CHARM has always triumphed over calamity for Jean van de Velde. His infamous Carnoustie capitulation back in 1999 is as much a part of Open history as the Claret Jug and bearded blokes with mashies.

The Frenchman’s farce on the 72nd hole of that mind-mangling denouement, when he took a seven when a six would have won just in case you needed reminding, has defined his career, but he has always dealt with the ghoulish probings with typical, shrugging Gallic nonchalance.

He wasn’t the first and he certainly won’t be the last player to experience the wrath of those golfing gods. There’s probably a little club somewhere where they all meet occasionally and say things like ‘my name is Jean and I made a bit of a hash of it’.

Doug Sanders, the American who famously missed a tiddler on the last green of the 1970 Open at St Andrews, is part of that club but he and van de Velde, who will return to Carnoustie this summer to make his debut in the Senior Open, have different outlooks to their major mishaps.

“From what Doug has said, he does think about it every single day,” said van de Velde. “I can tell you that, in my case, the only time I think about it is when somebody asks me about it.”

That will be quite a lot then. Van de Velde is not one for dwelling on the past, of course. “It took me a few days to find my sleep again after the Sunday at Carnoustie, due to the stress, the adrenaline, the rush, trying to analyse it or whatever. But after that, it has never woken me up in a cold sweat, and has never given me difficulty finding sleep. Ever. However, I know it is part of history. There were quite a viewers that day, 250-300 million, so it would take me a while if I met all them and answered their questions about that day.”

The latest player to go through the golfing wringer is Jordan Spieth after his Masters moment of misfortune which saw his five shot lead with nine holes to play fritter away in agonising style.

The young Texan may have endured a few sleepless nights but van de Velde is adamant the nightmare will swiftly be erased. “He is an extraordinary player who has an extraordinary head on his shoulders,” said van de Velde who will return to Carnoustie this summer to make his debut in the Senior Open over the redoubtable Angus links. “I really am convinced he will get over it extremely quickly and when he does he will become stronger and stronger. What we saw with him we have seen with many other people who have had big leads and lost them. But the fact of the matter is it all happens very, very quickly.

“When you’re watching him at that 12th hole you felt the guy was there forever. Trust me, you can’t believe how fast everything is happening when that guy is you.

 “Everything happens so fast and that’s what the game is all about, it goes on direction and then it very quickly goes the other way.

“On paper what you have done isn’t that dramatic, but it’s human nature. That’s what I love about golf, it slaps you on the finger five minutes after the biggest high you could ever think of. That’s the beauty of the game and why to me it is a reflection of what life is about. What defines you is how you react not just to good things, but to the challenges”

Since that fateful day in 1999, van de Velde has been back to Carnoustie “maybe 15 times” on a variety of excursions including the Dunhill Links Championship and for a a light-hearted commercial in which he played the 18th hole in the dead of winter with just a putter to see if he could beat his ruinous seven. He did manage it at the third attempt.

Having retired from competitive golf about five years ago, van de Velde, who turns 50 on May 29, is relishing the opportunity to re-ignite the fires among the golden oldies. “It took me a while to find my clubs in the cupboard because it’s been a while since I played,” he added with a chuckle.

A health scare, when he feared he had bone cancer, prevented him for playing in the 2007 Open at Carnoustie. Perspective has always been a key club in van de Velde’s bag “It made me realise that, if you don’t have health, you don’t have anything,” he said.

Come July, van de Velde will be a sprightly, if perhaps rusty, golfing 50-year-old. Carnoustie and the senior showpiece will certainly benefit from the presence of this French showman.