Van de Velde's collapse one of wackiest Open moments

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Jean Van de Velde said his golf ball was talking to him as he contemplated hitting the shot.

They have played 138 British Opens, and they'll play 138 more without any hope of matching the zaniness that happened a decade ago this week at Carnoustie.

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That's when the real became surreal, when a major championship turned into slapstick comedy and several million golf fans started yelling at their TV sets at a Frenchman most didn't know existed until that weekend.

The records show that Paul Lawrie won the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie by overcoming the largest final-round deficit (10 strokes) in a major. It was one of the most difficult British Opens in recent memory, as an overzealous R&A official had the groundskeepers spray fertilizer to make the rough 3 feet deep in spots, sending the scores soaring over par (the winning score was 6 over).

But 10 years after, few people recall Lawrie's feat -- or even remember he won the Claret Jug. All everyone remembers is Jean Van de Velde and how he somehow, someway managed to lose a three-shot lead he held standing on the 18th tee, denying him a chance to become the first Frenchman to win the British Open since Arnaud Massy in 1907.

Even now, it seems unbelievable. Heck, Van de Velde could have played the 18th hole with a putter and made a 6 -- which is exactly what he did when he returned to Carnoustie six months later to re-live the moment as part of a Never Compromise commercial.

But Van de Velde wasn't thinking about playing safe that third Sunday in July. Truth was, he wasn't thinking about much.

If he had been, he would have never hit a driver on the 18th hole because the Barry Burn -- a small creek that meanders down Carnoustie's 18th hole -- came into play on the tee shot. But Van de Velde hit his drive so far right, he missed the burn and landed on the 17th fairway.

Certainly, Van de Velde would now come to his senses and play safe, right?

Sacre bleu!

Instead of laying up into the fairway with a wedge, he chose to hit a 2-iron, thinking he could easily knock it over the Barry Burn in front of the green. Van de Velde later admitted he wasn't thinking only about making sure he won; he wanted to win in style.

"And that point, I could have hit wedge-wedge and two-putt," Van de Velde explained, "but who wants to win like that?"

Um, Jack Nicklaus, for one. And Tiger Woods. And Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Ben Hogan and Lee Trevino. Each of these Hall of Famers would have done whatever they needed to do to get the "W."

But Van de Velde wanted to ride in on a white horse to claim his prize. So he grabbed the 2-iron and watched as the ball sailed over the burn, but sliced to the right and ricocheted off a metal grandstands railing, somehow bouncing back on the opposite side of the burn.

By now, Van de Velde was in a full panic mode. He tried to hit a shot out of the deep rough onto the green, but chunked it into the burn for his fourth shot.

That's when you expected Benny Hill to start running across the green. All that seemed missing was a laugh track.

When Van de Velde got to the burn, he saw his ball slightly submerged below the water. So, of course, he rolled up his pants legs, took off his shoes and socks and waded into the burn, contemplating hitting the shot. As each minute passed, the ball slowly sunk deeper into the water, thanks to the tide rolling in.

Van de Velde later said the golf ball was talking to him as he contemplated hitting the shot out of the burn. "Not today, silly man," he said.

Meantime, golf fans around the world couldn't, to quote the late Joe Buck, believe what they were seeing. Neither could ABC commentator Curtis Strange. The two-time U.S. Open champion said Van de Velde's decision-making "was the most stupid thing I've ever seen."

At last, Van de Velde came to his senses and took a drop. He showed some guts when he hit his sixth shot to 8 feet and somehow made the putt for a triple bogey to get into a playoff with Lawrie and Justin Leonard. Amazingly, that was just Van de Velde's 101st putt of the week.

But the golfing gods don't hand out trophies to players who triple bogey the last hole of a major championship, so you knew Van de Velde had no chance in the four-hole playoff. Sure enough, Van de Velde bogeyed the first two holes and watched as Lawrie became one of the most unlikely British Open winners (he became just the first Scot to win in their homeland in 68 years).

Lawrie got the trophy, while Van de Velde had to settle for a spot in golf's Believe It Or Not exhibit.

"I guess I became more famous by losing the British Open than if had I won it," he said. "But I made plenty of friends because a Scottish man won, so at least that's something."

The last decade hasn't been kind to Van de Velde. Although the runner-up finish got him on the European Ryder Cup team in 1999 -- site of another late collapse -- and membership on the PGA TOUR in 2000, where he lost to Scott Verplank in a playoff at the Reno-Tahoe Open, his game soon went sour. He suffered a major knee injury in 2003 and then got divorced. As recently as two years ago, there were concerns he had a serious illness, but he has recovered and is back playing part-time on the European Tour.

Now 43, Van de Velde failed to qualify for this week's British Open at Turnberry. It's a shame, because his story will be re-told for years to come. A decade later, he has the same message he shared with reporters after the debacle.

"Don't be sad," he said. "It's not like anybody died."

No, but one of golf's cult heroes was born that day.

And, yes, he was a silly man.

Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.