Every sports fan has a little bit of a photographic memory. They remember images of their favorite players or incredible moments. The Joe Carter home run leap. The concluding seconds of the Miracle on Ice. Michael Jordan's final shot against the Jazz in 1997.In golf, one year stands out for images that will forever be burned in our skull. That year was ten years ago, in 1999. You had the David Duval eagle putt for 59 drop as his yellow Tommy Hilfiger shirt came untucked and a rare first pump ensued. Sergio Garcia closing his eyes to hit a shot from behind a tree at Medinah, only to run down the fairway as it somehow found its way on the putting surface, scissor kick and all. Payne Stewart's statuesque image when the winning putt dropped at Pinehurst. Jean Van de Velde, hands on his hips, standing in the Barry Burn at Carnoustie, pants rolled up, making the most famous triple-bogey in the history of golf. Any and all images from that Sunday at Brookline, when the Americans stormed back to beat the Europeans at the Ryder Cup.
GolfChannel.com decided to put all these in writing in something they're calling "Project '99", and had some of their most talented voices jot down what they remembered from the event personally. Rich Lerner, who has been with The Golf Channel since 1997, chatted with FanHouse about the Van de Velde collapse, amongst other things. Click away for a little trip back in time.
FanHouse: Tell us a little bit about the project you guys put together.
Lerner: It's five stories centering on the momentum events of 1999. They would be, Payne Stewart winning the 1999 U.S. Open right before his tragic death, USA team coming back at the Ryder Cup, David Duval's 59 at the Bob Hope, Tiger's win over Sergio at the PGA at Medinah and Jean Van de Velde's collapse at the British Open.
FanHouse: And you're focusing on the Van de Velde collapse.
Lerner: Each piece is to be the reporter's account of having been at all these events. I was at Carnoustie, and simply put, it was the most bizarre event I've ever been to in my career.
FanHouse: Talk a little bit about when the event was unfolding.
It was the most bizarre event I ever covered, but until the 71st hole, it was on its way to becoming the most forgettable and least appealing events I had ever been to.
- Rich Lerner
Lerner: I'll give you sort of my account. It was the most bizarre event I ever covered, but until the 71st hole, it was on its way to becoming the most forgettable and least appealing events I had ever been to. If you remember, the superintendent John Philp had the course set up to basically embarrass the players. It was at the height of the distance explosion. A couple of years before this Tiger had hit a sand wedge to a par-5 at Augusta (National) and that was the major discussion. That, and should the players be paid to play in the Ryder Cup.
You remember, that was a very hot debate was distance and how you contain it. ... I remember earlier in the week riding around Carnoustie with the superintendent and you could clearly tell that he had it in for these players. He was not going to allow these wild swingers to win.
They grew the rough, it was knee high, a yard off the fairway. (Greg) Norman I think whiffed a yard off the fairway! Sergio Garcia shot a 89. Tiger said it was just unfair, and it was.
Nobody's happy. The press can't wait to get out of there. The players can't wait to get out of there. I recall distinctly the mood was really flat on Sunday. The press basically had their stories written. It was that Jean Van de Velde, an obscure Frenchman, was going to be the first person from his country since 1907 to win (the Open Championship) on a week that proved to be an embarrassment to the R&A and certainly the greatest players in the world who would just be happy to never come back to Carnoustie. End of story, close up your laptop, get me on the next plane lets get out of here. That was the feeling.
And then it started to rain. And then the Frenchman jumped in the burn and all hell broke loose. ... He goes on to make the greatest triple-bogey in the history of golf, because he made a clutch putt, and it got him into the playoff. ... Only the Scots remembered that Paul Lawrie won. The story was Van de Velde, even in defeat. You knew you'd seen something that they were going to write about and talk about for as long as they played the game. It would be among the most infamous collapses in the history of the sport, if not the most.
FanHouse: Have you ever seen something in your career that rivaled what happened with Van de Velde?
Lerner: You could argue that what's the difference between what Van de Velde did and what Phil Mickelson did at Winged Foot in 2006. Just the single shot, Phil made double and Jean made triple. Phil made a decision that has been criticized and hotly debated. Mickelson is the second-greatest player of this generation. Van de Velde is someone nobody has ever really heard of. Mickelson didn't roll up his pants and jump in the water with a wall starring him in the face.
Mickelson did it at a golf course that was fairly well respected. Carnoustie was reviled for the way it was set up that week. There were so many other good players and it's how Van de Velde handled it that is also a big part of the story. He met this calamity with just this cavalier attitude. This sort of "C'est la vie," what can you do! Although, Phil had a great line too, "I'm such an idiot."
So, that's one way to look at it, but have I ever been around something this bizarre? No, I'd have to go through my mental Rolodex of all the majors. Majors have a way of producing some absolute craziness. At this point, there is nothing that comes to mind that rivals. Norman at Royal Birkdale was pretty intense. I did not go this past year to Turnberry for (Tom) Watson. I'm sure that was incredible.
FanHouse: I guess the craziest thing to happen to rival it on the other side of the spectrum is Nicklaus at Augusta. People always complain that Tiger has never won a major coming from behind, but it's just so hard to do that. Nobody wins majors coming from behind because you've got to go out on a really tough golf course and shoot a low number. And Nicklaus actually putting that together at the age he was at, to me, I still love to watch.
Lerner: That is the best. That is the absolute best. And going back to 1999, that year produced something extra special. That Sunday at the Ryder Cup, that was probably the happiest Sunday in American golf history. They were dead, they were flat on their back, they were being ridiculed as pampered and spoiled and the whole world was against them and in an absolute frenzied fury, they fought back.
That was an all-time Ryder Cup. David Duval, shirt untucked, pumping his first. Ben Crenshaw wagging his finger. This is the key. Any of these other years, you'd have to think a little bit, but 1999 produced some of the most famous moments in championship in the history of the game.
Duval shooting 59, makes the putt on the final hole. The U.S. Open with Payne Stewart, making that clutch putt and grabbing Mickelson by the face, and telling Phil that he was going to be a great father.The PGA, and significance there. The Masters in 1997 was the big announcement that this guy (Woods) was here. That he had arrived and then some. Then he went through 1998, changing his swing, and well, maybe it wouldn't be so easy. And then he grinds out that win about Garcia (at the 1999 PGA), and gets number two, and the flood gates opened. We were off to the races and off to Nicklaus Land.
Every single one of those moments are big. Bigger than big.
FanHouse: And if Sergio wins that, who knows how his career would have changed.
Lerner: Exactly! Exactly! I mean, if Garcia wins that, I have to believe that Garcia has won four or five majors right now.
FanHouse: I agree with you. Because who knows what he has done at Carnoustie in '07.
Lerner: What about Oakland Hills in '08. He putts that ball in the water on 16. We're in the habit in the press of marking these anniversaries, and so here we are at ten years, and it just so happens that '99 was really an epic year in golf.
