Now the dust has truly settled on the open, Jean Van De Velde has chucked his two euros in about the differences between this years event and his fateful tournament of 1999. ” I'm Jean Van de Velde, and I can't believe my eyes. The soggy final round of the 2007 Open Championship is on TV, and the cameras are showing Carnoustie's 18th hole from every angle. Or at least they say it's the 18th hole. Where's the boomerang board that smacks two-iron approaches backward across the Barry Burn? Where's the knee-high rough that swallows golf balls without even a hint of a burp? Where are the swarms of African tsetse flies and the blinding smoke from brush fires set by the R&A? When I famously blew my three-stroke lead on the 72nd hole of the 1999 Open, the 18th was so tough that you needed a team of Navy SEALs to get across the Burn. Paul Lawrie, who beat me and Justin Leonard in a four-hole playoff, celebrated by getting a tattoo: I BIRDIED THE LAST AT CARNOUSTIE. And it wasn't only the 18th hole. The fairways at the '99 Open were 12 yards across at their widest point, the greens were overseeded with ornamental cactus, and the par-3s had pot bunkers--between the tee markers! Only one guy equaled par in the first round, and that guy, Rod Pampling, shot 86 on Friday and missed the cut by three strokes. The headline writers dubbed it carnasty, and it was. When I jammed home my clutch putt for a triple-bogey 7 to gain the playoff, I joined Paul and Justin at six-over-par 290. It was the highest winning score in an Open since 1946, when Sam Snead won with the same number at St. Andrews…..” For more on this story click here…