THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 26, 1999

Bruce Lietzke

BRUCE LIETZKE: A little tougher day than conditions were yesterday. I was the first group off yesterday morning and really had no wind to speak of the entire day, and I had a 3-under at one time yesterday and made a couple of bogeys coming in. Today, played a very similar round; although it played a little harder. There was a little bit of wind out there today that was at times puzzling to figure the direction. The velocity wasn't that bad, but the direction was tough to come up with. But today I got the same birdies. I had a same kind of round going, and today I just didn't give any of them back. Finishing on the back 9, there is a chance you can give them back. And I -- after not birdieing 16, just played very conservative on 17 and 18. And you play for pars, and you take a bogey, if you get one. And fortunately I made pars coming in. Both days were really similar, except yesterday I bogeyed a couple holes coming in, bogeyed 5 and 8 yesterday, and today I hung onto the birdies that I had and didn't give any of them back. My only bogey today was on the first hole, and that was a very poor bogey, had sand wedge into the green, 96 yards to the pin, and spun it off the front of the green and 3-putted. So after that, I took advantage of the birdie chances you -- that you get out there, if you are below the hole. And luckily I was real lucky with my iron-play today. Hit a lot of good, solid iron shots; but you have got to be lucky for your ball to end up on the part -- side of the green where you can putt uphill. And I was fortunate that most of my putts today were makeable birdie putts, and I made most of those. You can be -- I was just telling some of the press earlier, that you'd rather be 20 feet putting uphill than you'd be 5 feet putting downhill. I have made that comment at Augusta National many times. These greens are very, very similar; very similar in speed. In fact, I would say exactly the same speed from what I see, with just slightly less slope than Augusta National has. But, boy, there are some putts out there that can really get away from you, my God. Iron shots fortunately ended up below the hole, and I had some makeable opportunities. When I am not below the hole, I am putting very conservatively and 2-putting -- trying to 2-putt from 15 to 20 feet if you are coming from the wrong side of the hole. But two really good solid ball-hitting rounds, and two really good days of putting, so I am pretty happy to be in this position. And it is a golf course I have a decent history on; not many top-fives or top-tens, but lots of good tournaments scattered through here through the years. So it is one I enjoy coming back to. That never -- and the only time I can really think that I contended was the first year that we came here and Jerry Pate birdied 17 and 18, when I had a one-shot lead -- one-shot lead going into the 16th hole. And he birdied 17 and 18, and I bogeyed 16. So that was my one, the one I can remember anyway. There may be another, but that is the closest I have come to winning. I have got good memories here, and I would like to add to those memories this week.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yes, I should have a real good chance having five in a row, birdied 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. Hit 6-iron about eight feet from the hole on 13, and hit a putt just right where I was wanting it. Caught the right lip, very slowed speed, just spun out. And the 16th hole I got pretty bad -- I guess you'd call it a bad break. I was just left of the pin in the fringe, but I had three sprinkler heads, and the only place that I can land this chip shot -- I couldn't fly it over the sprinkler heads because it would have gone past the hole and down a slope probably 30, 35 feet past the hole. And so I had to play left of the pin, purposely, and gave myself about a 12-footer. I lipped that 12-footer out. I feel like that would have been a pretty sure birdie. It was a relatively easy chip shot from a real good lie, but the three sprinkler heads on the side of the green kept me from gambling. Because if I hit the sprinkler heads, it could stop there, or it could skip off one and go in the water. And water is just staring you right there at 16. Yeah, there was two or three birdies that I might have left out there, but -- and I didn't make any -- didn't have to make any long-par putts; but, boy, anything outside of three or four feet, and you are having to work real hard and you have to hit perfect speed putts. And again, very similar to Augusta, even if you have picked the right line, if you pick the wrong speed, you will miss your putts. So I did have some 3-, 4-, and 5-footers for pars that were the only real danger I had in bogeys, making bogeys after the first hole.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Not much. Other than the fact that you do have to either be lucky or be good enough to have your iron shots below the holes at both golf courses. That is about the only similarity. Augusta's greens have much more slope than these do. Both courses are similar in that I think local knowledge comes into play, and you will see mostly veteran players win here through the years. I can't think of the past champions right now, but the ones I can think of all played here over the years, and Augusta is very much that way. Fuzzy has been the only first-time winner in the last 50 or 60 years there. It really takes some years of getting to know these greens and some of the teeing areas, but mostly it is the greens and where you can miss a shot and where you can't. And, again, the putting becomes defensive at times where, depending on where you are. At times it looks like such a simple golf course, but if you have played here long enough, you can be in the middle of No. 14th fairway, and a rookie is thinking: Boy, I can -- this is just an automatic birdie hole. And anybody that has played that hole, even from the middle of the fairway, knows that you can make triple bogey from the middle of the fairway on 14, basically any hole in the golf course? I think knowing the golf course and being a little more mature and more of a veteran, allows us to play the golf course a little smarter, because we do know the potential around these greens; especially this year this might be the most severe I can remember the greens as far as speed and firmness. The rough around the greens is more than I remember it. More experience than ever to play this golf course, and that is -- that is about the only similarities I can think between Augusta and here.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I haven't noticed any real softness in the fairways, at least they are not picking up mud. That is my only concern. If the fairways stay wet enough that you are picking up a chunk of mud where I can't clean off the ball, and then try to hit into these targets, that would raise a lot of complaints. Actually, the fairways seem to be rolling okay. I don't notice -- they have had more water on them than they have the greens, that is without a doubt. There is still some moisture in the fairways. But that doesn't really bother me too much. This isn't a power hitter's golf course. There is a lot of times that I don't hit drivers on this golf course and still get around okay. I don't know if they are just trying to keep the lushness or keep the fairways healthy or whatever, but I don't really have a problem with the way they are setting the fairways up. The greens look real sickly to me, and I have kind of got a problem with, you know, trying to ride that perfect line of that or the borderline of fairness and unfairness when you put the health of the greens in peril for the rest of the year for people who want to play the golf course rest of the year. I think there ought to be a little more caution and put more water on the greens when they look like this and not be so score conscious. Look at the list of champions that they have had here, and you don't have to trick this golf course up. And this golf course played -- last ten years has played beautifully. I like the changes. I played here when they first -- when we first came here and the golf course was tricked up from a style viewpoint. They have softened it in places. It is still a wicked golf course, but I think it is a fair golf course until they let the greens get so firm that they can't be held. And more than anything I am just worried about the health of them. They look like they are dying or they are dead. And just for the sake of a golf tournament once a year, I can't see putting the greens in peril. That is not my business.

