Lee Janzen - Part 2 (The 1993 U.S. Open)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Well, Bruce, let's get Lee Janssen out on tour. He's made that decision. He's ready to turn professional. Tell us our listeners a little bit about his record.

Bruce Devlin 0:24

Well, he uh he turned pro, as we mentioned, in uh 86 at the age of 22. And uh I'm not sure how to how to uh fill in the next little gap though, but we went for three years. I think we bounced around in uh um mini tours and different sort of thing and just struggled to get on the tour, but then in 1989, I think this is great. He joined joined the PJ Tour in '89 and went to tour school with Jerry Hass, Fred Funk, Eastwood, Michael Allen, Kirk Triplett, Michael Gomez, and how about that? So that was quite a group. So tell us about the um 86 to 89. What what went on?

Lee Janzen 1:18

Right. So the what is now called the Corn Ferry Tour is not is not around yet. Um some of the options were go to South Africa and play. Of course, that wasn't a year long, that was just a couple months.

SPEAKER_04 1:30

Yeah.

Lee Janzen 1:31

Or go to Asia and play. I guess the option would have been to go to Australia also. Um tour school usually took up in the fall. I did not have the kind of money to travel anywhere, so basically I I played um Living at Home was helpful in Florida because there were a number of mini tours in Florida, so you go play two-day events. Right. You know, that was$300 to$400 to enter these tournaments, and you could win four grand or you know, or so if you won the tournament. You weren't gonna get way ahead unless you completely dominated. But even then, um my expenses were low, which was good. Um, and I just played in whatever I could play in. Um, I tried various Monday qualifiers around the country. I you know, tried to um pair those up with a state open or some sort of event around the country I could get in uh that was drivable. I didn't just do Monday qualifiers, I picked them so I was in the area and that sort of thing. And I made it through four of those, so I got a taste of the tour, made two cuts, um, which was great just to have that experience. Yeah. Um, just made more hungry to want to do it more. Um, but yeah, there was a tour called the PGT and then the USGT. It was the same tour, they just kept changing the name of it. Then it became the TC Jordan tour, and then it became the Hooters Tour. So there's a number of guys I played with out there that eventually got on tour. Um, Jeff Magger, John Daly, Tom Lehman. Um, there's a bunch of other guys, you know. And so though those were great. They were$100,000 purses,$500 to enter. Um, they traveled around the country, four-day events, and I thought that was a great way to get ready to be become a professional golfer on the tour.

SPEAKER_04 3:23

Yeah.

Lee Janzen 3:24

So I did that for 88 and 89, and I was the leading money winner in 89 and won a couple events and came close a couple other times. Um, so I went to tour school having failed in 86, 87, and 88, uh, determined to get through. Um, 88 was very uh emotionally devastating because I made three quadruple bogeys in the course of six days to miss. Um had I just bogeied those holes, I would have made it.

Mike Gonzalez 3:53

Yeah. Have you ever been more nervous than in a qualifying school?

Lee Janzen 3:57

Oh, yeah, tour school is no fun. It's not there's nothing fun about it. Um and we played BJA West that year, and uh we played the Nicholas Tournament course. Yeah. Um and when what's the other course? We played one of the La Quinta courses, uh, the mountain course maybe. Um so it's three rounds on one, three rounds on the other, I believe. So anyway, it's just, you know, um, if anybody's ever played out there, they know those courses are built with all kinds of hazards if you don't hit the ball straight. You know, courses are great as long as you're in play in the fair way, but there's trouble lurking out there. So I ran into trouble a few too many times, but the whole next year was all about getting my mindset that I'm gonna make it through tour school. I don't even care how I play during the year because it doesn't matter, because tour school is the only thing that matters.

Bruce Devlin 4:51

Yeah.

Lee Janzen 4:52

So, and then we played the Woodlands. Um, I was in great shape through four days. The fifth day, I hit in the water a couple times on the back nine there, and shot a 41 for a 77. Thought that I'd really done it to myself, looked at the board and I was still in 10th place, and I was like, if I can have that kind of day, which is terrible, play the back nine like I just did, and I'm still in 10th place, everything is gonna be just fine.

Bruce Devlin 5:23

Yeah. So and it worked out. I hope you weren't using my name in vain, shooting that 41 on the back side. I think you got into some of our water, did you?

Lee Janzen 5:35

Yeah, I kept hitting the water in the wrong places. I don't remember exactly which holes I hit it in, but there's plenty of opportunity.

Bruce Devlin 5:42

13 would have been one of them, I think.

Lee Janzen 5:45

13, 17, 18.

Bruce Devlin 5:48

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 5:51

So you know, our our listeners, I'm sure, are anxious and gonna want to hear about your U.S. Open wins, but but uh long before we get to that, what I'm anxious to hear about is uh your win in 1988 at the Wedgewood tournament on the Space Coast Tour. Does that sound familiar?

Lee Janzen 6:10

Um in the Wedgewood tournament in Lakeland.

Mike Gonzalez 6:14

It must be, yeah. I mean, uh would would that have technically been your first professional win?

Lee Janzen 6:21

I don't know. It could have been. Um I know one tournament I won in 1988. Um it was called the old style in Fort Myers. Uh-huh. Um I think it was$7,500 for first place, and the entry fee was only like$75, but I had to go the year before I had to go qualify. And then when this USGT tour popped up, I knew I needed some money before I could even go. I couldn't just go on the road with the$500 for the first event. So my my thinking was I will go down there and win the$7,500 there in February of 88, and then that'll give me money that I can go play these other events throughout the spring and the summer.

