Jean Van de Velde

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Jean Van de Velde
Jean Van de Velde
Personnel
Nation: FranceFrance France
Career data
Professional since: 1987
Tournament wins: 7th

Jean Van de Velde (born May 29, 1966 in Mont-de-Marsan , France ) is a professional golfer . He became world famous in golf circles for his incomprehensible failure on the last hole at the 1999 Open Championship in Carnoustie, Scotland .

Career

Van de Velde was an amateur two-time French youth champion and eventually won the French Amateur Championship and represented his country at the Eisenhower Trophy . The following year, 1987, he became a professional golfer and qualified for the European Tour in 1989 . Van de Velde played rather inconspicuously, won his first tournament in 1993 and was twice in the top 20 of the money list .

In 1999 the big moment came at the Open Championship . Van de Velde dominated the major and led by three strokes before the final hole - usually impossible to lose. He would have been the first Frenchman since 1907 to win this most important golf tournament. Would - because the Frenchman managed the feat and lost his entire lead through a combination of bad strokes and personal mistakes on the last hole. Although he saved himself in a 4-hole jump-off with Paul Lawrie and Justin Leonard (USA), which was ultimately won by Lawrie from Scotland. In the previous rounds Van de Velde had played a birdie on that hole , on the final day it was a fatal triple bogey .

Van de Velde accepted this golfing disaster with astonishing composure and later made fun of it. This made him the hero of all amateur golfers and enjoys great popularity in the golf media around the world. The course and the emotional rollercoaster of this career highlight was thematized in the Netflix documentary series "The Strength of Losing" (Season 1, Episode 8) under the title "The 72nd Hole" and also portrayed from Van de Velde's point of view.

He played eleven times for France in the World Cup , was a member of the European Ryder Cup team in 1999 and was part of the winning team in Europe at the Seve Trophy in 2000 . Van den Velde represented the colors of France six times in the traditional, but now discontinued Dunhill Cup .

After the turn of the millennium, Van de Velde was plagued by several injuries, but in 2005 he made a comeback at the prestigious Open de France , where he was only defeated by his compatriot Jean-François Remésy in the jump-off - ironically again with a failure in the water at the last hole. In 2006 he did manage to win at the Madeira Island Open .

European Tour victories

  • 1993: Roma Masters
  • 2006: Madeira Island Open Caixa Geral de Depositos

Other tournament victories

  • 1988: UAP Under-25s Championship
  • 1995: French PGA Championship
  • 1996: French PGA Championship
  • 1998: Championnat de France Pro
  • 1999: Championnat de France Pro

Participation in team competitions

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ imfernsehen GmbH & Co KG: The Strength of Losing Season 1, Episode 8: The 72nd Hole. Retrieved November 11, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Van de Velde, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French golfer
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Mont-de-Marsan , France