Royal and Ancient: Blood, Sweat, and Fear at the British Open (Hardcover)

by Curt Sampson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
No one who saw it will likely forget French golfer Jean Van de Velde's catastrophe at Carnoustie on the 72nd hole of the 1999 British Open. "Such theater!" writes Ben Hogan biographer Curt Sampson in Royal and Ancient, his stunning chronicle of the event. "Character is destiny, the ancient Greeks believed. And to many people--at Carnoustie and elsewhere, then and now--Van de Velde's unfolding disaster looked like an unmistakable expression of French style: cavalier, ironic, and more concerned with style than substance. He seemed to be treating the beloved Jug like a chamber pot." In one golf hole, what had been a tour de force devolved into a tour de farce. What writer could ask for more?

Not Sampson, who deftly uses Carnoustie as a prism to refract the history of golf's most storied tournament. Weaving back and forth through time, Royal and Ancient links the 1999 champion--playoff winner Paul Lawrie--to champions past, from the first--Willie Park in 1860--to Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and to those such as Ben Hogan, Gary Player, and Tom Watson who've conquered the wind-wracked Carnoustie track before him. In his detailed recounting of '99 affair, Sampson certainly reports on the shots, but goes well beyond them into the minds of such competitors as veteran Steve Elkington; Zane Scotland, the youngest qualifier ever; and even John Philp, Carnoustie's proud, beleaguered superintendent, who constantly battled the elements and carping of the players and the press. Fittingly, the last word goes to Van de Velde, a fine golfer who chose the one moment the world was watching to come utterly undone. "It took a lot of bad luck for me to lose," he tells Sampson months after the tournament. "When I think about it now, I'm a little nostalgic.... It's not like I burn emotionally... but... I left more over there than I expected." Sampson brings it, and a good deal more, back for us. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly
The saving grace of this disappointing work comes near the end, when Sampson finally gets around to describing the last round of the British Open held at Scotland's Carnoustie links course in 1999. In one of the most stunning collapses in a major golf tournament, the unknown Frenchman Jean Van de Velde squandered a three-stoke lead on the last hole, forcing a playoff with Paul Lawrie and Justine Leonard, which Lawrie ultimately won. Van de Velde didn't merely lose the three-stroke lead, he blew itAblasting an ill-advised drive into an adjourning fairway, hitting a second shot that bounced off the bleachers into Carnoustie's impossibly long rough and then bopping a third shot directly in the burn guarding the green. Van de Velde's play on the 72nd hole at the Open will undoubtedly be one of the most analyzed in golf history, and Sampson gives an insightful and humorous account. Unfortunately, the balance of the book is a jumbled story of past British Opens and the men who competed in them. Sampson (The Masters) seems to have run into bad luck when his original plan of incorporating the rounds of Steve Elkington, Andrew Magee and Clark Dennis into the fabric of the 1999 Open fell apart when Dennis failed to qualify for the event and both Magee and Elkington missed the cut. In scrambling to fill the void, the wit and flair Sampson brings to bear at the end of the story are largely missing from the rest of the book.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1st edition (May 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375502785
• ISBN-13: 978-0375502781
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #332,279 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sampson's Best, July 11, 2000

By	John Strawn "jstrawn1" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

Only the very best writers can sustain drama when they're recounting events whose outcome is already well-known--and who isn't aware of Jean Van de Veld's slow-motion deflation on the final hole at the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie, the culminating event in Curt Sampson's splendid new book, Royal and Ancient? Sampson's a wonderful phrase-maker-writing of Tiger's "adhesive gallery" is a good example-with an ample feeling for the game and the people who make it interesting, from the tournament players at the forefront to the deeply sequestered greenkeepers, such as Carnoustie's John Philp, who tried to defend the old links against the assaults of a generation of golf pros who regard birdies as a birthright. Sampson's written other good books, but this one is superb.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another wonderful book on one of the Majors, June 13, 2000

By A Customer

Curt Sampson has been my favorite golf writer for several years now, ever since Hogan, which was just about the best golf biography I've ever read. His next book, The Masters, was excellent too. This one is great--plenty of fascinating history of the most prestigious golf tournament ever, plus an account of last year's unbelievable Open, which may have been the toughest major ever played, with probably the most fantastic finish ever. Must reading for any golfer.

4.0 out of 5 stars Grandeur And Goofiness In The Kingdom Of Golf, June 9, 2006

By	Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Did Curt Sampson come to Carnoustie, Scotland in 1999 expecting to turn the British Open upside-down like he did Augusta National in "The Masters?" If so, he was beaten to the punch by a genial Frenchman named Jean Van de Velde who gave golf's signature event its wackiest finish ever.

I didn't like "The Masters" much; its agenda was a little harsh. But "Royal And Ancient" sees Sampson approach his topic with more respect, and get better results. He takes in the history of the Open, champions from Old Tom Morris to young Tom Watson, the sound of Carnoustie's winds whipping through the media tents and the dry fescue, and the separate pilgrimages three American golfers take for the big event.

"Royal And Ancient" is scattershot in many ways; none of the three golfers Sampson spotlights make the cut. He spends a good deal of time honing his Dan Jenkins aspirations, detailing the misadventures of a tour hanger-on who doesn't merit the print. Sampson wrote a famous bio on Ben Hogan, and there are times Sampson seems in danger of writing another here.

But after a slow beginning Sampson puts you right at the center of things, analyzes expectations against results and giving a thorough sense of what a British Open entails by using this particular year's edition as a case study. He rambles some, but he tells some fun stories and quotes some interesting people.

The big controversy at Carnoustie most of the week was the condition of the course, with the rough grown so high players could not try to advance the ball if it went off the fairway. A writer likens it to asking basketball players to play with a medicine ball. Meanwhile, course superintendent John Philp argues the game is supposed to be a test of skill and not a birdie racket.

"Carnoustie in 1999 looked like it had been working out," Sampson opines. "And had joined a motorcycle gang."

A tough layout made for a strange leaderboard, topped much of the time by Van de Velde, a Frenchman who at the last hole in regulation demonstrated the Frenchness of the words "elan" and "folly." Sampson does a great job describing the scene, Van de Velde going for the green with a three-stroke lead rather than sensibly lay up. The result was one of those bizarre moments that make sports fans out of casual bystanders, and a Scot named Paul Lawrie who made the local fans very happy.

"Except for the heroic Nicklaus versus Watson duel at Turnberry in 1977, no Open finish in the TV age could compare. But there is romance in tragedy, and tragedy in romance, and the travails of the doomed, flawed hero affect us more deeply than someone's big win," Sampson writes.

Maybe, but Sampson finds Van de Velde months after defying expectations he would shrivel up like a raisin from his shame. Instead, he kept his head high, determined to enjoy what he can from life.

Still, it was a lot easier to enjoy the 1999 British Open if you weren't Van de Velde, and easier still enjoying it with the help of Sampson's clever, comprehensive book.