Bruce Devlin 7:02

Good plan.

Lee Janzen 7:04

Yeah, it worked out.

Bruce Devlin 7:05

Yeah.

Lee Janzen 7:06

Bob, I I beat Bobby Nichols on the last haul.

Mike Gonzalez 7:10

Oh, wow. How about that? Uh well, you know, you you do share, if you're talking about the Bobby Nichols, you do share a commonality which you've probably talked to him about, which is, you know, he too was in a serious car accident when he was in high school.

Lee Janzen 7:24

Oh, I don't I don't think I knew that.

Mike Gonzalez 7:26

He was laid up for months. Yeah. Uh not sure he was gonna make it. He was actually in traction upside down in a in a horizontal position in a in a hospital bed for a long time. But what happened was uh, of course, he was a golfer, he was gonna play, and then this this really set him back. And and Bear Bryant, who I think was at Kentucky, Bruce, if I recall at the time. He was moving to the University of Texas, maybe. AM AM I'm sorry, AM. Yeah, yeah, he went to AM. And and he had gotten to know Bobby in Kentucky somehow or the family. He offered Bobby, even though they didn't know if Bobby was gonna be able to walk again, he offered Bobby a full ride for golf to AM, and and Bobby ends up recovering and playing. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's a great story.

Lee Janzen 8:17

It really you can thank Kentucky for he won the SEC there and they gave him a watch or something. I don't know. They he was offended by the gift they gave him for winning the SEC. Is that right? So he left. He goes, if that's all you think of me, I'm out of here.

Mike Gonzalez 8:32

Yeah, yeah. So you you'd mentioned money, and uh that core of raises the question uh most of the guys faced and and ladies uh back when they were starting. Did you have backers? Were you kind of self-financed? What what how what was the money situation like?

Lee Janzen 8:46

I did not have any backers. Um, I put together a little pamphlet to hand out to people that I thought might be able to help, and I didn't get any takers. Um, and I'm glad, really. Yeah um I don't know how it would have affected me if I had sponsors. I don't know if I would have put too much pressure on myself. Um, I don't know if I would have been laxadaisical because I didn't have to worry about money as far as expenses. Um, I thought it was good that I knew that every week I played I had to make money so I could keep playing.

Mike Gonzalez 9:17

Yeah. So you had a fire lit under you. Yeah. And and you weren't beholden to anybody.

Lee Janzen 9:22

Nope. And I I didn't know owe anybody anything when I got there.

Mike Gonzalez 9:26

So yeah. So uh interesting journey, you know, three years to kind of get on the tour and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to do that, and then three more years before you break through with your first win on the PGA tour. We always like to hear about the early life on the tour. You okay, think back to that first year. And you're still learning the robes. You had traveled around playing a little bit, but now you're on the big tour. You don't know towns, you don't know courses, you don't know hotels, restaurants. Just what was it like as a as a as a young kid kind of finding yourself on the road on your own, uh, just learning all these new venues and golf courses?

Lee Janzen 10:02

Right. Um, and we didn't have uh all the technology today to look up stuff either. So we just went by what the tournament told us. Um every place was new, so we didn't know where to stay. Um flying in, driving in, all of those things, renting cars, all of that stuff. We had no idea. So we were learning on the on the road. Uh some of the places I had been to, but still, um, you know, for the most part, I didn't know any of the courses either. So Andy Bean gave me the recommendation that play the course as many times as you can. So uh Monday Pro Ams were pretty much my available to the rookies and the qualifiers and so on. They weren't gonna get in the Wednesday Pro Am, so I tried to get in as many Monday Pro Ams as I could, which was a hike from the tournament before if you made the cut.

SPEAKER_04 10:54

Yeah.

Lee Janzen 10:54

So good luck trying to get there. So you you know, you needed Monday to rest, really. And we were, you know, beating ourselves up trying to get to the next event. Um, so I did that as much as I could. And if I couldn't do that, I would play 36 holes on Tuesday or maybe nine holes or 27 holes and then nine holes before the pro am on Wednesday morning to get those 36 holes in. Um, and if I went back over my rookie year, and sure enough, every tournament that I only got 18 holes in, I missed the cut.

Mike Gonzalez 11:24

Really?

Lee Janzen 11:24

Yeah, and all my other good tournaments were the whole tournaments I got two rounds around the golf course. So it was really good for me to get familiar with the course. So I started realizing that I needed to be very familiar with the course, and it was helpful for me.

Mike Gonzalez 11:38

Did you have any older friends or or others that sort of took you under their wing and mentored you a little bit those first couple years out there?

Lee Janzen 11:46

Well, Andy Bean, being from Lakeland also, yeah, um, invited me to play more than a few practice rounds with him. Um, dear in the headlights again. So he loved to gamble and played for more money than I normally gambled for. Um, and Tuesdays were Andy Bean's days. You know, I'm trying to learn the golf course, and he's out there beating everybody's brains out. Um, so I can remember early in the year, a friend who I went to school with was working for the tour. Um, and I was talking about getting beat by Andy again. He says, You're not playing him even up, are you? I go, Are you kidding me? I'm not giving him shots. You know.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

So I knew what he meant, but great line.

