He Brings In New, Plays Like Old

What’s a new year without a few changes? Take Lee Janzen, for instance, who changes his golf clubs the way other people change shirts.

Come to think of it, Janzen has changed his shirt too. He has a new clothing sponsor to go along with all the other endorsement changes he has made for 1996.

Janzen has new golf balls, new golf clothes, a new management firm and new clubs. That’s all, though, he said.

“Same wife, same kids, same caddie,” he said.

And it’s pretty obvious he has the same swing, the one he used while winning three tournaments and $1.4 million last year. With his second-round 65 here Friday at La Costa, Janzen took a one-shot lead in the $1-million Mercedes Championships.

Everything went so well, in fact, that Janzen said he was contemplating no more changes.

“It’s a very good start,” he said. “I am very happy with the way I rolled all my putts. I feel like I’m in total control of my game right now.”

Maybe, but Janzen probably is going to get pushed this weekend before the year’s first tournament is won by someone other than John Daly, who is in last place, 15 shots off the lead and with 29 players ahead of him.

Mark O’Meara put up a 69 and is one shot behind Janzen at 137, seven under par. Jim Gallagher Jr., Scott Hoch and Corey Pavin are two shots behind Janzen at 138.

O’Meara, who won twice last year and banked a career-high $914,129, said he was determined to leave La Costa with something positive in his bag. So far, he’s pleased.

“I wouldn’t say I’m playing awesome, but I’m playing pretty darned good,” he said.

“Early in the year, you don’t need to get too upset with the bad shots. If you hit a bad one, you just find the ball and hit it again.”

Sound advice, and Janzen apparently followed it on the par-four 13th. He drove into a bunker, hit a tree with his second shot, knocked a sand wedge 30 feet past the hole, then rolled a downhill putt for par.

“I guess I’m not knocking off the rust,” he said.

Janzen is playing with his fourth set of new clubs since his breakthrough year of 1993 when he won the U.S. Open at Baltusrol Golf Club.

Changing clubs again might be risky, Janzen admitted.

“That nightmare is always there,” he said, but added he had good reason to make the changes he made.

“You just want to maximize your income,” he said. “There is no security in golf. If you get injured, that’s it.”

Gallagher didn’t quite know what he would be able to squeeze out of the first week, but he thinks his decision to leave the duck blinds for the golf course was a good one.

He even eagled the par-five second when he chipped in from 30 feet, a feat that put him into the PGA Tour lead in eagles.

“I’m winning something!” Gallagher said.

Pavin’s round would have looked much better if he had avoided a double-bogey on the 10th, where he hit his second shot into the water. On the 13th, Pavin was assessed a penalty stroke when the ball moved after he addressed it.

Gallagher said his address on his drives should have been: Jim Gallagher, The Trees, La Costa.

“I drove it a couple of times real squirrelly,” he said.

Maybe he can change that.