With one short swing out of the rough, Lee Janzen took his place in golf history.
Evoking memories of Tom Watson and Lee Trevino, Janzen chipped 30 feet from gnarly grass on the 16th hole Sunday to blunt a challenge from Payne Stewart and win the U.S. Open by two strokes.Janzen, who had won but two tournaments in his career, shot a 1-under-par 69 at Baltusrol to win the tournament in which he missed the cut three previous times.
"Unbelievable," he said. "I don't think it's sunk in yet. It's just incredible."
He closed with the elan of a champion, with birdies on three of the last five holes to finish at 272, tying the U.S. Open record held by Jack Nicklaus (1980), also at Baltusrol. Three others completed an Open in 8-under: Ben Hogan (1948) and Mike Donald and Hale Irwin (1990).
Stewart, winner of the 1991 U.S. Open and 1989 PGA Championship, shot a 70. He moved into a share of the lead when Janzen bogeyed No. 12. Both players were even before Janzen rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 14. It was a lead he would not give up.
"I felt like a different person after that," Janzen said. "I had used up all my energy and it gave me a surge of adrenaline."
Janzen, a 28-year-old from Austin, Minn., who joined the tour in 1989, was the essence of of consistency at America's most prestigious tournament. He shot rounds of 67, 67, 69, 69, matching Trevino's U.S. Open mark in 1968 of all four rounds under 70.
Nobody else challenged Sunday at the 93rd Open. Craig Parry and Paul Azinger finished at 277. Watson and Scott Hoch were at 278 while Nolan Henke, Ernie Els, Fred Funk and Raymond Floyd were at 279.
This was an afternoon that clearly belonged to Janzen and Stewart.
Janzen started the day with a one-stroke lead over Stewart and quickly stretched it to two shots when Stewart missed a four-foot par putt on No. 1.
On the fifth hole, Stewart made an excellent par after driving 40 yards to the right, then hitting his second shot under a television tower.
Janzen had his adventure on No. 7, when drove into a fairway bunker and needed a 10-foot putt for a bogey. Stewart also took a bogey on the hole after playing a shot left-handed from beneath the limbs of a tree.
But the dramatics came much later, in the heat of the late afternoon, on the 16th.
Janzen was the first to hit despite Stewart being farther away on the green.
"I asked him twice if he wanted me to go," Janzen said. "I had a good lie and I knew I had a chance to make it. I just wanted him to feel comfortable with his decision."
Janzen flipped his shot to the left of the flag and let it run down and into the hole for the birdie that put him two in front. No great celebration followed from Janzen, just a simple thrust skyward of his left arm.
"I was just trying to land it a foot or so on the green and I landed it right where I thought I had to land it," he said. "And the thing just started breaking toward the hole and I could see it going in."
The chip marked the second time in three weeks in which Stewart had been beaten by a title-depriving shot - a 72nd hole sand shot by Azinger at The Memorial.
"After he made that shot on 16, I told my caddie, `We've been in this situation before,' " Stewart said.
This time the stakes were higher. And this time the shot will take its place in golf history.
"A very poignant memory," said Watson, who holed such a chip from behind the 17th green at Pebble Beach in winning the 1982 U.S. Open.
And it was almost a replay of Trevino's shot on the 71st hole at Muirfield, in Scotland, that beat Tony Jacklin for the 1972 British Open.
This one didn't destroy Stewart, but it was a mortal wound. It put him two behind with two to play.
After both parred the 17th, the par-5 18th became Stewart's only hope, and he needed an eagle.
Janzen's drive to the right rough forced him to lay up short of the creek in two, while Stewart's long tee shot set up an iron into the green. But he just missed carrying the bank of the front bunker and the ball dropped back into the sand.
Janzen said a gust of wind helped move his third shot to the front of the green, where it curled in within eight feet of the flag. Stewart came out of the bunker to about six feet and made his birdie putt. Then he could only watch as Janzen matched his birdie effort.
Stewart has finished second or third six times this year but has not won since his 1991 U.S. Open triumph.
Azinger finished with a 69 and Parry with a 68 to tie for third. Hoch shot a 68 and Watson, with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th and a 40-footer for par on the last, had a 69.
The victory, Janzen's second of the season, was worth $290,000 and pushed his earnings for the year to $806,990. And, as Stewart sees it, there will be many more titles, many more winnings to come for Janzen.
"He's going to be around for a long time," Stewart said. "He has a lovely golf swing, a great temperament, a beautiful putting stroke. He's a true champion."