1999 British Open: Jean Van De Velde: Golf Digest Magazine

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OO LA LA

At the 1999 open, frenchman Jean Van de Velde needed a 6 to win. Instead, he made a 7, and history.

Diagram by Jason Lee

# 1: ON THE TEE; July 2007; VDV, 33, ranked 152nd in the world, has a three-stroke lead. Just 487 yards to go (par 4). Hits driver, pushes it. Good break: The ball stays out of the dreaded Barry Burn.

# 2: PERFECT LIE; 189 yards to clear the burn. His pushed 2-iron clears it by 25 yards, flies toward a grandstand, from which you would get a free drop. Bad break: The ball ricochets off a thin metal rail, ends up about 60 yards from the hole, in knee-high rough.

# 3: DEEP STUFF; The lie was "shocking," says VDV. All too aware that going too far long and/or left would put his ball out-of-bounds, he doesn't hit it hard enough. The pitch is woefully short. It lands in the burn. An incredulous Curtis Strange, then with ABC, labels VDV's play "stupid."

# 4: ALL WET; VDV takes off his shoes, socks, rolls up his pants and climbs into the burn. He is seriously considering trying to hit the partially submerged ball out of the 25-foot-wide burn-which has near vertical edges. On TV, Peter Alliss says: "If he gets that ball out, I'm retiring." Before VDV gets to the ball, it submerges slightly (the tide is rising). Common sense prevails: His fourth shot is a penalty drop. He has to drop behind the burn, into more terrible rough.

# 5: MORE DEEP STUFF; The lie was "really awful," VDV told us in late 1999. "I said, 'Well, you're not going to make the green from here.' " He doesn't?gouging a wedge shot into a greenside bunker.

# 6: SANDMAN; VDV's playing partner, Craig Parry, also in the bunker, tells him: "I'm going to play quickly; I'm going to get out of your way." And he holes it. VDV blasts out to eight feet.

# 7: LAST HURRAH; The three-shot lead is all gone now. VDV needs this left-edge putt to make a playoff with Paul Lawrie and Justin Leonard. Unbelievably, he makes it--the putt of the week.

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GREAT SAVE

The four-hole playoff, however, does not go VDV's way. In rain and bad light, he starts with a double bogey, and Lawrie, ranked 159th in the world, heroically birdies 17 and 18 to win easily. "I felt nothing," says Van de Velde. "I was a bit in shock there."

VDV goes on to handle the calamity with great panache and makes his one and only Ryder Cup later in the year. Now 41, after divorce and three hellish years of injury and operations, he's getting it together again. Bon chance, monsieur VDV!