when it mattered showed itself when Jarrod holed a wedge on the final hole to win the Port Macquarie Amateur by a shot.

This ability also carried on into his professional career where he was building momentum in the toughest tour of all until health stood in the way. 

In my mind, there’s no clearer example of how being a winner is so much about what’s in between your ears than when Jarrod made the cut in the 2013 Aussie Masters at Royal Melbourne.

Physically Jarrod had no right to make the cut that week, and for those who followed him in the first two rounds you could see him willing the ball into the hole because in his mind he still knew how to get the job done.

For those who followed him in the final two rounds, we could clearly see that he was spent but he had proved he still had “it”.

So what is the “it” that Jarrod had? Simply, it’s the absolute belief that he could do it. The ability to ignore all those who are happy to be negative and put doubt in a weaker person’s mind.

Most importantly of all the ability to make a decision when everything is on the line and be fully committed to its execution.

Accept when it doesn’t go right, bounce back and do it all again with the same commitment. That “it” is the rarest of all skills, which is why there are so few winners both on and off the course.

Jarrod had “it” right to the end. 

The last time I spoke to him was the day he was heading to palliative care. He said to me “I am happy with my decision to stop fighting, I am not happy to leave my girls but I have given ‘it’ everything and got what I got. See ya mate.”

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

Sandy Jamieson is a PGA Professional who coached Jarrod Lyle.