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EYEWITNESS 2
NARRATOR II
Curtis Strange
"Jean Van de Velde at Carnoustie — ha! That will haunt me forever. I felt for him then and still do. I said it was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen in sports, and yes, it still is, without a doubt. I'm not being critical; it's just a fact. In golf, you have a chance to think out all your strategies; it's not a reaction sport. And he didn't take the time to think, or he didn't think right. He made a mistake off the tee, which he recovered from, then a huge mistake on his second shot with the choice of clubs, and then he made another huge mistake on his fourth shot after taking a penalty out of the burn.
"One reason I had to say it was so stupid was that, as a TV analyst, we have a lot of non-golfers who watch the British Open. A golfer knows how stupid it is, but I'm speaking also to the people who don't know the magnitude of these mistakes.
"It's difficult when you're an analyst. You have to be honest and forthright, but it's not easy because you're seeing someone self-destruct. I feel for the guy. I'm a fan up in the booth, just like the guy at home. And I could not believe what I was seeing. It made you want to reach into your TV and grab him! But it certainly made for great television.
"Does he still go to bed thinking about it? I'll tell you what: If he doesn't, he's not human. He handled the situation publicly very well, but you have no choice but to handle it well. I still think of a couple of times I should have won, it's human nature, but this is by far and away the biggest golf tournament in the world to him and he had it right in his grasp. If he said he doesn't think about it, and it doesn't still bother him, he's lying."
Editor's note: In 1999, Van de Velde said, "A whole week might go by, [and] I don't think about it."
