Jean vows to fight his way back

Jean Van de Velde, trousers rolled up, hands on hips, standing in the Barry Burn in front of the 18th green with the controversial 'oh-la-la, give-the-man-a-brandy' commentary of Peter Alliss and no one except Paul Lawrie, his immediate family, his sponsors and a few million Scots caring who came first.

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Water hazard: Jean Van De Velde suffers in 1999

Van de Velde is not playing this week. Instead, he will be dividing his time between hospital and watching the golf on the box.

Sad to report, such has been the debilitating nature of his illness that he underwent a test for bone cancer yesterday. He is due an MRI scan on Thursday as the 156 competitors tee off at the course as synonymous with his name as the late Ben Hogan. There is a Jean Van de Velde Suite in the adjacent hotel.

Glad to report that as he spoke by telephone from his home in Biarritz yesterday, there emerged flashes of the same irrepressible optimism that saw him survive throwing away the Open eight years ago, endure a costly and acrimonious divorce and overcome a crippling knee injury that all but wrecked his career.

"I am a fighter," he said. "This is just a little bit of a hold-back. I still want to compete. I will hopefully be at another championship and maybe another Open. Hopefully, I can be at Birkdale next year."

His first battle will be to overcome a mystery illness which struck at the start of April. "I was extremely sick," he explained. "I was sleeping 15, 16 hours a day. I have been sick for a month, vomiting all the time. It has been getting worse to the point where my muscles are in agony. The pain became too much, so I stopped playing and put everything on hold to do a proper inquiry."

Van de Velde has become no stranger to pain and misfortune.

"The public never realised that out on the course I was torturing myself, punishing myself. They saw me only as easy going," he said.

He laughed in public at the 18thhole antics which cost him golf's greatest title and shed tears in private. He would wake up in the night screaming at his folly yet has always insisted, as he did again yesterday, that it was "only a golf hole, only a golf tournament".

"I have no regrets today," he said of the way he took seven at the 72nd hole when a six would have sealed victory. "I would have played the third shot differently, but Carnoustie brought me such joy and so many memories. I am very sad I'm not going to be there."

Van de Velde insisted he never watches golf on television "but I want to look at it this year and put it behind me".

Not that he is expecting anything remotely approaching full closure merely by sitting in front of a TV screen. The subject will still be brought up and questions asked.

"It happens every day at golf because people remember it and feel like they want to talk about it," he said. "Away from golf, it doesn't happen at all, thank God.

"Of course, you get tired answering the same questions over and over again. I think it is going to be 15 to 20 years before people stop asking me questions. There's probably another 12 to go."

At the other end of a telephone, you could imagine the enchanting smile.