|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 16, 2007Jean Van De VeldeCARNOUSTIE, SCOTLAND Q. Obviously a lot of people in the room have not been as close to you over the last couple of months as some of us in Europe have. Perhaps you could bring us up-to-date with how your health is at the moment? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Well, my health is going through a lot of exams. I'm feeling I've been pretty tired. I've been diagnosed with what they call -- might be glandular fever, I don't know. So that explains why I'm so tired and sometimes where I have inflammation in some of the parts. I've had exams to check what's happening in the stomach and a biopsy to see whether the inflammation -- it's not linked to glandular fever, to what I've been having the last two and a half, three months. I've been through quite a few tests, which made me decide to stop playing, because the physical pain was too much. Even when I was playing okay, it was worse coupled with that pain and playing like that. Therefore I decided to stop. But I was in the hospital this morning and going back there this morning to do MRIs to some parts on the body, on the lower part, and hopefully I'm waiting for the biopsy, for the return of those exams and we'll see. I think over the next ten days we'll know exactly what's happening. Q. Until then you're making no plans for when you might come back to the Tour? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Well, until them I'm absolutely not. If we don't know what is going on there's no way we can do any proactive curing. If it's to wake up and I go on, fine. If I wake up the following day and feel sick, like I've been feeling so many times during the round or other, then what's the point to that? I've had enough pain and experiences with my knee over the last four years that I know that there's no use doing that. I will come back when I feel that I can compete again without thinking about what's going to happen, what's going to happen with my stomach and with the vomiting and with the pain that I experience in the joint and the shoulder or the few other things that I have. Q. Just a recap for people, when you started feeling ill? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: It was exactly after the two tournaments in Portugal. After defending, I came back home and I was extremely sick. I couldn't eat. Everything that I was putting in my stomach was coming back out. I was sleeping 15, 16 hours a day. And then after that, you know, I never recuperated. I've been sick for about a month, vomiting all the time. And I would say it might be food infection or so many things that have been keeping on troubling and keeping on playing and it's been getting worse and worse to a point where the muscles are in agony. So that it was time to do the proper inquiry and put everything on hold. Q. We're all now gathered at Carnoustie. You won't be here, what plans do have for the week? You were asked to commentate on television? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Yes, I had a few options there. I'm starting Thursday morning. I will sit in front of the TV and watch. I never watch golf TV. I've said that before in the past. I don't look at golf on TV. But this one I'm going to definitely look at. I'm very sad I'm not there. I'm very sad I'm not competing, but I want to look at it and put it behind. Q. I don't know whether you were aware, but there was talk or questions were asked about whether a wild card could be issued. Would you have been able to play if they had decided to do that? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: I'm pretty sure that I would have honored the invite, because of all the memories that it brings back and everything. But saying that, would I have been able to compete? I would say that 99 percent the answer would be no. But as a sportsman, going there just for the sake of going there, I have respect for the place and the tournament as well, and for all people that are going to be there and, yes, I would have liked to have come. Q. We're eight years on from '99, perhaps you can start reliving that week. It started for the qualifying for you? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Of course it started with qualifying. It's The Open Championship, you can qualify, now, of course, there's International qualifying, but you had to go through the original one, whatever the name. And I went on with that qualifying and went on to play Carnoustie. Q. For 71 holes, of course, it was a dream. JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Of course the 72nd was not the one that I was hoping for, but it could have happened the first hole of the first day or the 5th or the 7th or the 9th, or the 12th or the third day. It Carnoustie was important, and it was a great test, a very difficult test. And we knew sooner or later we were going to run into a wall. Unfortunately it happened on the 72nd. Q. At the time you had no regrets about how you played the 72nd hole, is that the same? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: I have no regrets today. I've said it before and I've said it many times. It's one shot I will play again. It was playing into the breeze. It was slightly starting to rain. I would have played the 3rd hole differently. We can go back that route and talk about it again and again and again. But, that would be the shot I would replay. Q. I've just been told this morning that the rebuilding of the grandstand, the rebound you had is virtually impossible at this time? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: You know, people said we learn from expenses, that's life. But it will be slightly different for the next player to play that shot. Q. Everybody marveled at the time at how well you took that crush defeat. Talk about the reaction you had afterwards, both back at home and around the world as you traveled about. JEAN VAN DE VELDE: It was a great reaction. I'm pretty sure it was a mixed reaction. But luckily enough there were enough people who told me negatives and there were more that told me positives. To me the biggest thing was I felt from a country that 30 years ago when I started golf I was the only young guy who was under 18 to play into the golf course that I was, into my own course, the only under 18. So therefore, you know, you have The Open Championship in '99 and I was born in Mont de Marsan, they love golf, and normally the children in the school that they have on Wednesday, they have about 15 kids, 20 kids, the Wednesday at the restart of the school, which is in September, 120 kids showed up. 120. So we went from 15 to 120. And they all wanted to try to play golf because of what happened to me and because of their school. To me that's a big thing. If you can inspire people and more people should get inspired to play the game and attract them and this is what it's about. This is promoting the game and having the kids following up behind you is for me what the sport is about. Q. How are feeling? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: I'm doing okay. Q. Jean, we'd like to know what is it exactly that helped you keep such a great sense of perspective over things such as this? We all expected you to be absolutely devastated to not be here this week? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: I am. I am very sad that I'm not there this week. But you know what, you should have all been with me from 8:00 this morning until midday when I left the hospital. And I can promise you I will watch it on TV. What right do I have to be complaining? Carnoustie, it's great, but I would like the most to be there, but there's going to be another one next week and next year, and another one next year. I know inside me that I will hopefully be able to be at another championship and maybe another Open Championship. I don't feel like I have the right to be complaining too much. Q. I think I asked you the question once before, about Doug Sanders who was always saying he could go ten minutes without thinking about what happened to him in The Open. But you've always been able to accept bigger things in life, haven't you? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: I guess it's a difference of personality, you know. I met him a few times and he's a wonderful man, and maybe it's helping him. To some people it means everything, to other folks it's a fantastic way to express themselves and a fantastic way to make a living, because let's not forget, golf is my passion, from the beginning. When I started golf when I was 7 it was my passion. When I was 16, 14, 12, it was my passion. I was one of the fortunate ones who has been able to make a living out of it and to be able to make some kind of a career. I've played Ryder Cup, I played in every single competition you can imagine. So therefore, you know, I'm very, very fortunate. And at the same time it's not all my life. It's not what makes Jean Van de Velde. It's part of me, but not me. Q. One other thing before I pass it on, I was asked to ask you as well whether you had a little smile when I saw your compatriot benefit from another player making a mess at the Open. When Gregory Havret won the Scottish Open. JEAN VAN DE VELDE: He's a fantastic challenge. I think people should remember that his first win was the Italian Open. And after that -- he's a very hard working person. He's a wonderful character. And he's got an amazing talent. So sometime you're going to make the mistake and people are going to benefit from it. He played fantastic the week before, and I think what gave him a big boost was -- credit to him, and I'm pretty sure he's going to do great. Q. Hopefully you will get over the current problem as you have the knee problem, if we get our wish and you get your wish. What has golf still got to offer Jean Van de Velde and what has Jean Van de Velde still got to offer to golf? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: All I can tell you is that I am 41 years of age and I still feel, despite my health, which I'm pretty sure I'm going to find an issue to it and a way out, I still want to play golf. And I still want to compete. So right now it's just a little bit of a holdback. But I still want to be able to play whatever tournament I want whenever I compete again. So it's up to me to put it together and to do what I need to do. I do hope that people who are coming still can enjoy watching me play golf, and really that's what golf is to me, to see in other people's eyes that that's what they enjoy what they watch and what they see. And that's what is important. Q. You said earlier you had a few offers to come here this week. Can you explain why you decided not to come to Carnoustie this week and stay in France? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Yes, just to give you an idea, I went into an exam today where they inject you and after they inject you they look in big machinery to see if you have any structural problem with your bone, basically if you have any bone cancer. I'm undergoing on Thursday another procedure with another big machinery, so what I want to do is I want to find out what happened to me and what can be done and needs to be addressed. I don't want to waste any time. I want to get back in shape and I want to play golf. So if I went, I would have wasted an extra week or more. To be really honest, I think my health is more important than playing in a golf tournament. Q. You would have come as a spectator if you had been fit enough? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: I would have probably come as doing probably a few things with TV and other medias. But I never -- I never -- my intention was not to come and spectate but to come as a participating media worker, but come as a player. That was up until basically last week, where I had to come up to the fact that that wasn't going to happen. Q. My question goes back to '99. I'm curious how often you do have to deal with questions, whether you meet strangers or friends, even, people who ask you about what happened on the 72nd hole. Does it happen every day? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: It happens every day because a lot of people remember it and feel like they want to talk about it. But sometimes it doesn't happen at all, thank God, you know. It's only a golf hole. It's only a golf tournament. And we spoke about it in length, to be honest. I think we've explored every single lead we can explore, and it actually is something that belongs to the past, and not to the present or the future. Q. Do you ever get tired of answering the question or do you always greet it with a smile? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Well, listen, to be really honest, of course you get tired, especially when you have to answer the same question over and over. But, no, I think it's fine. I think it's going to last at least a good 15 to 20 years before people stop asking me questions. There's probably another 12 to go. Q. When did you last talk to Christophe Angiolini, your caddie, and have you had much contact with him since '99? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: He came back on the Tour and is still working. I saw him exactly two weeks ago. I'm friends with Christophe. Q. Have you talked about that much recently? JEAN VAN DE VELDE: We shared the experience together and we spoke about it actually after and we spoke about it quite a few times. But you put it back, it's not -- the people talk to me about it, other people that don't see me. I see him pretty much every week. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|