Jean Van De Velde: Cancer scare taught me golf isn't that important

Jul 6 2008 Euan Mclean

LAST chance saloons don't come much more luxurious than Loch Lomond Golf Club but that's the harsh reality for most of the guys heading to Luss with their Open Championship hopes teetering on the brink.

Just one qualifying spot for Royal Birkdale is still up for grabs - and it will go to the highest-placed finisher in the top five at this week's Barclays Scottish Open who hasn't already secured his place in the 156-man field.

Last year it was Gregory Havret who snatched the last Major ticket and there's every chance it will take nothing less than first place again to grab that final invite.

But talk of last chances and brinkmanship raise a rueful smile from one man who knows what it is to really feel like he's running out of hope.

It's 12 months since Jean van de Velde's management announced he would not attempt to qualify for The Open at Carnoustie - the place where he had come so agonisingly close to winning the Claret Jug in 1999.

The initial reaction was that he simply couldn't face being the sideshow at the circus when journalists would inevitably be queueing up to ask him about the moment he blew a three-shot lead on that punishing final hole.

But there quickly emerged a darker reason behind his absence.

It wasn't that the Frenchman was sick of talking about his Carnoustie collapse - instead he was being physically sick every time he ate.

So while Havret and co geared up for their final crack at that ticket to The Open, van de Velde was back in France being ferried from one hospital to another as baffled medics put him through a raft of tests.

And when men in white coats are throwing around words like "leukaemia" among the likely causes for your condition it's fair to say golf becomes the last thing on your mind.

Van de Velde said: "To be honest I didn't care about The Open as I was too busy throwing up every day.

"I was sick as a dog and going for so many tests so the last thing on my mind was golf. The not knowing what was wrong and waiting to hear if I had cancer was the hardest part.

"To look at me you would not have thought I was unwell except that my stomach was so bloated I looked six months pregnant.

"Every time I put something in my stomach it was coming back out within 10 minutes.

"Last year at the Welsh Open I twice had to go into the trees to vomit between holes. I was just exhausted all the time and by the start of July it had become really worrying.

"You always think bad things like this only happen to other people in life. It was a reality check and I was delighted to find out four weeks later that I was cleared of any serious illness.

"It was just a virus I had to give myself time to fight off and it took nearly a year to be free of it.

"People call 1999 at Carnoustie a disaster but that is ridiculous - fears about your health put everything else in perspective. A disastrous moment iswhen you are on your feet one day and the next you don't get up. I have seen many examples myself.

"It happened to a friend not so long ago and it's unfortunate that everybody will lose friends and those close to you at some time. "So Carnoustie was no disaster.

At the end of the day no one got hurt, I got through it okay and the experience even opened up a lot of opportunities for me.

"Fine, I don't have my name on the trophy but what can you do?"

For Van de Velde just to be fully fit and competing again is a blessing but he admits he'd still love to make it into that field for The Open when the action tees off at Birkdale a week on Thursday.

Having snubbed the International Qualifying event at Sunningdale last week because he objected to it being played less than 24 hours after the French Open, Jean will now head to Loch Lomond with the rest of the last chancers.

And with defending champion Havret and Thomas Levet recent winners of the tournament, van de Velde hopes the Barclays Scottish Open can conjure another French success in the shape of himself.

The 42-year-old said: "Playing in The Open is always something you want to do so of course it is a priority to get back there.

"However I wasn't going to break myself to do it. I refused to go to International Qualifying because that date is objectionable to me.

"It's the day after the French Open which is a tournament known for not finishing early.

"So how do you manage to get back across the channel to England in time to tee up at 6.30 the next morning at Sunningdale? We play often enough in Britain around this time of year so why not hold the qualifying then? I'mnot going to run around then try to play 36 holes on the Monday.

"We should consider changing the date to another Monday after a British-based tournament.

"The door is still open for me to qualify though. I have done it before and will hopefully do it again this year for Birkdale - but if not then I won't cry about it.

"I am just happy I am capable of playing golf again and feeling well.

"Golf is my passion and my job but at the end of the day golf is not what makes me.

"I am a different person from the one you see inside the ropes.

"For some people golf is everything but for me the sport has been fun and the moment I don't feel like it any more I will stop.

"That's always the way I have seen the game and it will never change."