SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lee Janzen won the 1993 U.S. Open by holding off Payne Stewart down the stretch. On Sunday, he turned back Stewart once again in the Open, this time by overcoming a seven-stroke deficit.
Showing startling confidence on a day when no one was making birdies at The Olympic Club, Janzen played the final 15 holes four under par for a 68 to finish at even-par 280, one stroke ahead of Stewart.
Stewart came to the 18th hole needing a birdie to force an 18-hole playoff. But his approach was 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.
Stewart tapped in and walked dejectedly off the green.
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 about his final stroke.
Former Gophers golfer Tom Lehman was in second place going into Sunday’s round, trailing by four strokes.
However, Lehman failed to birdie a single hole in his final round and recorded a double bogey on 17 to finish 6-over par. He finished fifth.
Janzen, playing two groups in front of Stewart and Lehman, made bogeys on two of the first three holes and fell seven strokes behind — the same margin Billy Casper erased in the final nine holes against Arnold Palmer in the 1966 U.S. Open at Olympic.
Stewart led after each of the first three rounds but finally gave up the top spot when he made consecutive bogeys on Nos. 12 and 13, the first when he had the bad luck to drive into a divot and the second when he couldn’t get up and down from the thick greenside rough.
Janzen put the squeeze on coming down the stretch, hitting 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.
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.
Amateur Matt Kuchar, who turned 20 on Sunday, shot a 74 and was at 289, one stroke better than Tiger Woods, who closed with a 73 that included a three-putt from 7 feet on the final hole.