Lee Janzen 12:33

Um I realized that maybe I probably shouldn't be playing my practice rounds with Andy. That's one of the things I learned. Uh, I needed to see the courses and learn the courses.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

Yeah, yeah.

Lee Janzen 12:42

Uh, but he's he's a lot of fun. I tell you what, you better bring your game if you're gonna play him for money on Tuesday.

Mike Gonzalez 12:47

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So turn pro in '86 uh uh first win in '92. Uh did it did you think when you were in that back in 1986 it was going to take you six years to break through in the winner's circle?

Lee Janzen 13:05

Um well, I wanted to, you know, get on tour and win and stay. So I guess that the goal was to get better all the time. Yeah. So I was, you know, I I was you have to self-evaluate. So am I good enough to win yet? If you're not, then what do I have to do to figure that out? What do I have to do? Where do I got to get better? Um I was learning. My you know, rookie year it was good to keep my card. It doesn't happen all the time. Right. Um, made a lot of cuts. It was a long year, tiring. I played a lot my second year too. Um, you know, and I'm going back to places I'm familiar with. I struggled in the middle of the year and then played well at the end of the year, so that was also good for momentum going into my third year. So now I've got two years under my belt and I know the courses, I know where to stay, and all that stuff. Um, so I I, you know, just naturally, I think I had high hopes that things were gonna get better and better. Um, so I just kept my card and then maybe finished I don't know, somewhere around 100th on the money list, maybe second year too. I don't even really know. Um, but it wasn't like I set out to be um in the top 10 on the money list, my third year. Yeah, you know, I I wanted to see improvement, and it'd be great if I could contend in a tournament and have a chance to win.

Mike Gonzalez 14:25

So what was the system back then when you got started in terms of exemptions and the numbers every year? 125, wasn't it?

Lee Janzen 14:32

125, uh 50 guys from tour school. Um, so the Hogan Tour was the original Corn Ferry. I think it started in '91, and I think they gave five cards maybe, but I'm not sure.

Bruce Devlin 14:49

I'm not sure either.

Lee Janzen 14:51

It might have it might not even be five, but I'm thinking it was five. Uh five guys guys got to move up to the tour. So it would have been 45 guys at tour school.

SPEAKER_04 14:59

Yeah.

Lee Janzen 15:00

Um and then there was the 126 to 150, but I, you know, I think I in my mind it was one through 125 or nothing. Yeah.

unknown 15:08

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 15:09

Well, most people on the outside don't realize how difficult it is to win at that level. And of course, uh, with a six-year grind and continuous improvement, you finally positioned yourself to win. And uh, Bruce, that was back in 1992 at the Northern Telecom Open.

Bruce Devlin 15:27

Yeah, rounds of 71, 67, 67, 65. Pretty good weekend there, huh? Win win by one over uh Bill Britton. Tell us about that first victory.

Lee Janzen 15:39

Right. Um, we had a rain delay the first day, and uh I preferred to play fast conditions. And I can remember Rocco and I were just watching it rain on the balcony at Tucson National, and I go, well, I'd much rather see it fast. This kind of doesn't play into my hands this week. You know, who knew that I was completely wrong? Yeah. Um, but yeah, I I think that the big thing was we played uh TPC Star Pass. They alternated those two courses the first two days, and then we finished the tournament at Tucson National. Um the year before we were at Star Pass on the weekend, where Phil Mickelson won as an amateur.

Bruce Devlin 16:20

Yeah, right. Right, right, right.

Lee Janzen 16:22

Very difficult desert course. Um, and I shot 67 there the second day, which was a great round there. Um, and probably played maybe that was the best round I'd played as a professional on tour at that point. Um so that gave me a lot of confidence going to the weekend. Played another good round Saturday at Tucson National, and there I wasn't a top 10. I'm not sure I really thought about winning the tournament. I think I was just really excited. I was in contention, and I wanted to go out and play a great round and birdied the first hole, buried the second hole, and just kept making birdies. Um the tenth hole was an extremely hard par four that I made a bomb on. I remember that. Um so I got by one of the hardest holes with a birdie.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

Yeah.

Lee Janzen 17:09

And then it came down to 18. I knew the tournament was on the line. That's by far the hardest hole on the champions tour. Now we don't play that course anymore.

Bruce Devlin 17:21

Right.

Lee Janzen 17:22

Uh, but maybe the benefit back then was the ball didn't go as far. Uh, but there's water all the way down the right, and there's water on the left, and there's a hump in the middle of the fairway. If you get it on the left side of the hump, the ball's gone. It's in the water. Um, and then you can also drive it through the fairway in the water. But the ball didn't go that far, so uh I didn't have to worry about driving it too far and running into the water. I just had to worry about hitting it straight. And I hit it in the fairway and then had three iron of the green. The pin was back left. I hit it on the front right and had to two pot from about 90 feet, and then got it to about five feet. So there was nothing easy about playing that last hole making part of win. And that five footer, I'm telling you, I had to aim it a couple inches outside the hole.

SPEAKER_04 18:05

Yeah, is that right?

Lee Janzen 18:07

So that was just one of those things like this is where I have to aim it, you just have to hit it there and trust that it's gonna go in.

