Caddy Miles Byrne reflects on his costly error

"He committed the ultimate sin and he will not do it again. I am surmising that he is feeling as sick as a parrot.

"I suppose I should have checked, but that's what you pay a caddy for. It's not my job to check the bag."

The biggest blow for Woosnam was missing out on a second Major title 10 years after his first - but the Ryder Cup element was almost as crucial.

He would have gone fifth in the European team's table even by finishing second - which is the position he would have held had he not lost the two shots.

Instead the former world number one is 12th in the table and in a battle for an automatic top-10 spot in the eight remaining events.

The extra driver was discovered on the second tee after the Welshman had just birdied the first to go back into the joint lead.

Suddenly two behind, Woosnam could never get back on terms and admitted: "It took me a few holes to recover and didn't really get it out of my head all the way round."

The mistake occurred after Woosnam tried out two drivers on the practice range - and rather than return one of them to the clubhouse, they both ended up in the bag he took onto the course.

'Kicked in the teeth'

Because the first hole at Lytham is a par three, the stray driver was not spotted straight away.

The mistake was spotted as he asked for a wood at the par-four second - and Byrne suddenly realised what had happened.

"You are going to go ballistic," he told Woosnam. "We have two drivers in the bag."

Woosnam's reaction was to take hold of the extra one - complete with head cover - and sling it away.

"I felt like I had been kicked in the teeth," he said. "It's hard enough being level with the world's best players, but to give them a two-shot start... I was not feeling very enthusiastic about it.