DATE: Saturday, October 11, 1997            TAG: 9710110501

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Compiled by STEVE CARLSON, JIM DUCIBELLA, SCOTT HARPER and

        RICH Radford

LENGTH: 123 lines

MICHELOB REPORT

Janzen rides wave

into contention

with 6-under 65

WILLIAMSBURG - Lee Janzen, the 1993 U.S. Open champion and one of Tom Kite's two captain's picks for this year's U.S. Ryder Cup team, burned some rubber Friday morning with a 6-under-par 65 that thrust him back into the picture at the Michelob Championship at 5 under for the tournament.

It also tied him for low round of the day with Fred Funk and Mark Carnevale.

Janzen's round included a 25-foot birdie putt at the par-4 sixth, his 15th hole of the day, which energized him.

``I'd hit a sand wedge that sucked back down a swale,'' Janzen said. ``I thought I was giving away a shot there and then I make the putt.''

Nearly a thousand people were at the sixth hole when Janzen canned that putt. He was playing in a group of true crowd favorites in Payne Stewart and Mark Brooks. And Curtis Strange's group was in the fairway behind him. So his putt earned some hearty cheering.

``I didn't want to just make the cut,'' said Janzen, who had opened with a 1-over 72. ``I wanted to move up the ladder.''

Mission accomplished.

``Moose call'' sounds

for local Carnevale

Mark Carnevale, known to his friends as ``Moose,' violated his golden rule during Thursday's opening round.

He vowed to play aggressively, but played like a lamb.

``I was angry afterwards,'' said Carnevale, who is from Williamsburg. ``I went to the range and beat some balls. I mean, I hit 13 of 14 fairways Thursday, but from there, everything was short, or right. I just wasn't aggressive with my irons.''

Friday, he lived closer to his standards and the results were startling - a 6-under-par 65 for a 36-hole total of 140 that easily allowed him to make the cut.

Carnevale's round, his lowest by a stroke in his 14 appearances here, was saved with an up-and-down par at the 17th, his eighth hole of the day. Carnevale slapped his tee shot right of the green and halfway down the embankment that leads to the James River at the par-3. But he chipped up to 3 feet and tapped in for par that kept him at 2 under.

At the 18th, he punched a 5-iron approach shot 6 inches from the hole and made birdie. He followed that with another birdie on No. 1 and was on his way to the lowest competitive round of his last 32 here.

Playing the hot hand

After shooting a 60 in the final round of last week's Buick Challenge, Steve Lowery couldn't wait to get back on the course. Lowery finished tied for third in that tournament, and preceded it with a tie for 14th and a tie for 16th.

He's remains hot this week, putting together rounds of 68-66-134, leaving him in a six-way tie for third place at the midway point just two shots off the lead. Nine of Lowery's last 14 competitive rounds have been in the 60s.

``Coming off a 60 I was pretty excited about playing,'' Lowery said. ``My confidence is high, I've been playing good. I feel like I'm going out and playing aggressive and a lot of good things are happening. I'm making a lot of birdies, and when I'm playing well I'm making a lot of birdies.''

A Funk-y flip-flop

Fred Funk is a switch-gripper.

The one-time Maryland golf coach said he was not hitting his irons well Thursday, so while working on the range after his opening round he switched from an overlapping to an interlocking grip.

This is odd, but it's nothing new for Funk. He said he's used one grip off the tee at times, then the other on the fairway. He's won four tour events - two with each grip.

``I haven't figured out in four years why one works one day and one works the next,'' Funk said.

Assault charges

filed against Lickliter

PGA Tour golfer Frank Lickliter was charged with aggravated assault late last Saturday after police say he pulled a knife on a man at a Duluth, Ga., sports bar.

Lickliter, 28, played in the Michelob Challenge at Kingsmill, but missed the cut after shooting 69-75-144.

``I am denying all of the allegations totally,'' Lickliter said while changing his shoes in the players' locker room at Kingsmill.

Lickliter, of Franklin, Ohio, got angry and allegedly pulled a pocketknife with a 4-inch blade after a 21-year-old man, Frederick Lee Barrett, bumped into Lickliter's girlfriend, then Lickliter, at a bar called Barnacle's.

Ferris wheels

out of Kingsmill

Norfolk's Troy Ferris is back home today, still a little aglow from his first experience on the PGA Tour. That he didn't come within a mile of making the cut at the Michelob Championship almost didn't matter. Ferris crashed the party Monday by holing a sand shot from 35 yards on the final hole of qualifying at Ford's Colony.

``I just turned pro last Oct. 28. Less than a year later, I never thought I'd be playing in a PGA tournament,'' Ferris, 23, said. ``This is a dream come true. I wanted to make the cut, but you have to hit the fairways, and the greens were kind of hard and fast. But this has been a great experience I wouldn't trade for anything.''

Ferris, who lost to Richmond's John Rollins in the final match of the 1996 State Amateur tournament, said he's going to Georgia soon to play the Powerbilt Tour, then in January, try to qualify for the Hooters Tour.

Ferris said he wouldn't soon forget his two days at Kingsmill.

``All the guys from Ocean View were here and at one time, there must have been about 60 people following me around,'' he said. ``Kids were asking me for my golf ball, there were two or three guys interviewing me after every round. God, I'd love to come out here full-time.''

Co-pilot steps in

Kirk Triplett's wife, Cathi, is caddying for him this week, but she wasn't feeling well Friday and had to give the bag to a friend of Triplett's on the fifth tee, their 14th hole of the day. The friend who stepped in was Bruce Miller, an ex-Navy pilot from Virginia Beach.

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