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 Payne-ful finish As Stewart stumbles, Janzen streaks to thrilling Open victory
Posted: Sunday June 21, 1998 11:15 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Don't let the boyish grin and quick tears be deceiving. Let Lee Janzen stick a nose in front and he's a tough man to beat, especially in a U.S. Open, especially against Payne Stewart. Once again, there was Janzen tied with Stewart on the back nine at the U.S. Open. And just like at Baltusrol in 1993, once Janzen edged ahead he never gave up the lead. What he did Sunday at The Olympic Club was even more impressive than '93. All he did was shoot a final-round 68 on a day when no one who was in contention could make a birdie. All he did was bogey two of the first three holes to fall seven strokes behind and then play the final 15 holes 4 under par. All he did was be the only person to match par for 72 holes on the firm, fast and frightening Lake Course at Olympic, shooting 280 to finish one stroke ahead of Stewart and three better than Bob Tway. "It was a dream to win the U.S. Open," Janzen said about the 1993 victory. "Not a day has gone by that I haven't talked about winning it again." "Somehow I did it," he said, wiping tears from his eyes.
Stewart came to the 18th hole needing a birdie to force an 18-hole playoff. But his approach was 25-feet above the hole and he had a very difficult, very fast downhill, curling putt. When the ball broke just low of the hole Janzen, who was watching on TV, let out a big sigh and buried his head in a towel. "I could hardly stand to watch," Janzen said. "I guess it really didn't dawn on me until that moment that I could actually win the tournament today." Stewart tapped in and walked dejectedly off the green. "Just a little more pace, just a little more break and I would have had it," Stewart said. Janzen had closed out his round 20 minutes earlier when he tapped in a 2-foot par putt while his father Larry clapped in appreciation for the Father's Day gift. "That might not have looked like a long putt but it couldn't have been longer," Janzen said. Tway, Jeff Maggert and Nick Price -- all veterans of major championship pressure -- had a chance to make a move on Sunday but none could respond the way Janzen did.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking of the also-rans was Tom Lehman, who started the day four strokes behind Stewart and was playing in the final group on the final day at the U.S. Open for the fourth consecutive year. But added a fifth-place finish to the third, second and third he has had the three previous years. And none of the young guns expected to contend in this Open was a factor. David Duval closed with a 69 and was at 287, along with Lee Westwood, the young Englishman. But Justin Leonard, Ernie Els, Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk were all far back. Other thrills came from other places. Casey Martin rode up the 18th fairway in his cart to warm cheers from the gallery and closed with a 72 to be at 291. Jack Nicklaus, playing the Open for the 42nd time, was at 295, one stroke better than Els, the defending champion. Amateur Matt Kuchar, who turned 20 on Sunday, shot 74 and was at 289, one stroke better than Woods, who closed with a 73 that included a three-putt from 7 feet on the final hole. John Daly shot 78, including a quadruple bogey when he four-putted after missing a one-footer he tried to backhand, and was at 297. For the fourth consecutive time, the third-round leader in the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club was unable to protect the lead. Like Stewart, Ben Hogan in 1955, Arnold Palmer in 1966 and Tom Watson in 1987, all finished second.
Because none of those three ever won another major championship, Olympic is known as the Graveyard of Champions. Stewart, 41, won the PGA Championship in 1989 and the U.S. Open in 1991, and must now wonder if he will join them. "I didn't go out do what it took to win the golf tournament today," Stewart said. "I scrambled pretty good but I just came up one shot short, I got beat by an outstanding round of golf." When Stewart stood on the second green he could see that there was no red on the leaderboard. No one among the contenders was making birdies, no one was making a move. Then, after getting a break when his ball hung in a tree briefly on No. 5 before falling to the ground, Janzen kick-started his comeback when he chipped in from 15 feet to save par on the hole. He never made another bogey. "Lee Janzen shot a 68," Stewart said. "No one who was in contention in the golf tournament shot in the 60s today but Lee Janzen. Give him credit." Stewart led after each of the first three rounds but finally gave up the top spot when he made bogeys on Nos. 12 and 13, the first when he had the bad luck to drive into a sand-filled divot, the second when he couldn't get up and down from the thick greenside rough. "It was the first fairway I had hit in a while and sure enough I was in a bunker," Stewart said about the sand-filled divot. As he did at Baltusrol in 1993, when he made a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 14 to regain a lead he had lost on the 12th hole and chipped in for a birdie on No. 16 to turn back Stewart, Janzen put the squeeze on down the stretch.
He hit iron shots to 8 feet on No. 11 and 4 feet on No. 13 to take the lead. "That's the one where I started thinking I was in the hunt," Janzen said about the birdie on No. 11. The key came on No. 17, where Janzen was 5 over par in the first three rounds. After Stewart pulled back into a tie with a curling 15-foot on No. 14, Janzen played two perfect shots to the green on the 468-yard hole and made a good two-putt par from 35 feet, motioning playfully for the first putt to turn toward the hole. "I wanted that hole today," Janzen said. "I didn't want to say that was the hole that undid me." Stewart lost the lead for good when he went from the rough to the rough to the bunker and made a bogey on No. 16. The victory by Janzen meant that the last 15 major championships have been won by 15 different people going back to 1994. And it showed once again that Janzen is a tough customer down the stretch when it matters the most.
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