1999 Open Championship - The Collapse

The Collapse

Van de Velde, who was in control through the latter half of the championship, held a seemingly insurmountable three-stroke lead going into the 72nd hole. He teed off with a driver, which was heavily criticized by the ABC broadcast team, and pushed his shot into the right rough of the 17th hole. He later claimed that he thought the lead was only two strokes, which is why he chose not to go with a safe club, such as an iron. His second shot was hit into an area of knee deep rough after his ball bounced backward 50 yards off the grandstand then off of a rock in the Barry Burn. Had the ball stayed in the grandstand he would have been able to drop without penalty. Then the thick Carnoustie grass stifled him again, as his third shot went into the burn in front of the green. Van de Velde took his shoes and socks off, entered the burn in an attempt to play the ball from the water. Moments later he decided to take a drop, at which point he hit his ball into one of the deep greenside bunkers. He pitched out safely and buried an eight footer for a triple-bogey. This forced the three-man playoff, which he eventually lost.

Due to the three-stroke lead Van de Velde had going into the final hole, his name had already been engraved into the Claret Jug. Following his collapse, the engraver had to scratch through Van de Velde's name and then engrave Paul Lawrie's name into it. Beginning with the 2000 Open, the winning golfer's name is no longer engraved into the Claret Jug until after his scorecard is verified by tournament officials and signed by said winning golfer. As nowadays, this hole is still widely considered to be the worst "choke" in golfing history, and some have even used the term "pulling a van de Velde" to describe similar events.

Neither van de Velde nor Lawrie has been in contention during the final round of a major since.