Worst Collapse in a Major?

[Wally Fairway]

As an absolute collapse it is clearly Van De Velde, only had 1 hole to play, only one per your chart with more than a 1 stroke per hole lead. Bad bounce doesn't even begin to accurately take into account his poor shot decision and execution, and it could have been even worse had he actually tried to hit it out of the tidal water hazard.
That being said their is also a point to be made that expectations also come into play, VDV had never won a major (nor even been close as far as I know); whereas Spieth and Palmer were multiple major winners at the point of their collapse. That is what makes is more unexpected, especially considering Spieth had just finished the front 9 with a run of 4 straight birdies.

My vote though for top collapse is VDV.

[mchepp]

No question Van De Velde. I mean the guy showed a few years ago that he could make a 6 with a putter. He had one hole to play. Even if we excuse the absolute duck hook he hit off the tee. He could have gone PW, PW and two putted. Why he felt the need to hit a 3 iron and bring further disaster into play is beyond reason. 

Norman's 76 was bad, but in reality Faldo played really awesome that day and even if Norman had shot 73 he still would have lost. It is easy to say that Norman collapsed but Faldo was flawless, not enough credit is given to Faldo. 

[DrvFrShow]

7 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I wanted to vote Van de Velde, but that was a bad shot with a bad bounce off of grandstands. I could have happened to anyone. So I vote for Palmer. He was the favorite and really just played poorly down the stretch for 9 holes. Each one of these also involved someone else playing very well to take the lead.

Yeah, he could have taken a double bogey on the hole and won. Drivers are finicky bastards. He probably should have hit a 2 iron off the tee just to make sure it was in the 18th fairway. Laid up to the berm. Pitched over onto the green and taken his 5.

[Jakester23]

I voted for spieth. I didn't see Arnie, Van DE Velde or Sneed. It doesn't mean they aren't worse I just like witnessing the event. The reason I chose Spieth is how shocking it was. When guys choke who haven't been there before it isn't that surprising to me.  He was the defending champion who has been pretty good at closing thus far.  Not only that his 2nd attempt at 12 was just so bad. It wasn't like he lipped out a few putt or got a bad break it was a flat out chunk.

[bwdial]

Kickin' it old school.  Sam Snead at the 1939 U.S. Open.

Needs a par... thinks he needs a birdie... makes a triple.  Finishes fifth.  Never wins a U.S. Open.  I think that collapse helped to keep him from ever being able to win that coveted title.

Edited April 13, 2016 by bwdial

[Wally Fairway]

Linking this back to my "Lightining in a bottle" thread - I'm going to add Thomas Bjorn was up 3 with 4 to play, he finished bogey, double, bogey, par to lose by 1 to Ben Curtis.
Curtis had built a 2 or 3 shot lead with 6 birdies to get to -5 after 11 holes, only to limp in himself at -1.

Not as memorable as Bjorn has not won a major, but still a pretty collapsie performance

[iacas]

On April 12, 2016 at 0:37 PM, mchepp said:

No question Van De Velde. I mean the guy showed a few years ago that he could make a 6 with a putter. He had one hole to play. Even if we excuse the absolute duck hook he hit off the tee. He could have gone PW, PW and two putted. Why he felt the need to hit a 3 iron and bring further disaster into play is beyond reason.

He didn't hit a duck hook (it was right, IIRC), and the 3I was hit well, it just hit a railing.

From there, he did about as well as he could have been expected to do.

I continue to have the opinion that JVDV didn't collapse, really. He just had rotten luck. There was some collapse in there, but not enough to rob him of the win. If that ball is an inch higher or lower he misses the railing and makes a 5.

[davechen]

Being of Taiwanese descent, I have to give a shout out to TC Chen in the 1985 US Open.  He had a 4 stroke lead until he double chipped on #5 to score a quadruple bogie.

It's not the worst choke, but it sure was memorable.

[Golfingdad]

24 minutes ago, iacas said:

the 3I was hit well, it just hit a railing.

Lol.  Was the railing on the green? ;)

I agree he had some bad luck but that is frequently part of a collapse.

[jsgolfer]

All of these are good ones, but the one that sticks with me is Scott Hoch in 1989 Master's missing the 2 foot putt in sudden death on 10.  He had a 5 stroke lead going into I believe the last 7 holes, Faldo made a charge and tied him when Hoch bogeyed 17 after a horrible drive.

But the 2 foot putt that never even sniffed the hole was an epic collapse.

[Golfingdad]

31 minutes ago, jsgolfer said:

All of these are good ones, but the one that sticks with me is Scott Hoch in 1989 Master's missing the 2 foot putt in sudden death on 10.  He had a 5 stroke lead going into I believe the last 7 holes, Faldo made a charge and tied him when Hoch bogeyed 17 after a horrible drive.

But the 2 foot putt that never even sniffed the hole was an epic collapse.

Had to google this one to be reminded.  The story that I found also included another that I didn't know about and hasn't been mentioned here (probably because of its lack of consequences); Mark Calcavecchia at the 1991 Ryder Cup:

 

Quote

One of the more painful collapses to watch, with the Ryder Cup pressure appearing to almost suffocate Calcavecchia's game.

