'I'm not a clown' - golfer Jean Van de Velde

Golf Digest, Dec, 1999

After his collapse at the British Open, Jean Van de Velde states his case

Jean Van de Velde, the Frenchman who weathered his 72nd-hole disaster at this year's British Open with such aplomb, was a benchwarmer for the first two days of the Ryder Cup. Finally forced into action on Sunday, Van de Velde was already 1 down to Davis Love III as he stepped to the second tee, an uphill par 3. Just as Van de Velde went into his preshot routine, one of the bozos in the gallery broke the silence with a not- so-subtle crack about the Open: "Look out for the creek!" (Never mind that there isn't one on the hole.) Van de Velde stopped, stepped back, smiled and replied softly, "It's only a 6-iron, not a 2-iron"-a reference to the doomed approach shot that set off his chain-reaction collapse at Carnoustie two months earlier.

Even in the Ryder Cup's crucible of emotion and intensity, Van de Velde found a way to defuse the situation. By now he's used to the questions, the jokes, the compliments, even an occasional insult. He may have made a triple bogey to calamitously botch a shot at glory in the game's oldest championship, but Van de Velde has somehow converted it all into a positive, a net birdie. Or, as his Web site (www.allezjean.com) puts it, "So what? His panache, style and talent shone around the world."

Senior Editor Peter McCleery traveled to Switzerland shortly before the Ryder Cup to catch up with Van de Velde at his apartment in Geneva. After a brief delay so Jean could take a dip in the pool with his wife and two daughters (what is it with Van de Velde and the water?), he revisited the Open debacle in great detail. Van de Velde defended his shot selection and decision-making on the fateful 72nd hole, becoming animated at times but also poking fun at himself and others. In another conversation after the Ryder Cup, Van de Velde provided a firsthand account of the controversial American celebration at the 17th green, as well as candid comments about captain Mark James' strategy.

Throughout, Van de Velde's openness and gracious manner dispelled the old stereotype of the French as aloof and arrogant. Indeed, after spending time with him, you begin to think that Van de Velde was the real winner of this year's British Open.

Golf Digest: A few months removed from the Open at Carnoustie, how much do you think about it?

Jean Van de Velde: Eighteenth hole, nothing. Not at all.

A whole day might go by and you don't think about it?

Definitely. A whole week might go by, I don't think about it.

But people keep bringing it up.

Yeah, but it's not like a ghost. I'm very busy at the moment, so I don't have too much time to think about it. You know you have to accept this thing, and all you can focus on is trying to get another chance. Yes, I think about 18, but I think about the other 71 holes I played.

Positive thoughts?

Even 18 was positive. I got up and down to go to a playoff, and I made an eight-footer after a complete nightmare.

I mean, how many people would have gotten up and down? I didn't win it there. I didn't lose it, either. I lost it in the playoff. That's all I did. After 72 holes, no one beat me.

What has been the nicest thing anyone has said to you about it?

There are a lot of people who wrote that I should feel very proud of what I did, my attitude was exceptional, and people should learn from it. One guy wrote me a few weeks later, and he said, "Thanks for reminding me it's a game, because since then, I'm playing even better and enjoying it more." So it's not a question of life and death.

The American commentators in particular were pretty harsh. Curtis Strange on ABC said it was one of the stupidest things he had ever seen. Ian Baker-Finch said you went from "dumb" to "dumb and dumber." How does that make you feel?

That makes me laugh [laughs]. Good for them. As I said, everybody is entitled to an opinion.

I think it would be a little hurtful being called stupid.

They've never been stupid in their life?

I would say it's human to have reactions, and some are good and some are bad. Maybe one of them regrets what he said. I'm not taking it personally. If it had been anyone else, they would have made the same comments.

Actually the opposite. Some people thought the commentators were harder on you because you weren't a peer from the PGA Tour. That they might not have said that about Justin Leonard, for example.

The good thing is, I'm going to play in the States a little more next year, so maybe they'll get a little kinder.

You said you couldn't go against your nature, that you have a way of playing and you stuck to it. You would rather lose it the way you did than hit wedge-wedge to make a nice, easy 5?

The thing is, when I hit that 2-iron [the approach to 18 that bounced off the grandstand], I mean, I hit maybe a million 2-irons in my life, and some of them turn out bad and some of them turn out good. I didn't think it was a stupid shot;

I didn't go for anything special. I didn't go for glory. I just went for a golf shot that I know I'm capable of hitting every day of the year, every day of my life, and it just turned out to be a terrible break. It's a distance of a 4-iron to clear the water, and I'm hitting a 2-iron. I'm not going to think about the water. That's silly.