Lee Janzen will make his sixth start of the year this week at TPC Louisiana. (Cohen/Getty Images)

By Michael Curet, PGATOUR.com Contributing Writer

ZURICH CLASSIC: Power Rankings | Wild card | Inside the field | First Look | Guan, 14, playing

This year’s Zurich Classic saw a little local flavor added to the field in Monday’s qualifier, as Louisiana natives Ken Looper and Matt Fast torched the La Tour Golf Club course with rounds of 62 and 63, respectively.
 
Two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen and Texas native Zack Fischer shot 65 to earn the other two qualifying spots.

Looper, a native of nearby Mandeville, La., is the third former LSU golfer in the field, joining his 2011 Tiger teammate John Peterson and PGA TOUR veteran David Toms, who designed the La Tour course on which Looper qualified. 
 
The 24-year-old started his collegiate career at the University of New Orleans, before transferring to LSU for his senior season.  Thursday’s start will be the first-ever for Looper on the PGA TOUR.

The 26-year-old Fast, born in Baton Rouge and a 2009 graduate of Mississippi State, is looking to make his first cut in his third start on the PGA TOUR following misses at the 2010 Zurich Classic and the 2011 Viking Classic.

Janzen, a Minnesota native and graduate of Florida Southern who now lives in Orlando, has won eight PGA TOUR titles in his career – including the 1993 and 1998 U.S. Open championships and the 1995 THE PLAYERS. In nine appearances at the Zurich Classic, the 48-year-old Janzen has made eight cuts, with a fourth place finish in New Orleans in 2010.

This year, Janzen has made the cut in his last two PGA TOUR appearances. He tied for 69th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard and tied for 61st at the Valero Texas Open).

Fischer, a 23-year-old native of Texarkana, Texas, graduated from University of Texas-Arlington and missed the cut earlier this year in his PGA TOUR debut at the Valero Texas Open.

RENO, Nevada – Padraig Harrington threw out the ceremonial first pitch, while Lee Janzen, Chris DiMarco and Billy Horschel took batting practice prior to Monday’s night Pacific Coast League game between the host Reno Aces and the Sacramento River Cats.

With the PGA TOUR in town for the Reno-Tahoe Open, the Aces – the Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks -- brought in Harrington and Janzen, who have combined for five major wins, along with DiMarco, who has multiple appearances for the U.S. on Presidents and Ryder Cup teams, along with one of the TOUR’s rising stars in Horschel.

Check out these photos from Monday ( photos courtesy of the Reno Aces):

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Ricky Barnes has not had a lot of success at the John Deere Classic. He’s played in the event in three times previously and never made a cut.

Barnes’ luck appears to be changing during Thursday’s first round at TPC Deere Run. He’s just made his seventh birdie of the day at the 15th hole to move to 6 under and into a tie for the lead with Lee Janzen.

On the other hand, Janzen’s made seven appearances at the John Deere Classic and cashed checks in his llast four. But he has yet to post a top-10 finish, his best, in fact, is a tie for 23rd in 2009.

Ted Potter Jr., who picked up his first PGA TOUR victory last week at The Greenbrier Classic, is among a big group at 4 under, two strokes off the lead.

By John Schwarb, PGATOUR.COM

In a wide-ranging pre-tournament interview Tuesday at the Frys.com Open more notable for his comments on Tiger Woods, Rocco Mediate also had some perspective on the long putter.

Some 20 years before today’s PGA TOUR long putter craze, there was a young Mediate, not with the yips exactly but just not putting as well as he wanted to.

“I remember Jim Ferree, who was one of my first teachers actually. I was at Long Cove in Hilton Head in 1990 … he goes, you gotta try this thing. I said all right, and I tried it. And I came out in '91 with it, and I know (Bruce) Lietzke used it then, but then I won and I had like six straight Top 10s or five straight Top 10s [actually, four in five weeks] and I won Doral.

“And I was the antichrist then in the putting world. And now look at it now. Yeah, I was the antichrist. People, I mean trust me, I had a lot of interesting comments about the putter, as you probably remember. So now, look at it now.”

Now, Mediate is going for what he calls a “triple crown” of putting mastery. He has won with a conventional-length putter (including last year’s Frys.com Open) and a long putter, and now he’s going to try to win with a belly putter. “Unprecedented,” he said.

BYRD’S DRIVER: Jonathan Byrd’s TaylorMade SuperFast 2.0 driver was a casualty of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup – it broke at the BMW Championship. He experimented to find a new one, and ended up putting an R11 in play at the JT Shriners.

NEW STUFF: Cleveland Golf debuted its 588 forged clubs in Las Vegas, with Jeff Overton becoming the first Cleveland staffer to use the 588 MB model. Seventeen new 588 forged wedges were in play (Woody Austin had four) and three new fairway wood “Mashies” were also used.