Known as the "War on the Shore," the 1991 Ryder Cup was intense from the start. The Americans failed to gain the Cup in the three previous competitions, something Team USA wasn't used to (at that time, anyway) and didn't like. A lot of tough rhetoric preceded this Ryder Cup, and tension was heavy throughout.

Calcavecchia's singles match was against Colin Montgomerie, and Calc looked in great shape: he was dormie, 4-up with four to play. A win or even just a halve by Calc on any of the final four holes would win the Cup for America.

You know what happened: Calcavecchia lost all four holes and halved the match.

The stretch included a tee shot on the par-3 17th at The Ocean Course that was very close to a shank, Calcavecchia's ball plopping into the water. That happened after Monty - who was struggling himself - had already put his own tee ball in the water. Amazingly, Calcavecchia reached the 17th green with a chance to halve the hole (and win the Ryder Cup) with a double bogey - but he missed the 2-foot putt.

Thinking he had lost the Ryder Cup for Team USA, Calcavecchia walked away from the 18th green, down onto the beach, sank into the sand and cried.

But he was saved from permanent goat status when Bernhard Langer missed a 6-foot par putt on the final hole of the Cup, halving with Hale Irwin and allowing the U.S. to win back the Cup.

 

On 4/11/2016 at 1:01 PM, Golfingdad said:

Only Scott, Sneed, and Mickelson had an even ratio of shot lead versus holes remaining, and only Van De Velde had a lead greater than his remaining holes ... so despite his excrutiatingly bad luck, I still have to go with him.

Just to add to this previous post, I learned that Palmer in 1966 also was still up 5 with 4 to play, so VDV was not the only one who blew a greater than one shot per hole lead. 

[mchepp]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

He didn't hit a duck hook (it was right, IIRC), and the 3I was hit well, it just hit a railing.

From there, he did about as well as he could have been expected to do.

I continue to have the opinion that JVDV didn't collapse, really. He just had rotten luck. There was some collapse in there, but not enough to rob him of the win. If that ball is an inch higher or lower he misses the railing and makes a 5.

You are right. I watched it again and it was right. He did get awful lucky that it didn't go in the water from the tee though. So you say rotten luck, I say pretty lucky that drive didn't end up in the water. Agree that the railing was bad luck, but I would argue it equaled out from the drive.

But why after hitting the driver wild, then hit the 3 iron at all? I also agree that after that he did about as well has he could. 

[boogielicious]

57 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Lol.  Was the railing on the green? ;)

I agree he had some bad luck but that is frequently part of a collapse.

IIRC, players were aiming to the grandstand side to avoid trouble right. He just drew it too much. How many times have you seen players hit at least the base of the grandstands? Lots. His was a one shot mistake. Others on the poll hand many more mistakes.

4 minutes ago, mchepp said:

You are right. I watched it again and it was right. He did get awful lucky that it didn't go in the water from the tee though. So you say rotten luck, I say pretty lucky that drive didn't end up in the water. Agree that the railing was bad luck, but I would argue it equaled out from the drive.

But why after hitting the driver wild, then hit the 3 iron at all? I also agree that after that he did about as well has he could. 

The second shot was the brain fart.

[nevets88]

Spoiler

I keep reading this as top college for your major. 

 

[iacas]

25 minutes ago, mchepp said:

You are right. I watched it again and it was right. He did get awful lucky that it didn't go in the water from the tee though. So you say rotten luck, I say pretty lucky that drive didn't end up in the water. Agree that the railing was bad luck, but I would argue it equaled out from the drive.

The drive would have been a single stroke penalty if it had gone in. That's not equal IMO.

[Golfingdad]

49 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

The second shot was the brain fart.

And the third was a horrible swing.  Such deceleration.  Even with the bad luck, that was a horrendous collapse.

[boogielicious]

15 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

And the third was a horrible swing.  Such deceleration.  Even with the bad luck, that was a horrendous collapse.

I'm sure he thinks about it everyday.  Merde!

[Chilli Dipper]

14 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

And the third was a horrible swing.  Such deceleration.  Even with the bad luck, that was a horrendous collapse.

Tee shot: Driver was an aggressive club selection, but I can't fault Jean for wanting to stay in his groove, or playing the 72nd hole the same way he'd played the previous 71. I doubt he would have been any better or worse off with a different club in his bag.

Second shot: Again, I understand the logic. The collar of the 17th fairway was at an awkward angle for a layup; Jean could have overshot the fairway into a lie from the rough like he ultimately had for his third shot, or he could have run it into the burn like Padraig Harrington did from that spot several years later. After blocking the tee shot right, he could at least be confident that his miss wouldn't have been to the left and out-of-bounds. Why should he have over complicated things? Surely, hitting the butt end of a gate, ricocheting twenty yards backwards, striking the stone wall of the burn, and bouncing thirty yards further back was not a conceivable outcome to anyone at the time.

Third shot: from that lie, aiming for the pin had three possible outcomes: find the burn, find the bunker, or run through the green and out of bounds. Jean had no chance whatsoever with the shot he took. That was the time to take his medicine, chuck it sideways, and lay three from a better lie and better angle to the hole.