Playing With Payne Suits Janzen Fine : Golf: He wins Players Championship alongside Stewart, also his partner in U.S. Open victory in 1993.

Playing golf with Payne Stewart seems to bring out the best in Lee Janzen.

The two were paired together when Janzen stunned the golfing world in 1993 by winning the U.S. Open at Baltusrol. And they traveled together for a Skins Game in Thailand, where Janzen won $102,000.

Sunday, in the final round of the $3-million Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass course, Janzen and Stewart were together again, teeing off one group behind the 54-hole leaders, Corey Pavin and Bernhard Langer.

The result was predictable. Janzen shot a one-under-par 71 for a five-under 283 to win the $540,000 winner’s purse by a stroke over Langer. Stewart, Pavin and fast-finishing Gene Sauers--who birdied two of the last three holes--tied for third another stroke back.

“When I was on the practice range after Saturday’s round, I had a good feeling when I saw the pairings for Sunday and I was with Payne,” Janzen said. “He’s fun to play with and I knew it would be an enjoyable day.”

Greg Norman, the defending champion, had a six-over 294, which was 30 strokes more than his winning total last year.

Janzen shot 69-74-69-71.

His victory turned on two holes on the back nine, the 438-yard 14th, where he sank a 25-foot putt to save par, and the 497-yard par-five 16th, where he made a gutsy decision to go for the green in two, a gamble that paid off with what turned out to be the winning birdie.

“I hit a good drive and I had 227 yards to the hole,” he said. “All I wanted was to clear the water and a little mound in front of the green, which was 203 yards. I took a two-iron and knew I had to make a good swing and I made the best one I’ve ever hit.”

The ball stopped about 20 feet from the cup and Janzen got down in two putts for what turned out to be a two-stroke lead.

At the time he teed off, Janzen was tied with Davis Love III at four-under, but before Janzen holed out his birdie putt, Love dropped off the leader board when his tee shot on the No. 17 island hole bounced into the water.

Two shots after Love’s fatal shot, Janzen nearly suffered the same fate. His nine-iron shot at the island green would have been in the water too, except for catching in a tiny pot bunker that fronts the green.

“I thought I hit a good shot, I hit it too easy,” Janzen said. “I was worried until I got there and saw it was a flat lie. If I’d been on the down slope, I could have been in real trouble.”

Janzen lofted it out with his wedge and made his par.

Langer, the two-time Masters champion from Germany, had what he called a “yo-yo round.”

It included six birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey. During one stretch of seven holes, he did not have a par.

“I don’t remember ever playing such an up-and-down round,” he said. “At first, I was hitting my drives in the left rough, then I started hitting them to the right. Both were bad because you have to stay in the fairways on this course.”

Langer’s wasn’t the most unusual round, however. Mike Heinen finished the day birdie-eagle for a 44-34--78.

Said Pavin, a former Bruin: “I would rather talk basketball than golf, UCLA basketball. I had an adventuresome round, but nothing compared to Bernhard. I did some good things and didn’t get much out of it, and I hit some bad shots and paid the price for it.”

Stewart, wearing the mustard and black colors of the new NFL Jacksonville Jaguars, said he felt good about his performance and was going home to Orlando, Fla., to practice for the Masters. And how did he plan to practice?

“I’m going to putt on concrete for a while,” he said.