major moments
10 Major Meltdowns
Mak Lok-lin recalls the occasions when really great players did really bad things at golf ’s biggest championships
I Popperfoto/Getty Images
was standing and shaking over a three-foot putt on the 18th hole of the final round of the Auchentoshan Pitch and Putt Matchplay Classic. Well, the final round, but also the first, and with only two competitors, admittedly not the largest field in golf. Having at one point led by three holes with four to play, I had contrived to lose the last three and had this putt to avoid both defeat and the worst collapse in my 40-odd years of competitive play. (A “collapse” being the throwing away of a winning lead, something I’d rarely, if ever, had.) But it wasn’t too late. “Focus, Mak,” I muttered under my breath. “Get in the zone. Come one!” Sadly, it was the Twilight Zone I found myself and my hopeless stab at the ball propelled it far from its intended target. I was left defeated, def lated, demoralized and devastated. To make matters worse my triumphant adversary could scarcely suppress his delight as he pocketed the one pound coin I held out in a still-shaking hand. “Maybe next year, Uncle Mak,” beamed my black hearted nemesis. And at that my four-year-old nephew turned on his heel and toddled away. As I trudged back to the clubhouse I consoled myself by remembering that plenty of far better players than I had suffered in similar circumstances at far more important championships… Catastrophe at Carnoustie: Jean van de Velde, Barry Burn, 1999 24
HK Golfer・Jun/Jul 2009
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Jean Van de Velde 1999 Open Championship, Carnoustie
After 71 holes Van de Velde, now HK Golfer’s own playing editor following his recent relocation to the SAR, was leading golf’s most important championship by three shots. A double bogey at Carnoustie’s venomous 18th would see him as the first Frenchman to lift the Claret Jug since Arnaud Massey achieved the feat in 1907. But as we all know, it didn’t quite work out like that. Here’s what happened. Electing to take driver off the final tee, Jean was a touch fortunate to find dry land, having narrowly skirted the meandering Barry Burn. He would find that hazard before long, however. His next shot, with a 2-iron, hit a tiny rail on the top of the greenside grandstand, bounced backwards 30 yards and then cannoned off the side of the burn and into thick rough. Having played two, but in a terrible lie in knee-high grass, Jean’s effort to find the putting surface came up short, his ball sinking to the bottom of the aforementioned burn. As if that wasn't enough, Van de Velde almost compounded his growing list of errors when he rolled up his trouser legs, stepped into the chilly, shindeep water fed by the Firth of Tay and contemplated playing a ball that was underwater. He finally took a drop in the rough and hit in the bunker. Craig Parry, also in the sand in a more conventional two shots, holed his shot and offered Van de Velde one last hope. "What about you following me into the hole?" Parry said. Sadly it wasn’t to be, but he managed to blast out to seven feet and somehow summoned enough courage to make the putt for a triple bogey and a playoff berth alongside eventual champion Paul Lawrie and Justin Leonard. What makes Jean’s disaster so unique is that there is no correct answer to the question he faced before pulling that infamous 2-iron from the bag. As he himself correctly points out, the “easy” chip back to the fairway was a shot from rough which needed to be aimed at the Out of Bounds on the left – and therefore potentially disastrous. Many would argue that the play into the grandstand, deliberate or not, was smart and was simply met with outrageous misfortune. Whatever: the result was some of the most gripping golf coverage ever aired, with a truly likeable character sadly falling at the final hurdle. HK Golfer・Jun/Jul 2009
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Thomas Bjorn 2003 Open Championship, Royal St George’s Golf Club
Arnie’s Army had been triumphantly on the march for three and a half days as their man raced into a seven-shot lead with only nine holes of the final round to play. Yet, by the end of it he was tied with Billy Casper and would go on to lose the 18-hole playoff the following day. What on earth happened? Simple: the King melted. After going out in only 32 strokes, Palmer slumped to a 39 on the back-nine, which included bogeys at 15 and 17 and a double bogey at 16. Casper, by contrast, birdied the 15th and was able to par in to match the 7-time Major champion to force extra time, which he would end up winning by four stokes after firing an impressive 69. Casper enjoyed a stellar week with his flat stick, never three-putting over the entire five rounds. In fact, Casper’s record during much of the 1960’s eclipsed that of the “Big Three” – Nicklaus, Palmer and Player – making him arguably the most under appreciated player of his generation. Palmer, despite recording a flurry of top-10 finishes in future Majors, would never win another.
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TC Chen was having an outstanding US Open at Oakland Hills. He had made the first albatross (double-eagle) in the championship’s history on his second hole of the tournament and finished the day with a 65 and a four-shot lead. Adding two 69s he continued to lead and matched the record score for 36- and 54-holes. In the final round he steadily parred holes 1 through 4 before becoming unglued in spectacular fashion at the 5th. TC, who still occasionally makes appearances on the Asian Tour, posted a quadruple bogey at the hole after incurring a two-shot penalty for a double hit chip when playing from some gruesomely thick greenside rough. Shocked, Chen then bogeyed the next three holes in a row. Finally pulling himself together, he then played flawlessly to par his way in for a 77. It wasn’t enough, however, and the Taiwanese, who would later earn the moniker “Two Chip Chen,” lost the Open by a single shot to Andy North.
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HK Golfer・Jun/Jul 2009
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Jack Nicklaus 1963 Open Championship, Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club
That year’s Open is best remembered for the one-sided playoff where a stunning putting display by Kiwi lefty Bob Charles saw him win a 36-hole playoff with Phil Rogers by eight strokes. What history has kindly forgotten is the collapse of Jack Nicklaus in the final round, proving that even the best in the game are not immune from Major meltdowns. Having played himself into position to win the title outright, Nicklaus missed a two-foot putt for par on 15 and then chunked a chip on the 16th to drop another shot. Even so, he was still tied for the lead coming to the last hole: a par would get him into the playoff, a birdie would win it. To his obvious disgust, he put his drive into a fairway bunker, from where he could only make bogey. He had dropped three shots in four holes to miss out on extra holes by just one. Renowned later in life for his steely determination under pressure, he called this uncharacteristic lapse “the most glaring mental blunder of my entire career.”
Walter J. Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated/Getty Images (Palmer); David Cannon/Allsport (Chen)
Chen Tze-Chung 1985 US Open, Oakland Hills Country Club
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Thomas Bjorn must thought his Open chances were over at the 17th hole of his first round at Sandwich. Having left his first shot in the bunker (for what he claimed was the first time in a decade), he petulantly hit the sand with his club, resulting in a two-shot penalty and an ugly quadruple bogey. History doesn’t record whether he thought to claim he was “smoothing” the sand – a la Rory McIlroy – at the time. F a s t f o r w a r d t o S u n d a y, a n d unbelievably, Bjorn held a three-shot lead over Ben Curtis with only four to play. Hitting into a fairway bunker on 15, which left him with no choice but to chip out sideways, led to a dropped shot. On the par-3 16th, his tee shot caught a swale on the right of the green which took his ball into a greenside bunker. His next shot ran up the same swale…and came back to him again. Unbelievably, his next shot did exactly the same thing. Given the circumstances, his “sandy” with the next shot was remarkable and a double bogey a good result. Now tied for the lead – and with his meltdown in full swing – he then drove into the rough on 17 and made bogey. Needing a birdie at the home hole to force a playoff with the little-known Curtis, Bjorn again found trouble, and despite scrambling for a par, his championship hopes lay in tatters. Understandably, his bunker blues were the focus of attention in the aftermath, but his bad tempered strike on day one and his poor driving down the final stretch were as much to blame.
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Ed Sneed 1979 Masters, Augusta National Golf Club
After three rounds the surprise leader was the relatively unknown Ed Sneed, who at 12-under-par, led by five strokes from Tom Watson, his nearest challenger. Paired with Craig Stadler in the final round, Sneed started shakily, making the turn in 38, which reduced his lead over Watson by two shots. Steadying himself with a brilliant bunker shot to save par at the famous 12th, Sneed reached the tee of the 16th with a three-stroke advantage. But then he started missing putts. Three stabbing both the 16th and 17th, Sneed then flared his approach to the final green into an unusual lie on the edge of a bunker. After a ruling, which determined that he was permitted to remove a discarded cigarette butt from behind his ball, Sneed knew he had to get up and down for his first Major title and avoid a playoff with Watson and Masters debutant Fuzzy Zoeller. Chipping to six-feet below the hole, Sneed’s putt to win was tentative and he left it hanging on the lip, while his caddie spun away in frustration. His meltdown complete, Sneed would lose the ensuing playoff when Zoeller holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole. “I was bewildered, not bitter or full of self-pitty,” Sneed said afterwards. “I knew in my heart I had outplayed and outsmarted the field, but I didn’t feel very smart at 6 o’clock that Sunday afternoon.”
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HK Golfer・Jun/Jul 2009
David Cannon/Getty Images (Bjorn); Augusta National/Getty Images (Sneed)
Arnold Palmer 1966 US Open, Olympic Club
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Doug Sanders 1970 Open, Old Course, St Andrews
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Scott Hoch 1989 Masters, Augusta National Golf Club
Bob Thomas/Getty Images (Sanders); David Cannon (Hoch)
Appropriately Hoch rhymes with “choke” as the American is best remembered for missing a very short putt to take the Masters in 1989. Hoch and Nick Faldo had finished tied at 5-under, after Faldo produced a brilliant 65 in the final round, including four birdies in the last six holes in driving rain. Hoch had scored an excellent 69, but had faltered on 17, missing a four-foot par putt. Had Hoch not missed his “tap-in” the main story would have been about Ben Crenshaw and Greg Norman, who both bogeyed the last to miss out on a playoff by a shot. The pair then went down the 10th in a sudden-death playoff. When Faldo bogeyed after finding a bunker, Scott had a “gimmie” for the title. Reported as being as short as 18 inches and as long as three feet, it was clearly a very short putt. Just like Doug Sanders at St Andrews, he stood over it for an age before pushing the ball wide. When Faldo holed an improbable 25-footer for birdie at the next hole in appropriately dark and gloomy condtions, “Hoch the Choke” was born. Many meltdownees are treated with sympathy and respect, but Scott Hoch is another matter. At times he appears to be an anti-sociopath, upsetting as many people as possible with his remarks - “Telling it like it is” and Tourettes syndrome are hard to distinguish at times. At other times, there are glimpses of an inferiority complex just beneath the surface. It is telling that Kenny Perry is a close friend, often stepping up to tell the world “Scott is a misunderstood guy.” Perhaps he is, but when someone who was passed over three times for a place in the Ryder Cup while on the bubble then says “the Ryder Cup is the most over-rated thing I know of” it smacks of sour grapes. Notorious for not competing in the Open Championship to play in events like Milwaukee and the Quad Cities, he famously called St Andrews “the biggest piece of mess I’ve ever seen.” In 2006 he confirmed he said this then helpfully added: “I probably believe worse than that.”
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HK Golfer・Jun/Jul 2009
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Kenny Perry 2009 Masters, Augusta National Golf Club
Perry is no stranger to throwing away Majors, having snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the 1996 PGA at Valhalla where he had been leading by two playing the last before butchering the hole and losing to Mark Brooks in the ensuing playoff. Once bitten, twice bitten. In the 2009 Masters Perry looked imperious through the first 16 holes on the final day before the old nerves came back. Leading by two and sitting pretty in the middle of the 17th fairway, he put his shot through the green then sculled his chip back off the front edge, finishing with a bogey. On the last, he inexplicably took driver and hooked predictably into the fairway bunker. After pulling his bunker shot way left of the green, he again overhit his chip, two putted and had once again thrown away a winning lead. No chance to screw up in the commentary box this time as he headed straight back down the 18th for a three man playoff with “Hangin’” Chad Campbell and the now twichy, no longer chain-smoking Angel Cabrera. We all now know how Angel tried to throw it away in the first playoff hole with a dreadful drive into the trees and a slashed second that received some outrageous arborial assistance to get back on the fairway. However, the real culprit was Kenny himself. This time from the middle of the fairway, he again threw it away as the “King of Draw” somehow conjured up a high slice to miss the green right. When the cameras showed good ol’ Kenny clapping as Cabrera sank his putt to keep the playoff going, it was clearly only going one way. With another pressure driven hooked approach to the 10th, the second playoff hole, Perry could only watch as Cabrera showed how to close a Major with a killer second that gave him an easy two-putt for the win.
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Greg Norman 1996 Masters, Augusta National Golf Club
This finally looked like the Masters title that had eluded Norman so often in the past. Opening with a course record 63, he added rounds of 69 and 71 to start the final day at 13 under. Paired with him was rival Nick Faldo, who had slipped to a 73 in the third round to fall six shots behind. The sad tale is well known as Norman had one of his worst days on a golf course, taking five bogeys and two double bogeys en route to a disastrous 78. However, that was still good enough for second place. What made the fall look so dreadful was yet another stunning final round by Faldo in a Masters. He played magnificently, and having caught Norman and the 12th, it then became a procession as Nick fired a stunning 67 to win his sixth and final major by five shots. When the final putt dropped, Faldo hugged Norman and whispered something that both declined to repeat in the immediate aftermath. Eight years later, Faldo disclosed in his autobiography that he had said: “Don't let the bastards get you down over this.” Norman later confirmed and added: “Why didn't I laugh? I wasn't in much of a laughing mood at the time.” HK Golfer・Jun/Jul 2009
Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images (Perry); John Biever/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images (Norman)
It wasn’t that much of a surprise to see Sanders leading the Open Championship with only two holes to play in 1970. He had already won 20 of an eventual haul of 22 professional titles and had shown his liking for links golf at the 1966 Open, where he finished second to Nicklaus by a shot at Muirfield. That same year, he recorded top-10 finishes in all four Majors. The popular American was well known for his colorful outfits and played the final round at a windy St Andrews in an unlikely combo of pink cashmere sweater and mauve pants and shoes. Protecting his one shot lead, he had already got out of jail on the 17th with a fine sand save from the notorious Road Hole bunker. But on the 18th, needing a par to win, he nervously sent his pitch 30 feet past the hole and left his lag putt in an eminently missable position – three feet above the hole with more than a hint of left to right break. The tension was palpable, with playing partner Lee Trevino visibly aghast at the pressure building on Sanders as he stood over the classic “putt to win the Open.” After standing over the putt for an age, Sanders stooped to pick up an imaginary grain of sand off his line. His nerves clearly showing and his concentration broken, he prodded a feeble push of a putt that missed comfortably on the low side. In the following day’s playoff, Sanders, clad in a more subdued yellow and brown clad ensemble, pushed Nicklaus all the way, before the Golden Bear snuck an eight-foot birdie putt at the very last hole to win by the narrowest of margins. Sanders never really recovered and years later remarked about his career: “It’s that putt everyone remembers. What can I say? It’s what I remember most, too.”
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