Mike Gonzalez 18:13

Were you did you have a little weight then afterwards, or were you the last group?

Lee Janzen 18:16

Uh, one group behind me, but I think everybody behind me was too far behind to catch. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 18:25

Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. So so coming into this tournament, Lee, uh, did you see this coming?

Lee Janzen 18:32

Um, I'm trying to think of how I started out the year. I played, did Laney Watkins win the Hawaiian Open that year?

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Yeah, not sure. I'm not sure.

Lee Janzen 18:42

Or did he win in 91?

SPEAKER_04 18:44

Uh I don't remember.

Lee Janzen 18:45

I played with Landy the last day in Hawaii at the Sony. Uh and he shot 65 and won by three or something, and it was windy. Um, it was just, you know, it was just one of those times I got the front row seat for a lesson. Um, how you play on Sunday. You don't play afraid, you you go for it.

Bruce Devlin 19:04

And he was a go-for-it guy, wasn't he?

Lee Janzen 19:07

Yeah. Oh boy. You know, we walked off three. He made Bertie the first three holes, and he we were pretty far behind. I mean, we're probably in a top ten, but um, he looked at the leaderboard and said, Come on, win blow. Like this is nothing for him. And I was just like, okay.

Mike Gonzalez 19:25

Yeah, what a great mindset he had. Uh he was pedal to the metal, wasn't he? He he never backed off. Yeah.

Lee Janzen 19:32

Yeah. I remember when he won the colonial one year. All he had to do was hit it out to the right of the pin and three putt to win, and he hit it three feet left of the hall. Yeah. There's nothing but trouble left of the hole.

Bruce Devlin 19:42

A little bit of water there.

Lee Janzen 19:43

Yeah. But that was Landing. Like, I'm gonna win by two, the heck with that, I'm gonna win by three.

Bruce Devlin 19:49

That's right. After that first victory, uh, you know, people always wonder, you know, can I can I do it again? It didn't take you that long to do that. And I guess you did it again in Arizona, right? When the Phoenix Open.

Lee Janzen 20:06

Right. Um so there was a little bit of an adjustment and a struggle right after the first win. Um all of the things that go along with that, getting to play my first masters, getting interviewed all the time, which I didn't have to do before. Right. Um now that I'm a winner. That's strange. But I started figuring things out by the end of the year and getting my game back, and you know, went into 93 hopeful again. Um and Phoenix is you know, I love Phoenix, love playing that golf course. So um the Phoenix Open was interesting with the weather. Um, it's usually pretty nice, not a lot of wind. Um, but it was very windy on the weekend. It blew out of the east really hard. And then on Sunday it was out of the east and went all the way around to the west. Um, and we also got hailed on.

Bruce Devlin 21:03

Oh boy.

Lee Janzen 21:04

So I'm in the second to last group, and while the wind is turning, the group behind us is behind a little bit, like they're a hole and a half behind. So they ended up catching the worst of it. They played eight and nine into the wind, and the wind started turning, and ten was into the wind, and it turned all the way around where they had to play 11 and 12 and 13 into the wind, too. So that it was blowing pretty hard. But we, you know, we had to play uh we got around those holes before the wind changed. Yeah, but the wind was blowing hard. 13 and the power five is normally reachable. We couldn't even hit it to the desert in the middle of the fairway. Really? Right. And then 15. They've lengthened the hole since then, but 15 reachable power five with the island green. Right. Uh, it was blowing hard enough behind us that I thought driver was too much and it could get to the where the fairway narrowed. It up so I hit three wood and kind of popped it up and still had seven out of the green.

Bruce Devlin 22:04

Oh my and that amazing.

Lee Janzen 22:05

That's how hard the wind was blowing. And then I drove the 17th green with a four wood. Yeah. This is 1993. Yeah, yeah. This is 1993, not 2003. Right. And with the little heads, too.

Mike Gonzalez 22:21

Yeah. Well, that was a win by two over Andrew McGee for your second win, uh, your validation win. How important was that to sort of validate that first win you hit?

Lee Janzen 22:34

Um, well, it it was fun to win. I mean, winning's hard. Um, and to do it down the stretch. So I had a just remember I had Birdie 13 and 15, hit in that dumb bunker on 16, left it in the bunker, got up and down for a bogey, and then birdie 17 and 18. Yeah. Um so there was some adversity I had to overcome. Um, so I had to keep it together, which always wasn't easy for me in my early years emotionally. Um, yeah, and then just overcoming the weather. Because 18, now the you know, the wind was blowing so hard behind us on 17, 18 is left to right. So you've got to hit it over the water to hit the fairway.

Mike Gonzalez 23:17

Yeah, true. Yeah. So so what do you think about what that tournament has become? Because it's quite the spectacle today, isn't it?

Lee Janzen 23:24

Right. Um, you know, it's uh unique. The 16th hole is unique. Um I guess there's really no going back on that one. Um and it is fun to watch the 16th hole. The tough part is watching it spill out over into the rest of the golf course. Which um I think that they're going to get a hold of that this year, I believe. I I think I saw something where uh they're gonna be a little bit more uh proactive in removing people that are misbehaving.

Bruce Devlin 23:53

Yeah. Yeah. A little too much uh alcohol. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Lee Janzen 24:00

Right. So yeah. In 1993, there was no grandstands constructed at all around the 16th Hall.

unknown 24:07

Right.

