Making His Time

If you’re counting, Lee Janzen has won the U.S. Open twice, which means he knows something about playing well. It’s about timing, and Janzen has shaped his philosophy around the idea.

Now, try to follow this:

“I know you’re not going to play good every day and you’re not going to play good every week and you rarely play good four or five days in a row,” he says. “If you could do that four or five times a year, usually you have a great year.”

Janzen picked a very good time to play well for, oh, two days (but not in a row) last year at the Olympic Club, where he shot a 66 on Friday and a 68 on Sunday to beat Payne Stewart by one shot and win the U.S. Open.

It was Janzen’s second U.S. Open title, matching his 1993 victory at Baltusrol.

When the 99th U.S. Open begins today at Pinehurst’s famed No. 2 course, the 34-year-old Minnesota native who lives in Orlando, Fla., knows how he won twice, but not exactly why he won twice.

“I guess I’m still trying to figure it out,” he said. “I love the U.S Open. I think any American player would love to say they’ve won the U.S. Open. Maybe I just like the tough conditions. Maybe that helps.

“And I’ve just been very fortunate . . . played really well during the U.S. Open. I do get excited about it. And I know the course is so tough, it eliminates a lot of players, so it’s a better opportunity to play well.

“And if you’re playing well, you have a much better chance of winning the U.S. Open than you do a regular tour event.”

How Janzen will fare this week is not clear, judging by his play this year. He has had three top-10 finishes, including a tie for eighth at the MCI Classic and a tie for third at the GTE Byron Nelson Classic, though he hasn’t finished better than a tie for 21st in his last three events.

Last season, Janzen was playing just as poorly at this stage. He had only one top-10 finish and in the three events leading into the Open missed one cut, then finished tied for 31st and tied for 21st.

Janzen believes he may be ready for another run, no matter that Tiger Woods and David Duval are receiving much of the attention.

In fact, Janzen isn’t shy about comparing himself to Woods and Duval.

Said Janzen: “I’ve done something twice that neither of them have done once. I know I’m in an elite group.”

He didn’t start out that way. Janzen was born in Austin, Minn., and lived for a while in New Jersey near Baltusrol, which would become an important venue in Janzen’s life years later. Janzen’s father was a salesman and the family moved to Lakeland, Fla., near Orlando, where Janzen became a Little League baseball star.

Because Little League games were played in the spring, Janzen needed something to do in the summer. He picked up golf at 12. He managed to earn a golf scholarship to Florida Southern in Lakeland and won the Division II championship, earned a degree in marketing and turned pro in 1986.

He became a mini-pro rat, touring Florida in a beat-up Mazda, trying to earn a living. He failed to qualify for the PGA Tour three times, then made it on his fourth trip.

Janzen won his first tournament, in 1992 at Tucson, won again at Phoenix in 1993 and then won the U.S. Open at Baltusrol. Add it up and Janzen has eight PGA Tour victories, two of them U.S. Opens. For some reason--maybe because he hits it straight, hits it on the green and putts well--the U.S. Open has been good for Janzen.

Tom Lehman thinks he knows another reason why.

“When Lee gets in the lead, he’s like a shark who senses blood in the water,” Lehman said.

The defending champion likes the style of Pinehurst No. 2, and he promises to play patiently and give himself a chance to be somewhere around the lead by Sunday afternoon. But he knows he has to play great.

“I think if I really play well, it is a course that suits me,” Janzen said. “But if I play normal, I’ll finish about 15th.”

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He’s Open to Success

Lee Janzen has won two U.S. Open championships. In 1993 at Baltusrol Golf Club, he shot a 67-67-69-69-272 to beat Payne Stewart by two strokes and equal the Open scoring record set by Jack Nicklaus in 1980. Last year he recorded the best final-round comeback at the Open in 25 years (Johnny Miller came from six strokes back to win in 1973). Janzen trailed by five strokes at the Olympic Club and shot a 68 to beat Stewart by a stroke. How Janzen has fared in the U.S. Open:

YEAR RESULT

1985: Did not make the cut

1991: Did not make the cut

1992: Did not make the cut

1993: Won title, two strokes ahead of Payne Stewart

1994: Did not make the cut

1995: Tied for 13th place

1996: Tied for 10th place

1997: Tied for 52nd place

1998: Won title, one stroke ahead of Payne Stewart