One hole left. Three shots clear. A double bogey would win him The Open.

Instead, Jean van de Velde ended up standing in the Barry Burn with his trousers rolled up. It's one of golf's most famous images. But it's only part of the story.

Carnoustie in 1999 was brutal. Major champions were missing the cut, Greg Norman managed an air shot, and the world's best golfers were being told by the greenkeeper that they simply weren't good enough.

Yet a French qualifier, ranked 152nd in the world, somehow found himself five shots clear heading into Sunday.

Rhys and Alex revisit the extraordinary championship, the decisions, the ricochets and the recoveries that turned a certain victory into one of golf's greatest disasters.

Was Van de Velde reckless, horribly unlucky, or a bit of both?

And why does everyone remember the man who lost, rather than Paul Lawrie, who started the final round ten shots behind and actually won the thing?

Reading The Break. Serious golf. Unserious tone.

Usually we tell golf’s stories. This time, we’re telling ours.

We’re Rhys Prytherch and Alex York. In this episode, we talk about our golf backgrounds, how a conversation in the pub turned into Reading The Break, and why we started a golf history podcast.

Playing golf apparently wasn’t enough. We had to get microphones involved as well.

Reading The Break. Serious golf. Unserious tone.

#ReadingTheBreak #GolfPodcast #GolfHistory

A 20-year-old amateur. A 10-year-old caddie. And the two best golfers in the world.

In 1913, Francis Ouimet walked into the U.S. Open at Brookline as a local sporting-goods clerk and produced one of the most ridiculous upsets golf has ever seen.

But the bit people remember is only half the story.

New Reading The Break episode out now.

#GolfHistory #USOpen #FrancisOuimet #GolfPodcast #ReadingTheBreak