Great chokes of all time

NZ losing the America's cup after being 8-1 up

Jana Novotna crying on the shoulder of royalty after losing the unloseable at Wimbledon

Jean Van de Velde removing his socks for a paddle as he threw away a 3 shot lead at the final hole of the Open...

Donald and Klusener with one needed to win off 3 or was it 4 balls in the CWC semi.

Keegan's Newcastle blowing a 15-point lead to Man Utd - "I would love it, just love it" etc...

Bruce Reid conceding 18 runs off Allan Lamb in the last over to lose the world series

Greg Norman at the Masters.

Charles Saatchi @ Scott's (restaurant)

Big Dog wrote:Greg Norman at the Masters.

This will always rank as sport's greatest choke to me. 7 shots up then lose by 6. Heartbreaking to most Aussies.

skully wrote:

Big Dog wrote:Greg Norman at the Masters.

This will always rank as sport's greatest choke to me. 7 shots up then lose by 6. Heartbreaking to most Aussies.

 
aye...was living in Chip Central at the time and watched the CHOKE with my then partner...she had no interest in golf but was rivetted watching the CHOKE...afterwards she described it as a Shakespearian experience

Code:

PeterCS wrote:Charles Saatchi @ Scott's (restaurant)

Now thats just nasty.  

horace wrote:

skully wrote:

Big Dog wrote:Greg Norman at the Masters.

This will always rank as sport's greatest choke to me. 7 shots up then lose by 6. Heartbreaking to most Aussies.

 
aye...was living in Chip Central at the time and watched the CHOKE with my then partner...she had no interest in golf but was rivetted watching the CHOKE...afterwards she described it as a Shakespearian experience

My old man never forgave Norman. The Shark was one of my Dad's great heroes, along with Tugga, TGM, tgm, Dougie, Ken Thornett, Gunsynd & Northerly. I think his heart still ached over that Norman choke when he died in 2007.

aye ...it was the worst I have ever seen...2nd worst was the nutty professor losing the unlosable election against keating in the 90s

Van der Velde was pretty funny though.

Possibly the stoopidest hole of golf in history.

I tend to mark Van de Velde down (or should that be up?) in the choking stakes, because he held his nerve enough to make the playoff.

Van de Velde had played the hole so poorly he found himself in the bunker needing an up and down to make the play-off. But he played a lovely bunker shot then nailed the five-footer to stay alive.

Jana Novotna in the same situaton would have taken two to get out of the bunker and three putted, such was the state of her nerves in that match against Graf.

skully wrote:

Big Dog wrote:Greg Norman at the Masters.

This will always rank as sport's greatest choke to me. 7 shots up then lose by 6. Heartbreaking to most Aussies.

To be fair to the Shark, he was only up by 6 and lost by 5!

Norman's collapse that day is an interesting study, because it wasn't your traditional "I'm playing really well - Oh shit! I'm a chance of winning this" loss of nerve (which Norman had displayed in the past).

This one was more like "I'm playing crap - Oh shit! What if I keep playing crap? Christ! I'm a chance of losing this."

You could tell Norman was off his game from the start, which can happen so easily in golf, but he held his nerve early on and scrambled enough to keep his round on track. But as his lead started to slip away and Faldo continued to turn up the heat, well, that's when Norman panicked.

Either way, it was the most painful experience of my sports watching life. If there's one sporting event I'd like to change the result of it'd be this one. Not Edgbaston '05 or Adelaide '93 or Parramatta's 1998 Preliminary Final loss (surely one of the great chokes of all time). They were bad. But Norman's loss that day was just devastating.

Would go with Medinah and Brookline or Norman. A string of players relinquishing a near impregnable lead. THe opposition was great, but they really shouldn't have lost.

IIRC, think Van de Velde lost a playoff in the French Open some time in the mid noughties after finding the water on the final hole of the round.

Hass wrote:I tend to mark Van de Velde down (or should that be up?) in the choking stakes, because he held his nerve enough to make the playoff.

Van de Velde had played the hole so poorly he found himself in the bunker needing an up and down to make the play-off. But he played a lovely bunker shot then nailed the five-footer to stay alive.

Jana Novotna in the same situaton would have taken two to get out of the bunker and three putted, such was the state of her nerves in that match against Graf.

Meh - he choked enough to be in the bunker for 5.

Ironically, Van de Velde has a more prominent place in the history books due to the fact he lost.

