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Cancer survivor Jarrod Lyle won’t be rushing back to the US PGA tour despite making the cut in his return to competitive golf at the Australian Masters.
Lyle says he’s already a winner after achieving his goal of playing in the final two days at Royal Melbourne in his first tournament in 20 months.
“I’ve done it; I’ve come here and achieved the biggest goal I’ve set myself for the week and that was to play four rounds of golf,” the Victorian said.
“I couldn’t be happier than what I am.”
He finished his second round with an even round of 71 to be one over and in the top third of the field.
But 36 holes in two days has taken its toll and reminded the 32-year-old that he’s still not at 100 per cent after his second battle with leukaemia.
Lyle said his legs felt heavy but he would draw on his “fighting instinct” to finish the weekend.
“If I have to crawl those last 18 holes I’m crawling them, nothing’s going to stop me from finishing.”
Lyle has a medical exemption to return to the US PGA tour when he feels he’s ready to compete on the game’s toughest stage.
He admitted the “fire’s definitely burning” but he wouldn’t risk an early return.
“I don’t want to waste the medical starts that I have,” he said.
“There’s still a lot of room for improvement and to be honest I’m not ready to be playing week in and week out.
“I still need a lot of work and there’s still some health things that need attention as well.
“I’m not looking to get myself back to the states for a while yet.”
He said his next tournament would possibly be the Victorian Open at Thirteenth Beach in February.