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Reflections |
Bruce Lietzke
Professional golfer
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Practice has seldom been lost on Bruce Lietzke. Well known, admired and envied for his ability to forego the practice greens, driving ranges and for that matter any practice at all in the off-season and still turn out solid performances year after year, Lietzke never played more than 25 events in any PGA Tour season and never more than 20 tournaments in a single season after 1988.
He’s been known to claim that there’s nothing out on the practice tee for him to work on since his swing has stayed exactly the same throughout his career, but the other reason for his philosophy came in 1983 with the arrival of his first child. Since then, Lietzke vowed to be an active father to his two children and husband to his wife, Rose.
An often-told story that sums up Lietzke’s laid-back style as a golfer originated when his caddie stuck a banana underneath his driver cover, sure that Lietzke was joking when he said he wouldn’t see his golf bag again until the first tournament of the next year. That banana remained untouched until the following season, when the caddy found the shriveled, blackened and rotten mess.
Lietzke tossed the driver and kept the caddie.
He first met the game of golf at age 5, when his older brother fashioned a shortened golf club and taught him how to play. He was the only golf teacher Lietzke ever had.
After a standout collegiate career at the University of Houston, Lietzke turned pro in the mid-’70s and immediately made waves, winning the 1977 Joe Garagiola-Tucson Open, the 1977 Hawaiian Open, the 1978 Canadian Open, the 1981 Bob Hope Desert Classic and an impressive nine additional Tour titles.
He also played in the 1999 Ryder Cup as assistant captain to Ben Crenshaw. Another assistant captain that year was his close friend and fellow golfer, Bill Rogers.
On the Champions Tour, the 56-year-old is on fire — he tied for second at the Allianz Championship in February and ranks 13th on the money list so far for 2008. He also won his first major, the U.S. Senior Open, in 2003.
— Darcy DeVictor, associate editor
"…That’s one of the biggest things they talk about, how big the difference in equipment makes in scores. And I really believe from my early days on Tour in the middle ’70s, golf courses now from week to week are literally perfect. And I think that’s made just as much difference in the lower scores than a golf ball that goes farther or drivers that go farther. Again, I started the regular Tour in ’75, and only maybe a fourth of the golf courses were in what I would say really good shape…It used to be just luck, I think, or they had to get just the right weather. And now they have figured out no matter what the weather conditions are, they can get certain grasses to grow, and they can make them grow fast. Years ago, when guys built new golf courses, it took five years to grow a golf course in. And now you can be playing a golf course that, they just opened the gates, and the golf course is in perfect shape. So, those things have come a long way. And the Tour golf courses have come a long way, too. Every one is in great shape now. And like I said, 30 or 40 years ago, maybe a fourth of them were in really nice condition." |
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