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Par for the course Van de Velde shoots 70 to stretch lead to five strokes
Posted: Sunday July 18, 1999 01:51 AM
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (AP) -- He made difficult shots from pot bunkers look easy. He made putts that stretched from here to France. Each time, Jean Van de Velde removed his hat and waved to a stunned gallery at Carnoustie Golf Links. Just as remarkable was how the unheralded Frenchman waved goodbye to Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and everyone else in the third round of the British Open. "Was I surprised? Definitely I am surprised to be five ahead," Van de Velde said after his 45-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole Saturday gave him a 1-under 70 and left him as the only player to match par on the toughest links golf course in the world. "But I'm not surprised with myself," he said. "If you don't believe you have a chance, it might happen." Can it really? The only Frenchman to win the British Open was Arnaud Massy in 1907. The last time a Frenchman even led the British Open was Jean Garaialde in 1964. The country known for Epicurean delights just may have a golf champion to celebrate. "It would be fantastic, a dream come true," Van de Velde said. Not so fast. Craig Parry and 1997 British Open champion Justin Leonard were five strokes behind. Woods, who ran out of incredible par saves and finally made a double bogey in his round of 74, is seven strokes out of the lead. Norman, despite a hard-luck 75, is another stroke back. "Anyone with a lead has got to sleep on it," Woods said. "When I won the Masters, it wasn't exactly an easy night's sleep -- and I had a nine-shot lead." And that was Augusta National in 1997, where stray drives could be found in short grass. Carnoustie is known to punish even the good shots. Van de Velde is well aware of this, as well as how tough it will be on a player in contention for the first time in a major championship. "It's the biggest tournament ever, and I'm a bit ahead of everybody else," he said. "What can happen? I can lose it, that's the only thing that can happen. "I can win it -- that's the other thing," he said, almost as an afterthought. No one would have imagined an unproven player matching par with the toughest links golf course in the world under the most demanding conditions. Carnoustie has a history of turning out great champions -- Tommy Armour, Henry Cotton, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Tom Watson. Now, a 33-year-old professional affiliated with Disneyland -- the one in Paris -- managed again to avoid the punishment that Carnoustie handed out to Woods, Norman, and other major championship winners. Only three players broke par in the third round. Parry had a 4-under 67, the best score of the tournament, to go from a tie for 30th to the final pairing Sunday with Van de Velde. "That's got to rank up there with the best round I've ever played. I felt about 6-foot out there the way I was playing," said Parry, the 5-foot-6 Australian with forearms that give him the nickname "Popeye." Parry and Leonard, who had an even-par 71, were at 218. Woods won his duel with Norman, not that it did either of them any good. For the first time since he turned pro, Woods failed to make a birdie in a major championship round. Norman started with a birdie but found too much trouble -- mostly pot bunkers along the tight fairways of Carnoustie that left him no choice but to pitch out toward the fairway. He bogeyed the last two holes for a 75. "I made a lot of putts," Woods said. "Unfortunately, they were for par. My score could have been a lot higher." Woods needs the kind of round Parry put together -- and for Van de Velde to start taking his lumps at Carnoustie. "I need to rely on him coming back to me a little bit, and we'll see what happens," he said. "But I need to take care of my own business first." Woods and Norman had a chance to rescue what has otherwise been a flat Open championship. A lack of birdies have kept the excitement to a minimum. A lack of proven stars atop the leaderboard has left most people scratching their heads. Surely, Van de Velde would fold just like Rodney Pampling before him. Surely, it was only a matter of time before Woods, Norman or Leonard charged to the top, even if that meant making a bunch of pars. Instead, it was Van de Velde making one heroic shot after another, each time waving his hat and soaking it all in. After two par-saving putts midway through the round, Van de Velde hit the ball so far right on No. 11 that he had no choice but to play it back in the fairway. But a television crane was blocking his line, so he asked a rules official, "What happens if I play it and kill the cameraman?" He was given relief, played out to the fairway and took his bogey. The rest of the round was hard for Van de Velde to believe. Every time he got into trouble, he found a way out -- sometimes with a birdie. On No. 14, the par 5 with the double green, his third shot was closer to the pin for No. 4 than his intended target. Woods three-putted from about half the distance that Van de Velde had, but the Frenchman drained the birdie putt to start widening his lead. He saved par from the bunker on No. 15, saved par from another pot bunker at No. 17, and then hit an 8-iron into 45 feet on the last hole. "And it went in," he said, recalling his round with a wee bit of surprise. No comes the hard part. Van de Velde had 17 hours to kill before starting the final round with a five-stroke lead, and he admits he'll be nervous. "I'm definitely going to start thinking, because my IQ is a little bit over 10," he said. "Would you expect playing in Carnoustie, if it is blowing a hurricane for three days, leading by five strokes? My knees are going to touch each other on the first tee tomorrow." As long as he keeps this up, however, he just might be holding a claret jug when it's over.
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