British Open
I know there’s one man who can’t wait for Monday, July 23rd to appear on the calendar. By that morning a new British Open champion will be crowned and the world of golf will have a fresh name to link with Carnoustie other than the famous, or infamous, Frenchman, Jean Van De Velde.
The 1999 Open Championship doesn’t seem all that long ago until you realize Tiger Woods, who finished tied for seventh place, possessed only one major at the time. It’s now an even dozen, as I type this article.
The course had seemingly been forgotten by the Royal and Ancient. The last time they’d contested the Open there was back in 1975, when Tom Watson captured his first grand slam event in an 18-hole playoff over Australian Jack Newton.
Carnoustie has produced some other noteworthy moments. It was the place where, according to writer/broadcaster Henry Longhurst, Walter Hagen once drove 70 miles during the championship to go fishing, brought his fresh catch back to the kitchen at the Carnoustie hotel and cooked them for dinner.
It was the host venue in ’53 when Ben Hogan arrived for his one and only Open appearance, fresh off victories at the Masters (winning by five), and the U.S. Open at Oakmont, (victorious by six). Even Frank Sinatra, who was performing in the nearby town of Dundee, couldn’t resist the temptation to come out and watch. The Hawk didn’t disappoint the Chairman or anyone else, ousting the field by four strokes.
In 1968, Gary Player tamed Carnoustie holding off Jack Nicklaus and Bob Charles to win his second Claret Jug and as mentioned, Watson prevailed seven years later. Worth noting in the ’75 event is the man who missed the playoff by one stroke, Johnny Miller. The current NBC lead analyst has become known for using the word “choke” on the air to describe pressure-packed scenarios. He used a slightly different description of his crushing bogey to lose the tournament on the difficult par-4 finishing hole. “That was the one major that I let go,” he lamented.
Miller wasn’t the first player to feel the wrath of the brutal par-4 18th hole, and as Van De Velde proved, he wasn’t the last. Carnoustie is loaded with difficult holes. Out of bounds, gorse bushes, pot bunkers and burns (streams or creeks in the U.S.) come into play all around the course. In ’99, the R & A let the rough grow so high, the already stern course became nearly unplayable.
“I missed the fairway by a yard in ’99,” recalls Phil Mickelson. “It took me three shots to move it that one or two yards. Had I been thinking at all, I would have just taken an unplayable lie, and just gotten it back to the first cut.”
1999 was also the year that Rodney Pampling led after the first round, yet still missed the cut. It’s the course where Sergio Garcia, playing in his first Open Championship as a professional, posted scores of 89-83. Tiger Woods you ask? He only managed to register one birdie over the final 36 holes.
“When you have a screwy setup, you’re going to get a screwy golf tournament, and a screwy finish,” explained Davis Love. “There was a lot of silly golf going on out there.”
The only man who didn’t seem to recognize the ridiculous conditions was Van De Velde. He entered the final round with a five-shot advantage over his nearest rival, and ten shots clear of eventual champion Paul Lawrie. The Scotsman birdied three of his first eight holes and quietly posted a four-under 67 to finish in the clubhouse at six-over par 290.
Though it didn’t seem to matter at the time, Angel Cabrera (yes, he has contended in majors prior to Oakmont) had a birdie putt on the 18th green to also register 290. He failed to convert. Justin Leonard could have posted 289, but he hit his second shot into the burn, and made bogey to tie Lawrie.
With Van De Velde holding a three-shot lead on the 72nd tee, it all seemed academic. Despite hitting his tee shot dangerously near water to the right, he left himself with a challenging, but reasonable, second shot. “I had 189 yards to carry the burn, which wasn’t very demanding,” he stated. “It was not something absolutely mad I was trying to do, it just came out a nightmare.”
A bad dream indeed. Suddenly his ball was caroming off the grandstand, bouncing backwards into knee-high rough, sinking slowly in the burn, then disappearing into a bunker. The end result was a crippling triple bogey, and a three-man playoff. Not surprisingly, he came out on the short end and the hometown lad, Lawrie, raised the Jug in victory. Disconsolate, but determined to rejoice nevertheless, Van De Velde headed into a private dining room with family and friends to celebrate 71 holes of perfection and one hole of infamy.
“The French are very cheeky,” he told Golf World. “We laugh at ourselves. We don’t take things too personally.”
All four of the majors have had strange occurrences, but recently it seems the Open has been one continuous episode of Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Think Seve Ballesteros in the carpark at Lytham, Hale Irwin whiffing the putt at Birkdale, Peter Jacobsen tackling the streaker at Sandwich, and Tiger losing his opening tee shot of the tournament – just off the fairway.
There are myriad other stories; however, this year only one is worth retelling. One problem: Jean Van De Velde won’t be there to relive it. If he’s smart, the Frenchman will disappear to a private retreat, sip on a bottle of wine, and wait to turn the calendar to July 23rd. Then he can start counting down to the next Open at Carnoustie.
