Power of Caring
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Just a game

Van de Velde keeps things in perspective

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Posted: Wednesday September 22, 1999 12:47 PM

Jean Van de Velde will forever be remembered as the golfer who blew a three-stroke lead on the final hole at the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie.

It was the most alarming and astonishing of all sporting collapses, at once painful and pleasurable to watch.

To wrench defeat from the eager jaws of victory in that horrendous, wayward, watery way would be enough to send many a strong and embattled man over the edge to weakness and misery.

Not Van de Velde. Yes, he cried after his play-off loss to Paul Lawrie in Scotland. But not for long. He soon put it into perspective. No one had died. He still had a treasured wife and daughter. All three remained healthy. Life indeed was beautiful.

Now the affable Frenchman is carrying that approach into this week's Ryder Cup contest, which former British team member Brian Barnes recently referred to as some kind of World War III.

Van de Velde knows better. It's just a golf event. No bloody battles involved.

He appreciates this competition is like no other and is enormously proud to carry the French flag into the Ryder Cup arena for the first time ever. But win or lose, to paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, he will treat both imposters the same.

Europe is all the better for having him on its team -- and it has nothing to do with golf. He's quite simply a wonderful human being, always ready with a smile, always ready with a quip and always ready with a pleasant answer to those ceaseless questions about "that" failure.

For example, at Van de Velde's press conference on Wednesday he was asked: "Have you psychologically put your experience at Carnoustie behind you?"

Answer: "It's not like something you forget. But, yeah, I think I need to see a shrink and maybe he'll give me the answer. If you could make an appointment for me, it would be very nice. I haven't lost my head since and I'm doing all right. Thanks for asking."

There was laughter in the room ... and it appears to be infectious.

The dry wit of European team captain Mark James was a hit in his news briefing on Tuesday, while Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke were an entertaining double act when they met the press on Wednesday morning, especially on the subject of another winsome European rookie Sergio Garcia.

At 19, Garcia's the youngest ever player to appear in this competition.

Westwood said: " It's nice. He sits in the corner and does his homework."

To which Clarke added: "Then brings it up to Jesse [nickname of captain James] to make sure everything's right. He gets a tick -- he gets a little gold star if it's all good."

Van de Velde, who has been sightseeing in Boston with his family as if to enhance that "ordinary guy" image, later said of Clarke: "I think he would like to sing with Celine Dion. He told me that earlier on." Dion serenades the Ryder Cuppers at a Wednesday evening function.

This joviality is typical of a loose and confident defending champion team -- and one senses a fun-loving Frenchman is at the hub of it all.

CNN/SI's Phil Jones co-hosts WORLD SPORT, the international sports show that airs live daily on CNN/SI and CNN International. His columns appear regularly on CNNSI.com.

 

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