Jean Van de Velde's $305,000 prize money for second place in the British Open could earn him a PGA Tour card in 2000.

The triple-bogey 7 that took the Frenchman from the Claret Jug to a losing effort in a four-hole playoff is a spectacular crash-and-burn that will likely never be equaled, leaving him in company with Yugoslavian ski jumper Vinko Bogataj as the poster boys for Agony of Defeat.

Time is supposed to heal all wounds, but the magic of videotape will forever keep the Van de Velde moment fresh. And in 30 years, we'll look back and still wonder: "What the hell were you thinking?"

After further review -- probably thousands of reviews -- Van de Velde still has trouble understanding what the commotion is. A happy-go-lucky gentleman who likes to tell stories and maybe a joke or two, he brings his Laugh Stop cabaret act to Medinah this week for the PGA Championship.

He should be bathing in the glory of being a recent major champion. Those spoils, however, have gone to Paul Lawrie, who has been celebrating his British Open with numerous endorsement opportunities and a new Ferrari.

Van de Velde is left with crumbs of what might have been, although his life has, without question, changed dramatically.

"It's been a wonderful experience," he said on Wednesday. "It definitely has opened new doors. I'm here to play because I was invited, so it's fantastic. I'm going to participate in The Masters and obviously, hopefully, in the U.S. Open and the British Open again. And I think I can make enough by the end of the year to get my U.S. (PGA Tour) card.

"So there's a lot of good things happening around it. And, fair enough, my name is not down on the trophy, but one day it maybe will be."

The constant reflection still leaves one puzzlement to Van de Velde, although nearly everyone else believes each decision that day on the 18th hole will always be a mystery. The breakdown could have -- should have -- been avoided, but we're told the end result isn't the tragedy it has been made out to be.

We're forgetting something, right? In sport, things happen. In this instance, stuff (or something akin to that) happened.

"Maybe someday, people will understand," Van de Velde said. "As I said and I'll say it again, at the end of the day it's a game. I play because of that. If it was a friendly game, I would have played that hole exactly the same way. OK, it's not a friendly game, but it's still a game. You know, that's the part you have to understand and remember.

"So I played it because, to me, it was in the spirit of how I see the same and how I like to play it. I didn't play that shot (in the water) because it was something that was almost impossible to do. I didn't take any risks there. But to me that was a shot that was dictated. And so I just played. And I think people recognize that it is a game and you have to play it.

"It's not fun hitting a 9-iron if you can hit a 3-iron on the green. What would you do that for? I wouldn't do it. I haven't done it."

In golf, there is a fine line between smart and stupid. Faced with all kinds of developments during the course of a round, you must have an open mind. Van de Velde insists he does, although everything he did in blowing the British Open suggests his open mind should immediately have been closed for repairs.

"I think people take it too seriously," Van de Velde said. "... It's a big deal, but it's not that big of a deal. So I'll say it's a game and I play at that game because I enjoy it. The day I'm not going to enjoy it is the day I'm going to pull out a 9-iron on the tee box because I feel it's a bit too narrow even if it's 60 yards wide. That day I will give up my clubs."

The clubs are here this week, although Van de Velde's beatnik caddie almost blew that one, too. A funny thing happened on the way to America: the golf bag disappeared.

"Yeah, they got lost," Van de Velde said. "I guess someone didn't wake up early enough in Paris and didn't put the clubs on the plane. But at the same time, it was a good excuse for me to discover the city, so I took (Tuesday) morning off and went around ... and in the end, my clubs just arrived. I was delighted because it's pretty hard to play golf without your clubs."

Although Van de Velde's collapse continues to be mocked, he is pleased by the support he says he has received from the golfing public. As he walked through Chicago, he was recognized by a number of onlookers. During his practice round, several members of the gallery shouted words of encouragement. The last countryman to sign more autographs in such a short period of time was DeGaulle.

Despite the continual visits from Dr. Feel Good, the question remains: What were you doing on the 72nd hole, Jean? And will there come a time when you are going to go off the deep end because it's all anyone is going to ask you about for the next 40 years?

"No," he said with a laugh. "OK, it happened. And it happened in front of 250 million people. So I guess everywhere I'm going to go, people are going to talk about it. And you know, I've got to handle it as well as I can. So maybe, if one day I'm in a bad mood, I might answer a bit differently. But what can I say to people who can tell me 'You should have done this' or 'You should have done that?'

"Maybe I will answer to them, 'Well, I haven't seen you on the tee of the 72nd hole three shots ahead.' You know, if you ever get that chance, I'm going to give you a quarter and you give me a phone call.' "