BRUCE LIETZKE: We have talked about it in some of the players' meetings last year that -- some courses were becoming just like pin cushions or throwing darts. Of course you can't get all the pros to agree on anything. There is always going to be big, diverse opinions among us. But there was a big movement to dry the golf courses out -- fairways and greens.

BRUCE LIETZKE: In the last five years, I can remember two or three of the tournaments in the last five -- trying to think of the ones where we maybe have had an occasional rain at night or something to soften them up.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, Elkington won -- has he won twice?

BRUCE LIETZKE: One of the years he won, the greens started looking like this, but not 'til Saturday and Sunday. I have never seen the greens brown on Tuesdays. And we knew what we were in for when I played my first practice round Tuesday and the greens were turning brown then. It has usually been a Saturday/Sunday concern. This year it has been every single day. And I know they worry about sun, I mean, cloud-cover. And if they have cloud-cover, then supposedly the greens never turn brown. Yeah, probably when Norman shot those low numbers. I was here that year, and the conditions were absolutely perfect. We had no wind for four years, if I remember right, and it wasn't that long ago. He shot it up, and some of the other guys shot it up pretty good too. He was the best player in the world; isn't he supposed to shoot pretty good when you have great conditions? I still say wind is the greatest equalizer on the Tour. If you don't have wind, there isn't a golf course in the United States -- and Oak Tree kind of proved that in '84, because that was going to be the great, tough golf course that was going to bring the players and, you know, back over March. But the wind didn't blow in Oak Tree somehow that week in August, and we shot way under. That is when I was convinced that there aren't any golf courses these days that the Tour players can't shoot low on if the wind stays down. I just think that is just the way it goes. I don't think you start building golf courses to be tougher under perfect conditions. I think the pros are supposed to shoot low when you give them ideal conditions and perfect-conditioned golf courses, that has made a big difference too.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, the No. 7 green has been extremely firm. The pin was back today, so they gave you a little bit of green to work with today. Yesterday, it was on the very front of the green. And the front of the green is built up three or four feet. If you fly -- if you land it short of the green, or where we are hoping that it is firm, it would jump up to the front part of the green. But if you land it on the green, it will -- the first jump can be probably a 30-foot jump, and then maybe the spin will take hold; sometimes it won't. That just puts us in a real predicament. A lot of times you want to miss that kind of a shot short of the green. You might purposely leave your shot short of the green. I did that on 2 today. I had a chance to go -- the pin was more towards the front, and I wanted to leave myself short of the green, so purposely, and I didn't -- you can't go over the green on 2, or you have got no chip coming back. So purposely missed the green on 2, left myself one club short, because I didn't want to go over the green. I didn't want to put up with or live with the circumstances of flying a ball on the green and watching it skip over, and that was one of the places, since I have played here, that you can't make birdie from over the green on two. And again, a rookie or guys that only played here once or twice, might still try to fly it on that No. 2 green. A lot of pins are starting -- several of the greens are getting like that, but 2 and 7, I can -- just right off the top of my head, are greens that I may not even be trying to hit it on the green. I am trying to put it in a place where I can make a par.

BRUCE LIETZKE: It is a fade, Herb.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Except the one that was on 18, that was a slice. (laughter).

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah. No. 2 is a hook tee shot. No. 5 is a fade fairway, but there is a big, tall pine tree just about 100 yards off the left of the tee that my ball has to come within ten yards of for my fade to be able to get into the fairway. No. 10 is a hook tee shot. No. 18 is a hook tee shot.

BRUCE LIETZKE: 16 is a hook tee shot, definitely. So -- but there is some fade shots out there. I really don't see this golf course favoring anybody. And if you go down the list of past champions, you see every kind of a ball-striker, high-ball hitter, hook -- guys that hook the ball off the tee, and guys that fade the ball off the tee. It is a great -- very well-designed golf course. Great routing. Very similar to Doral in that very seldom you don't have fairways that parallel each other. And you always have a different angle to win on just about every tee shot. It is not a golf course that goes straight out that way and comes back this way, and the wind is always blowing from the same direction. There is little dog-legs that make your angles with the wind different, and Doral is exactly like that. And Doral has a genius of a routing, and this is too. This is a wonderfully routed golf course. It keeps you on your toes. You always have to be checking the wind at all times.

BRUCE LIETZKE: There is more good players out here than there were ten years ago, and in my case, than 25 years ago. I'd say every player in this field is capable of winning. When I came out in 1957, there were 40 guys in each field that were capable of winning.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I don't think there is more power hitters, no. There is still a handful. There is 10 or 12 guys that we all marvel at in the locker room, and you hear them talking about, you know, " Duval drove it here today" or Tiger and the handful -- I don't see -- I don't see more long-ball hitters. I am not sure if I see a real trend in players or not -- they -- they are still lots of different swings out -- every guy on the practice tee hits a beautiful shot out there and every guy can hit bunker shots and putts. There is more -- the Nike Tour I, think develops more experience for guys, 72 holes of golf, and they are much more ready to win when they come out here than in the '70s when it was a one- or two- or three-year period to break in. And in the '60s, according to some of the guys I have talked to, it was a five-year process of learning how to win on Tour. So there is more quality players; the talent level, I will still take Eddie Pearce at 16 against Tiger Woods at 16. I played a lot against guys like that. Ben Crenshaw at 16, I would have taken him against Tiger at 16, or equal anyway. So there is always super-talented players out here, and some of them are coming to the forefront now, and it is developing into some good rivalries. But overall, talent is talent. And there is lots of it out here, but not a whole lot more than there has been for a long time. I still kind of consider myself a new-generation player. I don't like to think of myself as a veteran, but I am a couple years from the SENIOR TOUR, so I guess I am in that category. I don't think that way very often, but I guess I am.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, I think there is something to be said about guys that work on -- that work too much. And I am a big believer that you can hurt yourself on the practice range as much as you can help yourself. There are guys that have won major championships out here and lots of Tour events that have gone on to look for some perfect golf swing, or they have looked for 20 extra yards off the tee or looked to hit a fade instead of a hook. And one of the, maybe the biggest fear is that a golfer would have or anybody would have is to lose your talent or to lose your game and I just -- I got happy -- I have been happy with my swing and I don't want my swing to get any better because I don't want it to change. I want my swing to be the same as it was six weeks ago; in my case, the same swing that it was 25 years ago, and I think then you can -- you can take your time off and if you devoted yourself to that swing, and have confidence in it, and more you play it the more confidence you get, you can take your time off and not go home and belt a couple thousand balls, but if you do what most players do and it seems to me it is just -- I am the odd ball in the crowd -- it seems to be human nature to want to get better and I don't want to get better, I just want to shoot lower scores. I think I can do that in other ways than working on my golf swing because I can hit the ball close and I can hit 15 or 16 greens a round. I just want to shoot better scores. I don't want to have a better golf swing. Guys flip that around a lot of times, they are shooting good golf courses; they think they can shoot better by hitting the ball better or learning to play golf courses that hook the ball. They want to -- if the golf course fades, they want to fade it. Boy, you better go work on that swing and better be the right swing. So I just -- I haven't changed anything in my swing for 25 years. That is exactly the way I want it to be. It is just the swing that I want and I don't want it to change. I do have to work on my short game a little more often. When I come to a tournament like this and I have had weeks off, then I do work on my chipping and putting in the practice rounds more than I do the golf swing because the golf swing does seem to stay the same week in, week out.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I kind of go out -- I am helping coach a high school golf team. My son is a freshman in Dallas. I do take a wedge and maybe a putter with me and they need some chaperones on the golf course, so I go out and watch these guys either in the qualifying or practicing. We have had three or four tournaments now, but I do kind of go out and watch. I usually don't play nine holes with them because I don't want to intimidate any of them. They are all real good guys, but a lot of them, their golf has been qualifying and I don't want to play golf with them and make them nervous. I have watched them and we have had three tournaments. We have won one of them. We won the last one we played in. So it has been interesting, to say the least, watching these teenagers go after a game. I have got four seniors that are good players and my son is a pretty decent player, but I had one kid 7-putt three weeks ago and he tried every one of them. I had another one that ran out of golf balls after 16 holes and had to go find some -- find another golf ball so he can finish his round. So it is very -- it is interesting and -- but a lot of fun spending a lot of time with my son and my daughter is playing volleyball, so I am staying real busy, not -- like I said, I might take a sand wedge with me out on the golf course while I am watching and chipping around watching them play, but I haven't been playing any when I have been home.

