10 Greatest sporting chokes of all time (Part- 2)

4. Jean van der Velde, 1999 British Open Championship- When a nobody was on the cusp of glory

Van der Velde was never Major winning material. A journeyman on the golfing circuit, van der Velde, out of nowhere was having one of the best golfing weekends of his lifetime. At the top of the leaderboard, as he strolled to the final hole, all he required was a double-bogey or better to hold the claret jug and to become the focal point of all the sporting headlines.

Then Van de Velde compounded bad shots with bad decisions and the rest, as they say, is history. Along the way to a triple-bogey, Van de Velde found the rough, the sand, the water and even the grandstands. Following a mediocre drive that rolled into the rough, the smart decision would have been to lay up in front of Barry Burn, which crossed in front of the green.

Instead, Van de Velde went for the green and found the groundstands. The ball caromed off the grandstands, bounded onto rocks along the edge of Barry Burn, and bounced into thick rough short of the water hazard. Van de Velde tried to hack the ball out of the rough and over the burn to the green, but the ball plopped down into the burn. Then came the enduring image of this meltdown: Van de Velde, shoes off, climbing down into the flowing water of the burn, considering trying to hit the ball out.

He ultimately lost the duel to Paul Lawrie in playoffs to completely one of the famous meltdown in sports. van der Velde did made the headlines, but sadly for all the wrong reasons.