Lee Janzen 24:08

Um yeah, changed a lot in the 30-year period.

Mike Gonzalez 24:13

Changed a little bit. Well, listen, that was uh that was early in '93. Uh uh, and then uh the first big one as we get into the summertime. And uh this one was out on the East Coast, Bruce, in 1993.

Bruce Devlin 24:27

Baldur Country Golf Course, where he won by two of uh Payne Stewart with rounds of sixty-seven, sixty-seven, sixty-nine, sixty-nine. And uh boy, that had to be a thrill for you. I remember watching it. I remember watching you win that, by the way. We'll get to it, we'll get to the thing that really sealed it, but uh later on the round the last day.

Mike Gonzalez 25:00

Of course, we're talking about the U.S. Open in 1993, uh and this was a win by two over Payne Stewart. Uh that's uh pretty neat when you see four rounds in the 60s in the United States Open Championship.

Lee Janzen 25:13

Right, but I wasn't thinking about that on the last green. No, I bet you would. No. Um yeah. I was just trying to hold it together, and once I knew all I had to do was two putt from ten feet. If it was ten feet at all, I mean I'd be eight to ten feet. Um and and my goal was to hit it just hard enough to get it near the hole. Yeah, there was not gonna be any sort of length of a second putt whatsoever. Um but I also had a feeling it was gonna go in just the way things were going at that point.

Mike Gonzalez 25:46

So you were one you were one back after your opening 67. How did it feel to be uh on top of the leaderboard of the United States Open? Um you sleep well that night?

Lee Janzen 25:56

Um I slept pretty good the whole week. Um but yeah, there was a lot of things that happened leading up to that. So, you know, my first U.S. Open experience and then Hazeltine missing the cut, qualifying again and going to Pebble Beach and missing the cut again. That was 92. Um, flying overnight to Westchester where I had a good tournament. But I also wrote, instead of sleeping, I wrote in a journal about my experience of missing the cut at Pebble Beach and all the things I think I needed to change in order to be a contender in a U.S. Open.

Mike Gonzalez 26:33

And those were, I mean, what are some of the things you remember? Yeah.

Lee Janzen 26:36

Um well statistically, you have to be in the fairway, on the green, course management, that sort of thing. But I I also wrote down things about my uh being emotional stable, um, my preparation going in, what I thought of myself as a player, you know, you you gotta buy into that you actually deserve to win the US Open, too.

Bruce Devlin 27:01

Yeah, true.

Lee Janzen 27:03

So yeah, the one thing that a lot of people leave out in the game is your self-image. You got the technical part and the thinking part, but you know, what do you think of yourself? So uh you play with guys on the weekend at any club that they uh downplay a part of their game and they're not gonna beat you with that part of their game.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Lee Janzen 27:25

Like, you know, if they say, I wish I drove it like you, or I'm not a good putter, or I can't chip, they probably can't. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's true.

Mike Gonzalez 27:33

The journal with the journal thing, was that a regular thing for you or was it fresh for that person?

Lee Janzen 27:37

I saw a Tony Robbins um commercial. Yeah, bought the tape series, uh-huh. And there's a lot of writing, goal setting, um, and techniques about getting your you know your mind focused on what to do and how to do it.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

Yeah, yeah.

Lee Janzen 27:51

So yeah, I did write quite a bit, and I don't know where those journals are now, but they're in storage somewhere. I'll get to them.

Mike Gonzalez 27:57

Well, we'd be interesting that you mentioned that because Bruce and I visited with Jane Geddes uh perhaps last week, week before last on the you know, from the ladies' tour, and and she kept a journal. Yeah, she did uh for about a 13-14 month period back when she was playing her best in a zone, and she wanted to kind of capture what you know what was going up here uh during that time.

Lee Janzen 28:19

Yes. Um and then if you went from the U.S. Open at Pinehurst or at Pebble Beach to the U.S. Open at Baltashral, that particular year, um was probably my best stretch of golf. So, you know, you usually look at 1992 or 1993, but from US Open to U.S. Open, um, I don't know the exact numbers, but they were good. Um yeah. I contended a lot. Um and then just the weeks leading into the U.S. Open also at Baltasar, um, let's see, I had a 61 at Colonial on Sunday after like a 75 on Saturday. Um so that you know, this is sort of thing where I bounced back from something. Um then at Memorial, I happened to be sitting at a table with Dan Forsman and Jack Nicholas, and Dan Forsman asked Jack all kinds of questions about playing in majors and winning U.S. Opens, and I just listened. Um and it was interesting hearing Jack talk about his strategy at U.S. Opens that he played the hard holes very conservative. So there was no reason to be aggressive on those holes and bring a big number into play. I could play him conservative, still part of the hole, at worst make a bogey. I could overcome those. So it was just interesting just to hearing him talk about all that. And I showed I I know that had an impact on me. I wish I could write down all the things he did say.

Bruce Devlin 29:45

Yeah.

Lee Janzen 29:46

Um, but that was only a few weeks later before we played the U.S. Open. The week before Westchester, I played in the last group, um, shot 72, missed a playoff by a shot. Both guys in the playoffs shot 66. So, you know, to think all I'd do was shoot 70 and I would have won the tournament wasn't that much to ask. Um I went into Baltistra a little ticked that I didn't win the week before. A little um, I guess determined that if I got in that position again, I'd do better. And then also it was the U.S. Open, a tournament I really wanted to play well in. Um I had not made a cut in it yet, and I was determined to do better. So um I scheduled a meeting earlier in the year with Bob Rotella for a few weeks after the U.S. Open. So I hadn't even talked to him yet or seen him.

