Atwal vs. Van de Velde

Here's something to ponder ...

     At Sunday's final round of the Wyndham Resorts Championship, India's Arjun Atwal (a Monday qualifier!) faced a difficult approach to 18 while holding a one-stroke lead. He had a slightly downhill lie in the left rough, some 189 yards from the pin. What's the right play? At golf.com, Mitchell Spearman, a "Golf Magazine Top 100 Instructor," describes Atwal's thought process and subsequent shot selection:

A 5-iron was plenty of club to reach the flag, but Arjun knew that if he mishit the shot even a little, the ball would likely wobble into one of the gaping front greenside bunkers and he'd have a 30-yard sand shot. Instead, Arjun hit his rescue club, knowing the ball would fly past the green and settle near a grandstand surrounding the green on all sides. Arjun knew that no matter where the ball landed, he'd almost surely get a free drop by the green, and that would leave him a chance to make a simple chip and putt for par and the victory.

Atwal then did "exactly that," made par and won the tournament. Spearman called it "one of the savviest and best decisions of the year by any player." (Image: Atwal hits his approach at 18. Hunter Martin/Getty Images, via golf.com.)

     I say, "great!" Congratulations to Atwal on some savvy course management and stellar play. But I couldn't help but be reminded of a similar situation faced by one Jean Van de Valde 11 years ago at the British Open.

     You probably know the story; it's one of the most famous "bone-headed" plays in golf history. Standing on the 18th tee at Carnoustie on Sunday with a 3-stroke lead, Van de Velde pulled a driver – a club he'd been hitting fabulously all week – at the long par-4 and hit it way right. Fortunately for him, the ball was so far off-line he ended up with a good lie in the next fairway – but was still a long way from the green. What's the right play?

     (A thought on the driver selection: A lot of commentators lambasted Van de Velde, especially in hindsight, for not hitting something "safer" off the tee. But in a pressure situation like that, a strong argument can be made for sticking with what's been working (dance with the girl who brung you, you might say). If he had pulled a fairway wood or long iron, and sprayed it into the burn, he probably would have been criticized for that!)

     People seem willing to "forgive" him hitting the driver, but the second shot is where most consider the bone-headedness to have begun in earnest. Rather than take a short or mid-iron and lay up in the fairway short of the green – for a wedge, two putts, and victory – Van de Velde pulled a two-iron and went for it.

     Stupid, people said and still say. But I'm not so sure. What gets overlooked is that Van de Velde was in a very similar situation to Atwal – with two extra strokes to spare. Van de Velde felt confident he would get the ball to the green. And he knew (this is key) that if he sprayed the ball left or right, it would go in the grandstands and he would get a free drop near the green. Chip, two (or even three) putts, and victory.

     Sure enough, the ball flew far and to the right, into the grandstands. That's when Van de Velde got perhaps the worst break in major championship history. Instead of hitting a fan or a seat and settling down safely among the people, the ball hit a round railing absolutely square (can you hit a round railing "squarely?") and took a huge bounce straight backwards. The ball flew so far back it hit the rocks lining the burn in front of the green, and took another big bounce, over the burn into the rough. (The way things played out from there, he would, in fact, have been better off if it had actually gone in the water at that point.)

     This is where Van de Valde played the one shot he says he regrets. Rather than chip out sideways into the fairway, our French hero went for the green again, and chunked it into the burn from the gnarly rough. After wading into the water and briefly considering playing the ball from there (it was only half submerged at the time), he instead took a drop, hit his fifth shot into a greenside bunker, blasted out, and sunk a seven-footer for a triple-bogey 7 to sneak into a playoff – which he lost handily. (Image: Van de Velde wades into the Barry Burn – and poses for pictures!? David Cannon/Getty Images, via pga.com)

My point is simply that I think Van de Velde gets too harshly criticized. His first two shots are completely defensible. In fact, I'd go so far as to say his 2-iron second shot was a smart play, just as Atwal's was.

     Needless to say I'm in a small minority with this opinion, but I take great comfort in discovering that noted Sports Illustrated golf writer Michael Bamberger is on the same page. In his book "This Golfing Life" (primarily a collection of magazine articles), he writes:

[Jim] Nantz asks Van de Velde if he had seen Tin Cup, the movie in which Kevin Costner plays Roy McAvoy, a journeyman pro who dunks one ball after another in the water on the last hole of the U.S. Open, blowing his chance for victory by prizing pride over prudence. Van de Velde had seen it. ... He said you could not compare Roy McAvoy to him. "He went for the dream, the perfect shot," Van de Velde said. "I was just playing my game." I understood completely what he was saying. I know nobody who agrees with this, except for Van de Velde, but he did not misplay a single shot en route to his seven on the last hole of the British Open at Carnoustie, not mentally. When things go wrong mechanically, what can you do? But if a person is trying his best, there's not much to criticize, although Lord knows people make a nice living doing so anyhow.

Later, Bamberger describes Van de Velde's 18th-hole decision-making this way:

Van de Velde hit a driver off the tee because, as he told me, "I always hit a driver, whenever I can." Many have been critical of that decision. They don't recall that when Tom Kite came to the final hole of the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with a two-shot lead, he hit a downwind driver, despite the ocean that lines the left side of the hole and the out-of-bounds on the right. He won with a par.
     There was nothing wrong with the tee shot, even though Van de Velde pushed it wildly to the right. It carried the burn and finished in the rough, where he drew a perfect lie. The golfing gods had been smiling on him all week, and they continued to. For his second shot, he had 189 yards to clear the burn in front of the green. "I am a professional golfer. I miss my two-iron, it still goes 200 yards." Easily. He pulled his two-iron from the bag and pushed the shot. He carried the burn, easily. The ball was sailing into the grandstand. No big deal, he thought, that's a free drop.
     And that's when the golf gods stopped smiling on him.

I agree, Michael! And something tells me that perhaps Arjun Atwal would, as well.