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July 10, 2009

Lee Janzen is well-placed to win his first PGA Tour event in 11 years after a 64 on day one of the John Deere Classic.

Lee Janzen is well-placed to win his first PGA Tour event in 11 years after carding a seven-under 64 to claim a share of first place in the John Deere Classic.
Janzen, winner of the 1998 US Open but without a title since, collected birdies on the 16th and 17th holes, but fell back into a tie with Darron Stiles as he found the sand on the 18th to collect his only bogey of the day.
The pair sit one shot ahead of JJ Henry, Matt Bettencourt and Dean Wilson.
Defending champion Kenny Perry is part of an 18-man group tied for 24th at three under, while US Open champion Lucas Glover is among those at two under.
England’s Greg Owen and Brian Davis are part of the group tied for 10th place at four under par.
Janzen has won eight times on the US Tour but has managed just two top 10 finishes in the last three seasons.
But like David Duval in the recent US Open – Duval could only manage a 75 here in round one – Janzen believes his winning days are not yet behind him.
“It’d be exciting; I would love to win,” Janzen said. “If it doesn’t happen this week, I still think that I’m capable of winning, and it won’t stop me from continuing to work on my game to get better.”
Janzen has spent much of the last few seasons working on his swing with coach Mike Bender after leaving Butch Harmon.
And so extreme are the changes that Janzen believes there is just one similarity – “I’m still hitting right-handed.”
“I never had a struggle or challenge like I’ve gone through the last few years,” Janzen said. “So you know, garbage in, garbage out. I’ve got to undo a lot of bad stuff over the last few years on top of rebuilding my swing.”
Stiles, who is tied at the top with Janzen, is the Nationwide Tour’s career money leader and should really be in front on his own after two-putting from three feet at 17. But he did manage to quickly recover with a birdie at 18.
He said: “I’m going to look at that as opposed to the bogey on 17, take the birdie into (the second round) and keep that positive momentum going.”
Duval said he felt tired and perhaps felt like he was coming down with something.
Speaking after his 75 he said: ” I just didn’t play that well.
“I just wasn’t as sharp mentally today. Why? I don’t know. I just wasn’t. I didn’t think as clearly as I would like to. I made a couple of bad decisions that cost me.”
Last year’s winner Perry is looking for a third win of the season and said after his 68 that he was “very pleased” with his round.
“I hit it nice from tee to green,” he said. “I don’t remember missing a fairway or a green out there, so I was right there all day. It was a nice, fun day of golf.”
His only problems came on the greens.
“I three-putted three times. I’ve just got to get out there, and hopefully the greens will dry out a little bit more and pick up a little bit more speed.
“I kept leaving everything short today. I just didn’t have any speed on the putts.
“Then when I did hit it, I hit it way by the hole. It was a battle for me on the greens.”

ALL THE FIRST ROUND SCORES
USA unless stated, par 71):
64 Darron Stiles, Lee Janzen
65 J J Henry, Dean Wilson, Matt Bettencourt
66 Tim Petrovic, Dicky Pride, Matthew Borchert, Jason Day (Aus)
67 Spencer Levin, Brian Davis (Eng), Chris Stroud, Kirk Triplett, Mathias Gronberg (Swe), J.L. Lewis, Cliff Kresge, Greg Owen (Eng), Peter Lonard (Aus), Richard S Johnson (Swe), Daniel Chopra (Swe), George McNeill, Brandt Snedeker, Jason Bohn
68 Patrick Sheehan, Robert Garrigus, Jeff Quinney, David Berganio Jnr., Todd Hamilton, Matthew Jones (Aus), Webb Simpson, Jeff Klauk, Chad Campbell, Marc Leishman (Aus), Briny Baird, Scott McCarron, Andrew Ruthkoski, Ted Purdy, Bob Tway, Kenny Perry, Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Mark Calcavecchia
69 Bart Bryant, Kevin Sutherland, Heath Slocum, Charles Howell III, Brett Quigley, Bo Van Pelt, David Mathis, Frank Lickliter II, Jerry Kelly, Bryce Molder, Pat Perez, Zach Johnson, Lucas Glover, Mark Brooks, Garrett Willis, Steve Elkington (Aus), Ricky Barnes, Tommy Gainey
70 Mike Van sickle, Brady Schnell, Danny Lee (Nzl), Nathan Green (Aus), Bob Estes, Ryan Palmer, Roland Thatcher, Marc Turnesa, Peter Tomasulo, Kris Blanks, John Senden (Aus), Davis Love III, Kevin Streelman, Brian Vranesh, Rich Beem, Jay Williamson, Carl Pettersson (Swe), Johnson Wagner, Scott Verplank, Steve Allan (Aus)
71 Charley Hoffman, Chris Riley, Vaughn Taylor, Colt Knost, David Toms, Harrison Frazar, Steve Marino, Jimmy Walker, Ken Duke, Bob Heintz, Brad Adamonis, Steve Stricker, Kyle Stanley, Jason Dufner, Joe Ogilvie, Matt Kuchar, D.A. Points, Jack Newman, Cameron Beckman, Guy Boros, Ryan Moore, D.J. Trahan
72 Michael Bradley, Bill Lunde, Gary Woodland, Wil Collins, Mark Hensby (Aus), Stephen Leaney (Aus), Derek Fathauer, Charles Warren, Casey Wittenberg, Greg Chalmers (Aus), Tom Lehman, Scott Piercy, Brian Bateman, Jeff Maggert, Kevin Stadler, Glen Day
73 Paul Stankowski, Tag Ridings, Eric Axley, Woody Austin, Zack Sucher, Charlie Wi (Kor), Philip Francis, Arjun Atwal (Ind), Notah Begay III, Scott Sterling, Brandt Jobe, Scott Gutschewski, Tyler Aldridge, Matt Weibring
74 Robert Gamez, Aron Price (Aus), J.P. Hayes, Chez Reavie, Leif Olson, Joel Kribel, Troy Matteson, Nicholas Thompson
75 Bill Haas, Shaun Micheel, Troy Kelly, David Duval, James Driscoll, Aaron Krueger, Jason Gore, Mark Wilson
76 Brendon De Jonge, Kent Jones, Jonathan Kaye, Joe Durant
77 Brad Faxon, Brendon Todd, Rick Price, Jesper Parnevik (Swe)
80 James Oh (Kor)