If he'd won the Open that day he'd just have been another one major wonder. I mean, how often do you hear the name Todd Hamilton these days?

Hass wrote:Ironically, Van de Velde has a more prominent place in the history books due to the fact he lost.

If he'd won the Open that day he'd just have been another one major wonder. I mean, how often do you hear the name Todd Hamilton these days?

Fair point.

Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel, Mark Brooks, Rich Been, Lucas Glover...

Hass wrote:

skully wrote:

Big Dog wrote:Greg Norman at the Masters.

This will always rank as sport's greatest choke to me. 7 shots up then lose by 6. Heartbreaking to most Aussies.

To be fair to the Shark, he was only up by 6 and lost by 5!

My bad. Was getting his 54 hole score of -13 mixed up with the 11 shot turn around between him and Faldo.

JGK wrote:

Hass wrote:I tend to mark Van de Velde down (or should that be up?) in the choking stakes, because he held his nerve enough to make the playoff.

Van de Velde had played the hole so poorly he found himself in the bunker needing an up and down to make the play-off. But he played a lovely bunker shot then nailed the five-footer to stay alive.

Jana Novotna in the same situaton would have taken two to get out of the bunker and three putted, such was the state of her nerves in that match against Graf.

Meh - he choked enough to be in the bunker for 5.

Agree. Interestingly, from Wiki:

"Due to the three-stroke lead Van de Velde had going into the final hole, his name had already been engraved into the Claret Jug. Following his collapse, the engraver had to scratch through Van de Velde's name and then engrave Paul Lawrie's name into it. Beginning with the 2000 Open, the winning golfer's name is no longer engraved into the Claret Jug until after his scorecard is verified by tournament officials and signed by said winning golfer. Van de Velde's play on this hole is still widely considered to be the worst "choke" in golfing history, and some have even used the term "pulling a van de Velde" to describe similar events."

various Collingwood chokes in a number of grannies are also up there too...but they were always both funny and useful for my supplies of single malt (stoopid mates who barrack for the for the pies also want to back their team)..the Bills long term inability to win a Shield was also a good example of team choking

The great Eels choke in the 98 Prelim Final is up there. Just for Woody...

Aus RL's no. 1 choke:

Canterbury, 1998 preliminary final - the chances of Canterbury progressing to the 1998 grand final looked hopeless when they trailed Parramatta 18-2 approaching the 70-minute mark of the preliminary final at the Sydney Football Stadium. But with nothing to lose the Bulldogs went for broke, charging back into the contest with three rapid-fire tries. The third, scored by centre Willie Talau made it 18-16 and left goalkicker Daryl Halligan with a high-pressure conversion attempt from the sideline. He landed the goal, sending the Bulldogs into extra-time with a surge of adrenaline. They won 32-20.

The Slimeys somehow conceded 16 points in 10 minutes of proper time, then another 14 in the 20 minutes of extra time. They've won nothing since.

rofl....silly slimies

The 98 Slimeys choke puts the Norman choke in the Masters into perspective. My old man was a fanatical Parramatta supporter but would've traded a dozen Prelim Final wins for a Norman Masters win.

skully wrote:

JGK wrote:

Hass wrote:I tend to mark Van de Velde down (or should that be up?) in the choking stakes, because he held his nerve enough to make the playoff.

Van de Velde had played the hole so poorly he found himself in the bunker needing an up and down to make the play-off. But he played a lovely bunker shot then nailed the five-footer to stay alive.

Jana Novotna in the same situaton would have taken two to get out of the bunker and three putted, such was the state of her nerves in that match against Graf.

Meh - he choked enough to be in the bunker for 5.

Agree. Interestingly, from Wiki:

"Due to the three-stroke lead Van de Velde had going into the final hole, his name had already been engraved into the Claret Jug. Following his collapse, the engraver had to scratch through Van de Velde's name and then engrave Paul Lawrie's name into it. Beginning with the 2000 Open, the winning golfer's name is no longer engraved into the Claret Jug until after his scorecard is verified by tournament officials and signed by said winning golfer. Van de Velde's play on this hole is still widely considered to be the worst "choke" in golfing history, and some have even used the term "pulling a van de Velde" to describe similar events."

Yeah, rather foolhardy given that just a couple of years before that Davis Love was dq'ed from the players for signing a wrong scorecard. Was only a top 10 in that case.