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 Janzen rides Ryder Cup
Posted: Tuesday August 10, 1999 10:12 AM
And now, once again playing the role of Mister Bubble, here's ... Lee Janzen . Incredibly, this is the fifth straight year Janzen has been on a team bubble -- three times for the Ryder Cup and twice for the President's Cup. He was picked for the Ryder Cup last time by Tom Kite but passed over for the team in '95, when he won for the third time that year a week after the team was selected. This time, he's among the wild-card candidates being considered by captain Ben Crenshaw . Janzen, who won his second U.S. Open last summer, is currently 23rd on the points list. The top 10 make the team and Crenshaw will announce his two additional selections next Monday, the day after the PGA Championship. "It's crazy," said Janzen. "I guess I'm consistent. Every year I say the same thing, 'This year I'm going to make the team and give the captain advice on who he should pick and not why he should pick me.' But I did it again. "I guess the good part is I've been on both sides. I don't really feel the heat. If I don't make it, I'm not going to be just crushed because I have played on the team. The guys who haven't played on a Ryder Cup team have more to lose. I'm not pressing as hard." Janzen went through this same ritual last year as he tried to make the President's Cup team. He finished 13th on the points list -- after getting disqualified at the no-cut World Series of Golf -- and captain Jack Nicklaus took the easy way out and added Nos. 11 and 12 to the team. Janzen got on the team belatedly when Hal Sutton had to stay home for a funeral. This year, he's been close to playing well but unable to put four good rounds together. "Right from the first day this year, I've made a trillion mistakes," he said. "At the Phoenix Open, I played the last five holes five over par and finished 10th. I've really ruined myself on the back nine about five times this year where if I'd just shot 34 or 35 , I'd probably have enough points to be on the team." At the Buick Open last week, a balky putter kept Janzen from making a move. He tied for 19th and earned no Ryder Cup points. That club has been a problem this summer. He had seven three-putts at Westchester and again at Pinehurst for the U.S. Open. "I would've had eight at Pinehurst but I putted off one green," he joked. Janzen has to win the PGA Championship to make the Ryder Cup team on points and at the very least has to play well to merit consideration as a wild-card pick since Tom Lehman, who finished second at the Buick Open, is an almost certain pick if he doesn't move into the top 10. "I know Ben is looking at someone with a good short game, who can putt and who's played the Ryder Cup before," Janzen said. "I fit that category. If it was something else, like a long-drive event, I wouldn't be picked. So it's clear what I have to do -- just play well." Another bubble-rider is Steve Stricker , who slipped from 11th to 12th when Lehman moved up with his second-place finish at the Buick Open. He's been thinking about his position and watching himself slip out of the top 10 for the last month. "You start worrying about it before you even get here -- how am I gonna play, I'm not hitting it good now," said Stricker. "You get all bound up. I hear about it two or three times a day. I see it in the paper. I know how many points I'm behind Jeff Maggert . I know the guys who are behind me, so I'm watching them. I walk down the fairway, look over and I see John Huston , who's behind me, and Lehman, and I'm looking at their scores to see how they're doing. I'm looking for those specific guys. "I feel like I have to make the team. I don't think I'm going to be a captain's pick. I haven't been there before. You've got Janzen and Lehman outside the top 10, guys who have been there. You've got to look at those guys, high-profile guys. I'd like to make it. I'm not getting any younger, either. I'm 32 now, next time it rolls around I'll be 34. It's sad to say but the clock is ticking. I wouldn't think I'd hear myself say that kind of thing but it only happens every other year." The short game Janzen had this to say about the debate over whether Ryder Cup players should be paid: "If it's not about money, why do they charge for tickets? Why don't they give them away in a lottery drawing?" Yeah, why don't they? .... The prediction here is that Crenshaw will pick Lehman and Janzen as his wild cards -- or whomever they bump out of the top 10 if they make it on points. If someone else cracks the top 10, bumping Maggert out with Lehman and Janzen, then Crenshaw has a really tough call to make. ... Lehman's game is perfect for Medinah this week. He's long, hits a high draw, is good with long irons and is putting well. I'd rate him the favorite for the PGA. Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle is a regular contributor to the magazine's Golf Plus edition. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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