CALI CAMERONS: Scotty Cameron is releasing a refined look to its California putter line, featuring improved “visual flow.”

“My main objective for the new California designs was to take the visual flow to a new level,” Cameron said.

“When you look down at a great putter in the address position, it’s easy to imagine the putter head flowing naturally right into the ground. The refinements we made to these five new models meet and exceed that ideal. It might be a bit esoteric, but you get the sense that water won’t splash off these putters. It looks like water will just roll off the contours of the putters and shed gently off the edges.”

More than 30 refinements were made, including deeper milling in the putter’s face. That yields a softer sound at impact, said to be preferred by many good putters.

The model line is slightly changed, with the Monterey 1.5 model replacing the Coronado. The others – Del Mar, Fastback, Monterey and Sonoma – are mainstays in the California line.

BECK’S AID: Chip Beck, the second man to shoot 59 in a PGA TOUR event, has developed a grip training aid with his wife, Karen. Called “Grip Guides,” it features a heat-activated surface that gives feedback to whether or not you’re gripping the club correctly.

ROUGH TRIP: In case you missed it last week, Lee Janzen’s clubs took a beating on the way to Las Vegas. Wished we could have seen the two-time U.S. Open champion’s face when an airline representative suggested that he could get a rental set.

By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

A lost or delayed bag is one thing. Golf clubs that come off the luggage carousel looking like this is another.

When Lee Janzen touched down at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas on Saturday, he was stunned to find that his clubs were, for all intents and purposes, destroyed. His lob wedge, for example, was bent 40 degrees, while other clubs looked like they’d been put through some sort of metal grinder.

“I opened my airline bag and it smelled like something was burning,” Janzen said via cell phone. “When it came out on the belt I could see there was a hole in the bag and some foam sticking out. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh what happened to my bag?’”

Janzen, who flew Delta out of Orlando over the weekend to Monday qualify for this week’s Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, said in all his years of travel he’s never seen anything like what happened. He also said he thinks it occurred on the ground in Las Vegas and not in Orlando or with the Delta crew.

Janzen added that something similar happened to PGA TOUR rookie Ben Martin in Las Vegas earlier this season when all 14 of his clubs were “decapitated.”

“To do that to somebody’s baggage and to throw them on the carousel like nothing happened,” Janzen continued. “I would want my people to walk them out and start the process.”

When Janzen, who still isn’t certain how the clubs got destroyed other than to speculate that they were jammed into something and dragged, did approach the airline with the damaged clubs an agent at the counter suggested that he could rent a set of clubs in the meantime.

Naturally he didn’t need to, and that’s where a (somewhat) happy ending to the story comes in: Callaway had an exact replica in Janzen’s hands by Sunday afternoon and he qualified for the tournament with a 66 on Monday.

Said Janzen, “Hopefully it’s just the beginning of the story.”

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Jeff Quinney and Lee Janzen played together on Thursday during the first round of the Wyndham Championship. They had rounds that were almost mirror images of each other, too.

Quinney got hot on the back nine, which was their first of the day, and made five straight birdies, starting at the 12th hole. Janzen, on the other hand, got on a roll on the front and he drained five consecutive birdie putts beginning at No. 3.

"We kind of had opposite hot nines," Quinney acknowledged. "... We were both 6 going into the last hole. He ended up three-putting. I ended up birdieing it. Our group saw a lot of putts go in the hole. ... You could see a positive shot down the middle every time. Sometimes we need to see that. 
   
"When you see somebody in front of you hit a good shot it's easy to follow that. We had a good group and good time chatting out there and fed off one another."

Quinney, who ranks 215th in the FedExCup, owns the lead at 7 under while Janzen is among a big group tied for second at 5 under. The third member of their group, Charles Warren, ended up shooting a 67, as well.

Janzen said players come to Sedgefield knowing they need to shoot low scores to survive. Seeing Quinney get on a roll might have helped the veteran get untracked on the front nine, as well.

"I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not but, you know, even making some birdies and going along and, you know, over the last few years we know there's going to be some low scores," said Janzen, who stands 173rd in the FedExCup.

"Not much wind, the greens are soft. The speed of the greens you can be aggressive once you're on them. I decided to stay patient and hit good shots and hit good putts and hopefully a few were going to fall in and it just happened to be that I had five in a row."

Chad Campbell began the week ranked 64th in FedExCup points with one top-10 (a tie for fifth at the  British Open) and four top-25s in his 21 starts. What would a win do for Campbell, who shares the lead entering today’s third round? Well, it could move him as high as 22nd in the standings.

With just five weeks left until the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, though, more is at stake for the other co-leader, rookie Michael Thompson. He came into this week 110th in the standings.

