10 Years Later: Jean Van de Velde, Carnoustie Revisited

It's been ten years since Jean Van de Velde imploded on Carnoustie's 72nd hole. He stood on the 18th tee box needing just a double-bogey to become the first Frenchmen to win a major championship since Arnaud Massy in 1907. Roughly 15 minutes and seven excruciating strokes later it was over.

Van de Velde still had to go through the motions in a playoff -- one he backed into after making a four-foot putt for triple-bogey -- which is exactly what he did as Paul Lawrie and Justin Leonard battled for the Claret Jug.

Curtis Strange, then the in-booth golf analyst for ABC and two-time U.S. Open champ, called Van de Velde's decision to use driver off the tee "the biggest sports debacle of all time." A tad much, but maybe not that far off.

I didn't think so at the time. (It was certainly hard to watch, but there were bigger implosions. Like, say, Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters, or the 1978 Red Sox.) But if Van de Velde turned in this performance at Turnberry this week, we're talking about it until the NFL season distracts us.

Between blogs and the social media explosion -- not to mention the mainstream media deluge, especially from ESPN's various properties, both online and on-air -- Van de Velde would be the story. Comparisons to past failures would be made, roundtables would be convened, and in the end, the journeyman professional golfer who hadn't done much before or since his 15 minutes of infamy, would be branded the Sports World's Biggest Choke Artist in the History of Everything.

So there's your silver lining, Jean: You had the great fortune of blowing a chance at golf's oldest major before Al Gore's magnificent invention had fully realized its potential.

But maybe when it happened -- 1999 or 2009 -- wouldn't have mattered to Van de Velde. I distinctly remember Van de Velde not appearing particularly bothered by his fate, and he almost seemed to embrace it. (I mean, he mocked himself by replaying the hole with just his putter.)

Less than a month after losing the Open, he admitted that, "It's been a wonderful experience. People recognise me and a lot of them say, you know: 'Thanks a lot for what I saw. It was great. I had a good time in front of my TV. Next time it will be you.' It makes you feel good."

That may not do much for the perception of France as a country full of, shall we say, pacifists, but I give Van de Velde credit for not taking himself too seriously. There's a lesson in there somewhere.