Janzen chasing top 125 and Kodak Challenge at Viking

text size

Hallowell/Getty Images

Lee Janzen could use a big week at the Viking Classic to help secure his TOUR card and move up in the Kodak Challenge.

MADISON, Miss. -- Now that the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup is over, it's time for Lee Janzen to get back to work. Janzen, who has been idle for the last five weeks as the Playoffs played out, is back at Annandale Golf Club for the Viking Classic knowing exactly what he needs to do.

MORE

Standings
Full coverage

"Five fall events left, 139th on the (money) list. I know that I have to move up," Janzen said.

Janzen, an eight-time PGA TOUR winner, with two of those victories coming at the U.S. Open, understands that the top 125 money winners at the conclusion of this year will be fully exempt to play on the 2011 PGA TOUR. He knows he has some work to do.

"My goal really is just to play well this week. And if I do that, then everything will be fine," he said.

While there is the long-term goal of full playing privileges for next season, Janzen is also acutely aware of his position in the Kodak Challenge standings. He is three strokes behind overall points leader Rickie Fowler, in a tie for third with six other players. With Fowler a bit occupied in Wales this week with the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Janzen looks at the Viking Classic as a place where he can move up the standings.

The par-5 18th at Annandale Golf Club is the Kodak Challenge hole -- one of 30 used during the season. The player with the best relative-to-par score on those holes after the season's final event, the Children's Miracle Network Classic, wins $1 million.

"I feel like I'm going to have to eagle that hole if I'm to have a chance to win the Kodak," Janzen said Wednesday of the hole guarded on the right side by a large lake.

It's not like Janzen hasn't done that before. This will be the eighth time he's played the Viking Classic when the tournament has been staged at Annandale. In his 23 rounds he missed the cut twice and only played 54 holes during the rain-shortened 2002 event Janzen has recorded one bogey, 10 pars, 10 birdies and, yes, two eagles.

"When you get in the practice rounds, you think, OK, I need to birdie this hole because it would be great at the end of the year to win the Kodak Challenge," Janzen said. "That's a pretty significant prize.

"So whenever I get [to the Kodak Challenge hole], I'm going to be thinking, 'hit a good drive, hit it on the green,'" he continued, "which you should do anyway. But I won't be playing that hole thinking, 'I don't want to make a mistake.'"

Of the top eight in the current standings, only Fowler, Brandt Snedeker and Jimmy Walker are not in Mississippi. Second-place Troy Merritt, along with Tim Petrovic, Carl Pettersson and John Senden, all tied with Janzen in third, know this is a week to make a move on Fowler without him able to do anything about it.

Janzen, though, isn't losing sight of what he's really trying to do -- improve his place on the money list. Familiarity with the course and past success at the Viking Classic suggest Janzen is in a good spot. He finished third as recently as 2006.

"You know, I don't want to be there on Sunday trying to think, 'OK, a 4 wins the tournament or a 5 wins the tournament and I try to make eagle for the Kodak Challenge.' The tournament will take precedence if it comes to that.

"But there's definitely an opportunity for an eagle on that hole this week. A double eagle would go a long way," he said. "If I make a double eagle, I will slide across the green and do a Kodak moment."