Why Sandy Lyle joined Tiger Woods in missing Masters Champions' Dinner

It was the second year running that Lyle, the 1988 winner, did not attend the annual gathering, which, on this occasion, celebrated Scottie Scheffler’s second Green Jacket win last year.

The Scotsman understands that Lyle, who brought down the curtain on his playing career in the event two years ago, had notified Fred Ridley, the Augusta National chairman, of his intended absence due to “personal reasons”.

Last year, the man who produced one of the event’s iconic shots from a fairway bunker on the 18th hole in the final round to become the first British player to claim a Green Jacket, missed the dinner after deciding to stay in Scotland as his wife, Jolande, battled an ear infection.

It had been hoped that this year might have marked a rare occurrence of the 35 living past champions all being in attendance.

However, in addition to Lyle, five-time winner Woods was absent as well as he recovers from Achilles surgery while Singh withdrew from this week’s event on Monday due to an injury.

Since the inception of the dinner in 1952, only three times has every living champion been in attendance - 1965, 1967 and, most recently, 1999.