The professional golfer stood on the 18th tee at Scotland”s Carnoustie Golf Links. It was the Sunday of the British Open and he was ready to play his final hole. He had a three-shot lead. The official Royal and Ancient engraver had already started carving his name into the Claret Jug.
Needing only a double-bogey six to win golf”s oldest championship, he inexplicably pulled out his driver and swung away. He hit it dead right although he luckily landed safely on the 17th fairway, just short and right of the water. He then grabbed a 3-iron and attacked the green. That shot also went right, crashed into the metal grandstand and bounced back some 40 yards into knee-high rough. He then chunked his wedge into the water, took a penalty stroke and chunked his next shot into the sand. From there he got up and down for a triple-bogey seven, putting him in a three-way tie for the lead following completion of play. He lost the four-hole playoff to Paul Lawrie. He never again challenged for a major title. His name was Jean van de Velde and he will be forever remembered for losing the 1999 Open Championship.
Yet van de Velde is not alone. At the 1966 United States Open at San Francisco”s Olympic Club, Arnold Palmer lost a seven-stroke lead over the final nine holes to finish tied for the lead after 72 holes. The following day he lost an 18-hole playoff to Billy Casper. He never again won a major title. Something similar happened to Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters. Norman lost his insurmountable final-round lead, hit shots into the water, and carded a 78. Nick Faldo came from seven shots back, shot 67, and won his sixth and final major by four shots.
Just to make sure that you”re aware that this is not just a modern day phenomenon, Sam Snead triple-bogeyed the final hole in the 1939 U.S. Open that was contested at Philadelphia Country Club. In an era of no leader boards, Snead thought he had to birdie the final hole to win the National Open title outright. After chopping his way through that final hole and recording an eight, it became apparent afterward to Snead that a par would have gotten him the win and a bogey would have put him into a playoff with eventual winner Byron Nelson alongside Craig Wood and Denny Shute. Snead won three Masters titles, three PGA Championships, one British Open in just one attempt, but never took home the U.S. Open trophy. By the most foolish of margins, he failed to win the career grand slam.
The sagas of van de Velde, Palmer, Norman and Snead bring us full circle to the 2012 professional golf campaign. Last week, Jim Furyk chopped up the final hole at Firestone to lose the Bridgestone Invitational to Keegan Bradley. The week before, Scott Piercy sat in the clubhouse and watched Robert Garrigus and William McGirt falter over the final two holes and hand him the Canadian Open title. The week before that, Adam Scott bogeyed the final four holes at Royal Lytham and St. Annes to lose the Open Championship to Ernie Els by one shot. Jim Furyk snap-hooked his tee shot on the Olympic Club”s 16th hole and ended up losing his lead in the United States Open, a tournament won by Webb Simpson, who just so happened to be sitting in the clubhouse with his wife watching Furyk and Graeme McDowell fail to make up that one crucial shot.
Fury, Garrigus, McGirt and Scott are also not alone. Thus far, the American PGA Tour has hosted 34 tournaments. In 23 of them, the eventual winner did not have the 54-hole lead. Some of those three-round leaders lost gradually over the final nine holes. Others, such as Kyle Stanley at San Diego”s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, made triple-bogey on the final hole and then lost a playoff to take a dramatic loss.
The pressure is most obvious at golf”s four majors and the history of those events during the past six years is glaring when it comes to holding onto a 54-hole lead. In the Masters, United States Open and the British Open, four out of six times a non-leader has won. At the PGA Championship four out of five non-leaders have taken home the trophy. During the course of the last 17 major championships, the scoring average of the 54-hole leader has been 68.3 strokes per round. The fourth-round scoring average for those leaders has been 74.1 on Sunday. Obviously, at least for the time being, it appears to be easier to come from behind than to maintain a lead.
Louis Oosthuizen was an out-of-nowhere winner of the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews. In retrospect, you”ve got to give the journeyman South African some big-time credit for the way he won. He took a four-stroke lead into final round and carded a final-round 71 to end up beating Lee Westwood by a very impressive seven shots. However, the Oosthuizen story is the exception to the rule in our modern era of tournament golf.
Englishman Nick Faldo is the owner of six major titles. Five of those wins are the result of someone else handing him the green jacket or the Claret Jug. He won his first British Open in 1986 when Paul Azinger bogeyed the final two holes. Interestingly enough, Faldo made par on all 18 of the holes that Sunday to win by one stroke. In 1989, Scott Hoch yipped a 2-foot putt on the first playoff hole, Faldo birdied the second sudden-death hole, and he won his first Masters. He repeated the feat in 1990 when Raymond Floyd hooked his ball into the water at Augusta National on the second playoff hole. John Cook three-putted from 5 feet on the 17th hole at Muirfield and suddenly Faldo was the 1992 Open champion. We”ve already mentioned Greg Norman”s collapse in the 1996 Masters when he handed the green jacket to Faldo following a bevy of final-round watery disasters.
Faldo understands the feelings of those who handed him those five major titles. At the 1983 British Open at Royal Birkdale, Faldo fell out of the lead on Sunday and carded a 73 on a day when Andy Bean shot 67, Hale Irwin shot 67, Graham Marsh shot a 64, Seve Ballesteros shot 68, and eventual winner Tom Watson posted a 70 and won his fifth British Open title. Faldo ended up tied for eighth and immediately decided to rebuild his swing under the watchful eye of golf instructor David Ledbetter. It took him two full years to rework his swing, but when the process was complete, he had a swing he could trust during the heat and glare of major championship golf. Someone will win the PGA Championship on Sunday at Kiawah Island. Just don”t count on the eventual winner being the guy who is in the lead after 54 holes.