Thompson is playing well at the right time with two top-15 finishes in his last four starts. Should he go on to win, he could move as high as 33rd. He would also be the sixth rookie to win on TOUR this year and the second in a row after Chris Kirk won at last week’s Viking Classic.

One of the players chasing Thompson and Campbell, by the way, is veteran Lee Janzen, who is 182nd in the standings. In the remaining five weeks, Janzen will need the equivalent of two top-five finishes in order to make the top 125. However, a win this week could move Janzen as high as 53rd in the standings.

Click here for live projected FedExCup standings

Most of the afternoon groups are now on the course at Shaughnessy and the trend of tough scoring conditions still continues for a majority of the field. The ratio of players over par to players under par is better than 2 to 1 in the afternoon wave but a couple of TOUR veterans are finding early success. Jerry Kelly and Lee Janzen are currently leading the afternoon wave. Both are at 2 under early in their rounds. Kelly, a 44-year-old three-time TOUR winner birdied his first two holes Friday to get to 1 under for the week and into a tie for seventh. Janzen, a two-time U.S. Open champion, opened with three pars before posting birdies on Nos. 4 and 5 to move to 3 under, just one shot off Chad Campbell’s lead. Among those moving in the opposite direction are Anthony Kim and Ben Crane, who each opened the day at 1 under but have surrendered three shots already this afternoon.

ORLANDO, Fla. – With an overcast sky and slightly cool, damp air, conditions are good for scoring early in the opening round at Bay Hill, where there’s a logjam of players, including Rickie Fowler and Lee Janzen, currently at 3 under.

Fowler, who started on the back nine, birdied his first hole of the day, rolling in a 13-footer on No. 10 before adding another on No. 15. Fowler then eagled the par-5 16th, where he hit his approach to six feet. Fowler made the turn in 4 under but has since dropped a shot on the par-4 third, where he missed the green right and failed to get up-and-down for par ( click here to follow Fowler’s round with Shot Tracker).

Other notables currently on the course include the group of Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan and Bill Haas ( click here to follow). Mahan is off to the best start of anyone in that group at 3 under through seven holes. They also started on the back nine.

Speaking of the back nine, one note of interest is that the tee box across the street on No. 15 is in use today. So far, No. 15 is playing as the seventh most-difficult hole on the course. -- Brian Wacker

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Tavistock Cup, which since 2004 has been an interclub match between Isleworth’s and Lake Nona’s golf professional members, will have a different look this week.

For the first time, four clubs will compete for the Tavistock Cup, with 24 players involved in the competition. The first round of the two-day tournament at Isleworth Golf & Country Club begins in less than an hour (10:50 a.m. ET).

Monday’s format will consist of six matches of four-ball ( see schedule below). Tuesday’s competition will be singles matches.

Isleworth and Lake Nona will be two of the clubs in the competition, along with Albany and Queenwood. Albany is a new luxury resort community in The Bahamas and Queenwood is an exclusive private members’ club in the Surrey countryside near London.

Tiger Woods, fresh off his final-round 66 that bumped him up to 10th place at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship on Sunday, will compete for Team Albany. Reigning U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell leads Team Lake Nona ( team rosters below).

Tavistock Cup contestants play for prize money, team hole-in-one prizes and the title of World Golf And Country Club Champion.

The two-tournament will be broadcast live on the Golf Channel starting at Noon ET.

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TAVISTOCK TEAMS

 

TEAM ALBANY	TEAM ISLEWORTH	TEAM LAKE NONA	TEAM QUEENWOOD
Arjun Atwal	Robert Allenby	Ross Fisher	Thomas Bjorn
Ernie Els	Stuart Appleby	Retief Goosen	Darren Clarke
Trevor Immelman	Brian Davis	Peter Hanson	David Howell
Ian Poulter	J.B. Holmes	Graeme McDowell	Soren Kjeldsen
Justin Rose	Sean O’Hair	Henrik Stenson	Paul McGinley
Tiger Woods	Lee Janzen	Oliver Wilson	Adam Scott

 

MONDAY’S FOUR-BALL MATCHES

 

1	Arjun Atwal-Tiger Woods (Albany)		Thomas Bjorn-Adam Scott (Queenwood)
2	Robert Allenby-Stuart Appleby (Isleworth)		Peter Hanson-Henrik Stenson (Lake Nona)
3	Ian Poulter-Justin Rose (Albany)		Retief Goosen-Graeme McDowell (Lake Nona)
4	Brian Davis-J.B. Holmes (Isleworth)		Soren Kjeldsen-Paul McGinley (Queenwood)
5	Lee Janzen-Sean O’Hair (Isleworth)		Ross Fisher-Oliver Wilson (Lake Nona)
6	Ernie Els-Trevor Immelman (Albany)		Darren Clarke-David Howell (Queenwood)