Janzen’s Game Appears to Be Opening Up : Golf: After winning at Baltusrol in 1993, he had a quiet year--until the last few weeks.

On a hot, muggy Tuesday morning more suited for a fern than a U.S. Open practice round, the crowd cheered loudly when Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus walked to the first tee.

Moments later, when the defending U.S. Open champion climbed inside the ropes to join the group, about five people clapped politely.

As far as reaction levels go, this one ranked somewhere between disinterest and sleep. It was somewhat embarrassing. A cardboard cutout of Curtis Strange would have caused more of a reaction than Lee Janzen did.

Part of it was his own fault. Janzen was a surprise winner of the U.S. Open last year at Baltusrol. But even though he scored a two-shot victory over Payne Stewart, he hasn’t been able to separate himself from the pack in the minds of the public.

While Janzen might be only slightly more colorful than the sand in the 180 bunkers that liberally dose the course at Oakmont Country Club, he probably could have juiced his recognition factor if only he hadn’t all but disappeared for 49 weeks after Baltusrol.

Janzen won at Westchester last week, his first victory since the 1993 U.S. Open. His fourth place in the Kemper Open the week before was his first top-10 finish since Baltusrol.

So if Janzen, 29, has been gone, it looks as if he’s on his way back now. Does this qualify as being on a roll or what?

“Who knows?” Janzen said.

Indeed. Winning the week before the Open and following it up by winning the Open has never been done.

That gives Janzen something to shoot at anyway. But winning another Open is not an easy task even for the greatest golfers, which Palmer proved by winning only one in 33 years.

The pressure to win a major event like the Open can be suffocating. Janzen said Open pressure cannot be compared to that of normal PGA Tour events.

“I guess the expectations of other people of what they think you are going to do now because you win the U.S. Open (are greater),” Janzen said. “They expect you maybe to win more tournaments or win more majors or whatever. That is probably the toughest.

“You don’t play well, you hear people asking what is wrong with you. . . . I knew eventually it would turn around. I knew it couldn’t last forever.”

A story in the PGA Tour magazine had said Janzen’s victory at Baltusrol “maybe, just maybe . . . was the coming-out party for the next American superstar.”

And maybe not. But Janzen clearly has come a long way. He was born in Minnesota and was 12 when he took up golf after his family moved to Lakeland, Fla.

Lee, who played baseball, dropped his bat for his golf clubs. He was the last to make his junior high school golf team, but once he got help from Rick Smith his game improved quickly, and in high school he was the first on the team to break par.

After finishing second in the Polk County (Fla.) Amateur, he was recruited by Charley Matlock to play at Florida Southern. Janzen had the third-best stroke average as a senior in college, then won the NCAA Division II title with five birdies on the back nine.

Janzen failed PGA Tour qualifying school four times before finally earning his card in 1989, when he finished No. 115 on the money list. Since then, he has climbed to No. 72, to No. 9 in 1992 when he won his first event and then to No. 7 last year when he earned $932,335.

Along the way, Janzen picked up a reputation among his peers as someone best avoided down the stretch.

“He has a wonderful temperament and a champion’s composure,” Stewart said.

He just doesn’t have a big following. Maybe that will change too and fall in line with the other changes in Janzen’s game--a different management firm, different clubs and a different caddie.

Now if his U.S. Open result is the same as last year . . .

“I’m just going to ask myself that if I can commit myself on every single shot, I will be proud of myself,” he said.

The clapping will be louder too.

U.S. Open Notes

Johnny Miller, 47, is often asked about the final-round 63 he shot at Oakmont to win the 1973 U.S. Open. “I probably talked about that round as much as anybody has talked about any round ever,” said Miller, who received a special exemption to play in his 22nd U.S. Open. “Of course, I can’t complain about it. It was a pretty good round. If there was ever a round that I played that I felt like somebody helped me from who knows where, up above or whatever, that was it.” . . . Jay Don Blake replaced Steve Elkington, who withdrew because he is recuperating from sinus surgery. . . . In addition to Miller, 1983 U.S. Open winner Larry Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Ben Crenshaw and Seve Ballesteros received special invitations to play in this year’s U.S. Open. Nelson said he disagrees with anyone who criticizes such invitations, adding: “It’s not like they have diluted the field by giving five exemptions. It’s the U.S. Golf Assn.’s event.”