Mike Gonzalez 30:35

Okay.

Lee Janzen 30:36

And I see him on the putting green before my first round, and he and he just came over and said, you know, a lot of guys put so much pressure on them the first day, they shoot themselves out of it, but the first day is usually the easiest. So go out there and have a good round. And that was all he said. And I hit it down the fairway on one, I hit it on the green, I made Birdie and just walked to number two with the best outlook of you know of any U.S. home that I played in. I was just wound up too tight, all the other ones trying too hard. I'm like, it's just golf. Let's go play.

Mike Gonzalez 31:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you as we mentioned uh earlier, you you shot an opening 67 to put you uh, I guess one back at the time, not not one ahead. But uh you were the leader by two after uh fifth after 36 holes.

Lee Janzen 31:22

Yes. Um I made three birdies in a row in the middle of the round, um, and I came to 18 with a chance to make another birdie. I hit in the greenside bunker, didn't get up and down. Um I later found out that you know, the 10-shot rule, quite a few guys made the cut that the USGA wished they didn't because they had to pay that much more money. Um there is I think 90 players maybe made the cut, but it was also uh they were happy that because 600 was leading, and if 400 was leading, that means even more guys would have made the cut.

Bruce Devlin 31:56

Correct.

Lee Janzen 31:57

Um, but one of the guys that made the cut on the number was Ernie Ells. And he had a great weekend and finished in the top 16, which got him in the next year's U.S. Open at Oakmont, which he won.

SPEAKER_04 32:07

Yeah, yeah.

Lee Janzen 32:08

He claims it's a big deal, but I think we all know that Ernie Ells would have been in that U.S. Open anyway. That's for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 32:15

Yeah. Well, you look at that second round leaderboard, you had a few Hall of Famers that were chasing you. Payne Stewart, Tom Watson, Nick Price, uh Freddie Couples, amongst others.

Lee Janzen 32:28

Yeah. Um I was just so happy that I'd made the cut and I was playing well in the U.S. Open. Um Saturday was a little different, though. I was definitely nervous when I got to the course, and I was gonna get to play with Tom Watson, who was um when I was growing up, Jack was still Jack Nicholas, but he didn't play as much, and Tom Watson was the man. Yeah. So I definitely had a childhood crush on Tom Watson. Um, and there I was getting to play with him in the US Open.

Bruce Devlin 33:01

Yeah on a very hot day. Yeah. On a tough golf course, too.

Lee Janzen 33:07

Yes.

Mike Gonzalez 33:09

So you played that uh you played that uh um final round um as the leader. I think Payne Stewart maybe was won back after three rounds. Uh you'd shot uh uh 69 on on the Saturday. So uh as we always do, we we like to hear about what that Sunday morning was like for you before getting the golf course, or maybe even Saturday night in terms of trying to get some peaceful sleep.

Lee Janzen 33:34

Uh well I believe um I don't know if the NBA finals were on that night or not.

Mike Gonzalez 33:39

Yeah, it comes around that time. Maybe they were.

Lee Janzen 33:41

Yeah. I I think I tried to stay up as late as I could because I, you know, I wouldn't tee off till two o'clock. Yeah, two o'clock. So yeah, what was I gonna do with all my time if I went to bed early and got up early?

Mike Gonzalez 33:53

Was that the was the bulls still in it back then? That was the restoration, wasn't it? Yeah, oh yeah, okay. They were.

Lee Janzen 33:58

Yeah. So um maybe I went to bed at midnight. I bet you I still got up at seven o'clock, though. So I had all morning to burn. Um so I went I went to the course early. Um, and a couple people with the media wanted to do interviews. I said, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna do anything before I play. I I don't want to get my mind off of anything. But I I wandered around the Baltash clubhouse and looked at all the pictures and the history of the club. Um I may have gone and putted for a little while, went to the fitness trailer, got a stretch, and warmed up, whatever, and then went through my routine. Had a little lunch. Yep, had lunch, probably had at least two meals. Um and then once it was time to go, I was on my way to the range and Payne was already leaving the range, and this was probably 45 minutes before our tea time. Which I thought he was a little antsy to be leaving the range already. Like he got to the range early and had already finished his warm-up. And you hadn't I don't know where he went after that. He may have gone in the trailer and kept working out or loosening up, but I all I know is he left the range early.

Mike Gonzalez 35:07

Tell us about the bananas.

Lee Janzen 35:11

Well, Paul Azinger holds the bunker shot at Memorial a couple weeks later to beat Payne. Yeah. Um, and at some point, Payne put bananas in his shoes. So that was a big there was a lot of talk about the bananas in the shoes. And I, you know, was thinking about okay, if I win, he's gonna put bananas in my shoes. So I put a little sign on top of my banana uh shoes that said no bananas. And it was him and Zinger that did it, and Zinger denies it, but I know he did it.

Mike Gonzalez 35:43

Yeah. Well, take us through your Sunday round.

