Van de Velde Back at Carnoustie Yesterday

In golf, there are legends, who do mythical things -- Nicklaus's magical putts in the 1986 Masters, Woods storming through Pebble Beach and leaving a US Open field ten shots in his wake, Sarazen's "Shot Heard Round the World" in the early days of the Masters, and so forth and so on.  Those are the deeds that cement the legends into the history books for all times.

Then, there are the legends of infamy.  Perhaps none greater in the latter 20th century is the 1999 collapse of French journeyman Jean Van de Velde on the 18th hole of Carnoustie.  With a three shot lead to win the Open Championship, Van de Velde committed a stunning series of blunders that left him scrambling for a tie on the green -- when he finally got there -- and in a playoff that he ultimately lost to Paul Lawrie.  If you watched it live, you would probably say that you've never seen anything like it ever before or ever since.

Van de Velde is playing only his third European Tour event of the year this week, the Alfred Dunhill Championship, and luck being what it is, he drew Carnoustie in his first round of the linksland tournament.  Ever humorous and self-deprecating, Van de Velde told Golf Channel's Rich Lerner that if he had it to do all over again he wouldn't play 7-iron, 7-iron, wedge onto the 18th green "because that's not my nature."  He also had a good laugh at himself and generally seemed upbeat and happy -- just yards from where his worst moment as a player - and even perhaps in his life - happened.

Later, Jean Van de Velde re-played that 18th hole, but this time only with a putter.  Here he is, improving his score with but one club:

Part 2

Part 3

It is much the improvement over the time before: