When it was his turn to call the action in the ABC Sports booth, Mike Tirico tried to set up the coronation at Carnoustie.
“This,” he intoned, “will rank right up there, all time, as one of the biggest shocks ever ...”
And then Jean Van de Velde arrived on the 18th tee.
What happened next remains the subject of endless fascination, even now, 19 years later, as the unheralded Frenchman starred in some of the most bizarre, farcical and unlucky moments in major championship history, a remarkable 22-minute stretch that has come to define Van de Velde’s career, though apparently not the man himself.