Lee Janzen 35:48

All right, so yeah, I was extremely nervous on the first T. Um, so it was hot Saturday, it rained Saturday night, of course, it was a little bit softer. Um, if it was 104 on Saturday, it was 94 on Sunday. So a little bit cooler, but still hot. Yeah. And whatever wind there was was blowing in on one because I think it was a driver four iron and a seven iron a couple days. Um, and I hit a decent drive on Sunday in the fairway, which is all I was hoping for, and had four wood in. Wow. Um, so that's a pretty tough opening hull par four. Sure is. I hit it in the front right bunker, very long bunker shot. Um, not exactly the shot you want to have if you're nervous. And in that circumstance, I got it up and down. So that uh those sort of things, even though it's just one shot.

Bruce Devlin 36:42

Big help.

Lee Janzen 36:43

Yeah, that's a really hard bunker shot that I executed and made a good putt, probably I don't know how long the putt was. It wasn't a tapping, it was probably five or six feet. But that's a good way to get some confidence for the rest of the day is to do a couple good things on the first hole.

Mike Gonzalez 36:58

And were you playing with pain that day?

Lee Janzen 37:00

I was, yes.

Mike Gonzalez 37:01

So final two.

Lee Janzen 37:03

Yes. Um, and we just went along. Um bogey two from right in front of the green, really a throwaway shot, uh, but came right back with a birdie on three. And that's what I did pretty much the whole tournament was if I did make a mistake, um, I bounced right back the next hole or soon after. Um never really seemed to get myself into too much of a bind. Um, I made plenty of mistakes, but I kept overcoming them. So um even parr, um trying to think of where the next bird he might have been. Seven. Um was awesome. I played that hole poorly. Um ended up making probably like a six-footer for a bogey.

SPEAKER_04 37:47

Yeah.

Lee Janzen 37:48

Uh Payne also played it poorly. He had in the trees left, had to hit the ball left-handed, didn't get it out. So uh we both escaped that hole with bogeys where it could have been worse.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

Yeah, yeah.

Lee Janzen 37:59

Um, I wasn't paying attention to the leaderboard much at that point. Okay. Um, but uh, you know, if we make double and makes you know other mistakes, then that brings a lot of other people back into the tournament. But I think pretty much it was just him and I.

Mike Gonzalez 38:12

Yeah, so after those bogeys on seven, uh, you were leading by two, and then uh uh Payne Birdie's nine, you get to the back, and uh what about this five iron through a tree on number ten?

Lee Janzen 38:23

Right. Well, I blocked it out to the right off the T. Uh, not a good drive. And you know, the rough, so they had cut the rough a few weeks before the tournament, expecting nice weather to grow the rough back up. So they just topped it is what they wanted to do. Well, it they had heat and dry, and it just never got thick. So you could play the ball out of the rough, but you had to play a good shot. Uh, and I had a good enough line that I thought I could hit it out of the rough over the tree with a five-iron. Um, and I didn't catch it solid, I hit it thin, and it was going right in the middle of the tree. And my thought is okay, where the heck is this gonna go? This can't be good. Never hit anything, came out the other side and bounded all the way up onto the front of the green, and I two played for par.

Mike Gonzalez 39:12

And then uh we get to 12, little three-jack uh bogey there.

Lee Janzen 39:17

Yep.

Mike Gonzalez 39:18

Uh but then as you say, you come right back. Uh Bertie's on 14, 25 footer or so. Does that sound about right?

Lee Janzen 39:26

Yeah, it seemed a lot closer, but that that could be right.

Mike Gonzalez 39:29

Yeah, and then part 15, and then uh what happened on 16?

Lee Janzen 39:33

All right, 16. Um a T a little bit. Right. And the green is almost surrounded completely by bunkers, but there's little walkways in between the bunkers. Pim's front left. Um I'm trying to think. I had the honor, so I hit five iron. Um, it cleared the front left bunker, but didn't make it on the green. There's about five yards of rough. Um, it's actually a downslope too, so um, but I'm not far from the hole, maybe 20 feet. Pain hits it and it goes to the back of the green. You know, customary on tour, you know, usually whoever's off the green can chip up. So because that you leave the pin in and they take the pin out for the guys who are putting. Um so it just the conversation was basically I can come up. He goes, Yeah, why don't you just come up? So I chip and it goes in. So if if he could go back and do something different, he would not let me chip.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

No, of course.

Lee Janzen 40:33

No, and he hit an incredible putt from where he was, probably 40 feet, and it hung on the lip. Um, but you know, now we're running out of holes. So now I'm up by two with two holes to play.

Mike Gonzalez 40:46

So you go to 17 and uh you make a par, but it was a pretty good par, as it turns out.

Lee Janzen 40:53

Um bunkers down the left. If you hit in those, you're just wedging out, and then you can't get to the green on your third shot. So I'm I am favoring the right side. Um the very last tree, my ball hits the tree and it kicks out. Now I've lost 30 or 40 yards. I just in the fairway. Yeah, but I'm in the fairway. So I lay up with a four wood um and get it back down there in the fairway. And um, I'm I do remember being very nervous, even though I've got a short iron in my hand, I was very nervous about making a mistake. So I I hit it in the middle of the green and two putted for par.

