DATE: Thursday, October 9, 1997             TAG: 9710090699

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                      LENGTH:   65 lines

THERE'S LOTS AT STAKE AT KINGSMILL PLAYERS ARE SEEKING TO GAIN ENTRY TO TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

Yes, there's a tournament about to begin at Kingsmill.

But there's also a tournament within a tournament.

With three weeks to go before the Tour Championship, almost three dozen players here at Kingsmill for the Michelob Championship have an ulterior motive: Cash a big check and move into the top 30 on the PGA Tour's annual money list.

Or in Lee Janzen's case, cash a big check and maintain a foothold.

Only the top 30 at season's end qualify for the Tour Championship, which takes place the last week of October and ends the official PGA Tour season. With the Tour Championship paying $3 million, it can turn a great year into a fabulous year.

``I finished second at the Tour Championship when it was at Pinehurst a few years ago and moved from 19th to ninth on the final list,'' said Janzen, the 1993 U.S. Open champion who is 26th on the current list.

Janzen, after shooting 1-under 70 over Kingsmill's River Course in Wednesday's pro-am, sat back in a soft chair in the media interview room and took a long glance at a copy of this year's money list. Then he started reading off names of the players immediately behind him.

``Cook, Herron, Magee, Kite, Andrade, Duval. Wow, there aren't enough spots for everybody trying to get in. It looks to me like it's going to take about $700,000 to make it (into the Tour Championship).''

Officials of the Michelob Championship figured when they moved their tournament's date from July to October that there might be more than a few players coming to town with the top 30 in mind. Apparently, it's very much on their mind.

Of the 25 players ranking No. 26 to No. 50 on the current money list, 20 are here, including everybody from No. 41 to No. 50. Among the notables in that 10-player set are Payne Stewart, Jay Haas and David Frost.

And here's a fact that might have gotten lost. Kingsmill's champion went on to win the Tour Championship in 1993 and 1994 when Jim Gallagher Jr. and Mark McCumber turned that little double play.

``I'd say anybody better than No. 70 still has a shot to make it,'' Janzen said. ``I remember a year when Bruce Lietzke finished 2-1 coming down the stretch to squeeze into the Tour Championship. Craig Stadler made a late charge a couple years ago to make it too, then he won.''

Besides playing in the Tour Championship, the top 30 on the money list qualify for the four major tournaments.

``And besides,'' Janzen said. ``It's a lot easier to go out and beat 29 guys than it is to beat 150.''

The tournament where you have to beat 150 - 155 to be exact - begins this morning as the chase is on for a purse of $1.55 million, $279,000 going to the winner.

Notes: Fulton Allem, Jimmy Johnston and Guy Boros withdrew on Wednesday and were replaced in the field by Sonny Skinner, Todd Demsey and Larry Silveira. Mother Nature must know it's here. Unseasonably warm weather should give the players highs around 80 degrees each day. ... Tom Kite and Russ Cochran tied for low-pro rounds in Wednesday's pro-am with both shooting 6-under 65s. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Shane Bertsch of Evergreen, Colo., won't find things so relaxing

today when he competes in the first round of the Michelob

Championship.

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