Wow – I got my butt kicked today. Carnoustie is the site of Jean Van de Velde’s famous implosion on the 18th hole of the British Open when he had a 3 shot lead and made a triple bogey on 18 which then forced a playoff that he then lost. The fashion he did it in though is what makes him famous… have a look at the video footage to see for yourself:
Video Here’s a short break-down… He drove his ball off the tee and fortunately narrowly missed the burn. (The burn is basically a creek that runs through the golf course; see the photo above) On the 18th at Carnoustie, the burn runs across the front of the green making your second shot pretty difficult as well. With a 3 stroke lead he could have laid up his second shot and then chipped onto the green, and still won but instead, he decided to go for the green with a shot that ended up hitting the grandstands. Normally a shot that hits the grandstands results in a free drop for the player, but Van de Velde’s shot bounced off the grandstand and into the thick rough next to it. He tried to hit his next shot to the green, but instead ended up in the burn in front of the green! Next he took off his shoes and socks and hopped into the burn planning to play his shot out of the water. Thankfully he came to his senses though and instead took a drop outside the burn. He then hit his ball into the greenside bunker, and it took a sand save (hitting the ball out of the bunker and sinking the putt in one stroke) to get into the play-off. In short – Van de Velde did what any amateur could easily do on the same hole…. Except he’s famous for it because it cost him the British Open!
My own Carnoustie experience started with a duff on the first tee into… the burn! Sigh… if only there had been a practice range I feel like it would have helped a lot to give me confidence over that first drive. Unfortunately I spent most of the day trying to find my swing. My whole day basically felt like what I imagine Van de Velde’s 18th at Carnoustie felt like. On the downside, it was most of my round that felt that way, but on the bright side, I didn’t have a tournament on the line, and I hit some pretty great bunker shots out of some pretty nasty bunkers (See the photo below for an example). My caddie told me on the 18th that they used to sell, “I beat Van de Velde” souvenirs in the pro shop. Unfortunately for me – my 18th was so bad that I couldn’t even have bought one of those souvenirs today!!!
The highlight of the round today was after 10 finding out that we had finally secured a tee time at St. Andrews on the old course for tomorrow via text message from the golf travel company. I did enjoy the round, but right now I am not in a hurry to get back to Carnoustie!!!
Below: One of the "spectacle" bunkers at Carnoustie
No comments:
Post a Comment