Which golfer won the Open Championship after Jean van de Velde blew a three-shot lead on the final hole?

Paul Stewart Lawrie (born 1 January 1969) is a Scottish professional golfer who is best known for winning The Open Championship in 1999. He was a vice-captain for the European Ryder Cup team in 2016.

Lawrie's career was transformed in 1999. After winning the Qatar Masters, which is a European Tour event, early in the season, he went on to win the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie in July. This was the Open where the Frenchman Jean van de Velde blew a three-shot lead on the final hole. Lawrie won a four-hole playoff against Van de Velde and American Justin Leonard. An unusual aspect of Lawrie's victory was that he was neither leader nor co-leader at any time during his regulation 72 holes, only moving into a share of the lead when the leaders came back to him after he had completed his final round. Also, Lawrie came back from the largest third-round deficit ever faced by a major championship winner; going into the final day, he trailed the leader, Van de Velde, by 10 shots. This is also the record for the biggest final-round comeback on the PGA Tour.

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16 Comments

lls

...thx, Dad! :)

Richard D. Boyle

Might have helped to know which Open and what year although that was a pretty unique end to any Open.

Albeck1994

Skip Hayden, the open is British, if in US it's the US Open etc

Albeck1994

aaustin, actually no I remembered it because it was so bizarre

Albeck1994

David Roy, I remember that moment, not a big golf fan, but Rather in Law had it on, it was the most unbelievable thing I'd seen in the professional game, didn't the commentator question his thought process as to why he didn't just take a Mulligan

Albeck1994

lawton walter j, The Open as it is known doesn't have a denoting country, if it's the one held in UK.

Albeck1994

H S Hotchkiss, actually no it's not, it just called The Open Championship, as opposed to The US Open etc2

Chris Braid

Don't watch golf, aaustin, but clearly remember this event being reported!

Skip Hayden

Should define which Open - British, UU, ...

David Roy

I remember it well. Van de Velde shanked right, shot the ball out of bounds then put the ball into the water and took off his shoes and socks as though he was going to play out from under the lake! After blowing his apparently unassailable lead at the final hole, (he could easily have laid up and won comfortably) when asked why he had played the way he did, he said: "because I'm French".