Mike Gonzalez 41:31

Yeah, yeah. And then uh you get to 18 uh and uh that'd be a pretty good feeling. Uh of course you and you and Payne both birdied 18, so you kind of maintain that two two-shot spread. But tell us about that last hole, what it was like uh walking down that fairway and up to that green, knowing that uh you might be winning the US Open.

Lee Janzen 41:52

All right. Well, two shot lead, one to play, reachable par five, so I can do the math. Like he can still make Eagle. Yeah. Um, I drove in the right rough, and that might have been some of the thickest rough on the golf course. On the right here. He hit a good drive. Yeah, he hit a good drive and was able to reach the green at two. Um, and I've got a seven iron out, and I don't know how far the carry was over the creek. But as I stood over it, I just had a terrible feeling that it was the wrong decision. So before I took the club back, I backed off and grabbed my sand wedge and chipped it out. Um, I could have hit it another 30 yards closer to the water. Um, I think I stunned my caddy when I said how far is it to the water, and he was like, I don't know. So I could have laid it up closer, which would have been better for my third shot. Um, but anyway, we had 190 yards or so, and the pin was on the right. I drew the ball primarily, and I knew my game. Um if I'm gonna fade the ball, I just aim left and basically block it. Um so that's all I was doing was aiming in the middle of the green to just try not to hit a draw, just you know, hit a a little bit of a fade if I could, and I pushed it right at the hole um and ended up right next to the hole. So if I executed properly, I would have been left of the hole like 30 feet.

SPEAKER_04 43:13

Yeah, yeah.

Lee Janzen 43:14

Um, but where I aimed, it allowed me to hit the shot I hit. So good.

Mike Gonzalez 43:20

So that final walk, I mean, did you kind of know after that uh four iron you hit fairly tight that uh it was yours for the taking?

Lee Janzen 43:28

Right. Well, uh the crowd told me that I was in good shape. Uh Payne's ball, his second shot was right at the pin, came up short in the front bunker. Um, not an easy bunker shot, but uh you know, there's always a chance he could hold the bunker shot. So I had to sweat that out. He hit a pretty good bunker shot. It did not go in, and I think he his putt was probably about the same distance as mine, maybe a tiny bit closer. So if I was eight or nine feet, he was seven feet. And he just said, I'm gonna finish out for You he putted, made it. Um, so he was feeling a lot better about me two putting from there than I was. Yeah. Yeah, obviously. But yes, I think he was conceding right there that I would handle that and that would be it.

Mike Gonzalez 44:14

Um at some point, uh, as you hold that final putt, are the memories vivid or do they just sort of start getting a little blurry?

Lee Janzen 44:24

I guess you know, you remember them, how they happened to you firsthand, and then you watch it on TV and video, and it's you know changes your yeah, what you remember. Um But I I do remember the nerves were plenty, and uh it was such a relief when that ball went in. And then and then it was just the I can't believe I just did that.

Mike Gonzalez 44:45

Yeah. So yeah. Well, what an accomplishment that we talked about earlier about the the four rounds in the 60s. I think you had joined Lee Trevino back in uh 68 at Oakill as the only person to have ever accomplished that. I think McElroy maybe has done it since, but uh um it doesn't happen very often, not in that championship.

Lee Janzen 45:07

Right. I I did not know about any records I was tying or setting or anything.

Mike Gonzalez 45:12

Was Tom Meek setting up the golf course back then for the USGA?

Lee Janzen 45:16

I don't know if he was doing that yet. I don't remember really who was doing that.

Mike Gonzalez 45:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you tied a U.S. Open scoring record at eight under, set originally by uh JWN in 1980, also at Baltas Roll, and then uh broken uh by McElroy in 2011 at Congressional, and then Kepka uh with a 1600 Aaron Hills in 2017, which is a bit of an outlier, but uh boy. Um that's some serious playing.

Lee Janzen 45:47

Um it was a dream as a kid to win the U.S. Open. You know, when when I was on the Putney Green holding putts to win a tournament, it was always the U.S. Open.

Mike Gonzalez 45:57

So and for guys like Bruce, you know, from down under with the British connections, it was always the Open Championship. But for any of us kids growing up in America, it was always the U.S. Open.

Lee Janzen 46:08

Oh yeah. Now, if I had two British opens or the Open Championships, and that was all I won, I'd be pretty happy about that too. Absolutely.

Bruce Devlin 46:16

For sure.

Mike Gonzalez 46:17

Absolutely, yeah. So how did this change your life at the time? I mean, uh uh was it a monumental change for you to all of a sudden become a major champion?

Lee Janzen 46:27

Um, I I think that the other players look at you a little differently, act a little differently towards you. I don't know if that, you know, mostly respect. Um it's just different. You know, I I know the other guys who had already won knew how hard it was. I could feel their um sincerity towards me, you know, and congratulations. You know, getting the letters afterwards, um, which I still have. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicholas both wrote letters. Yeah. Those are I don't know if they realize how special those are when you get those. Um but being recognized was different. Um I had not gone through that before. And that was that was also an adjustment. You know, Arnold Palmer was the greatest at that. He I don't I've never heard a story when he wasn't um just a great gentleman in any situation. And and we've got plenty of stories for me, and I'm sure other pros too, where we didn't behave the way we could have.

Mike Gonzalez 47:29

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody. It went smack down the fairway. And it's started just like just smack line. My head is as long as you're still in the stage, okay? It went straight down the middle, file away.