BRUCE LIETZKE: No, just trying to engage his game mostly is what I am trying to do. I am going to blame it on burnout from school. I am going to assume after seven hours of school, he just suffered a flameout with the brain, but he is a pretty talented kid, but it's got to be channeled in the right direction. He is -- very interesting personalities; going to be a lot of fun for the next four years.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Trinity Christian Academy in Addison, Texas.

BRUCE LIETZKE: No. No mechanics stuff at all. I did give a kid a putting lesson the other day and his head was moving. It was -- but I don't do -- and most kids these days have coaches, or you know, a home pro or something like that and I don't want to -- first of all, I don't even teach my own son so I am not a swing coach in any form. I have tried to talk to some of them about strategy and, you know, good decisions and bad decisions on the golf course; I think that is where I could help, make some mature decisions. But ultimately teenagers are going to make mistakes and they only learn from their own mistakes. They don't learn when adults tell them. I have tried to help some of them, but there is liable to be more 7-putts and more interesting things happening in the next four years.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I have my -- my oldest brother is ten years older than I am. He has been the only coach I have ever had, but I haven't had a lesson in 26 or 27 years, so -- but if I had a problem with my golf swing, he would be the only person I would go to. His name is Dwayne.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I have got -- I have four more tournaments after this week and that is it.

BRUCE LIETZKE: That is not one of the four, no.

BRUCE LIETZKE: You bet. I am happy you did, Melanie.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Houston, Dallas, Colonial and Las Vegas.

BRUCE LIETZKE: My son is still doing junior golf and he is not driving yet so I will be escorting him for virtually the whole summer; summer vacation with Bill Rodgers and his family and one other vacation with my parent -- my wife's parents. That is pretty much the same exact route taken for the last 3, 4 years that my son has been playing in junior golf. Then in the fall I am working on a hot rod that had my attention. I have been wanting to build this car for about two years. I finally bought it, so I am going to be building a car during these fall tournaments.

BRUCE LIETZKE: That is going to be my 10th tournament of the year. I did forget to mention the Ryder Cup. That is my 10th tournament. I have got to be there the whole week so I consider that an official tournament. Yeah, I am going to be assistant to Ben Crenshaw at the Ryder Cup so that will be my 10th tournament of the year.

BRUCE LIETZKE: 27 Ford roadster, hot rod.

BRUCE LIETZKE: 1927 Ford.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, that is pretty much it. I will take some of these high school experiences; carry it over to these knuckle heads that we are going to be taking to Brookline.

BRUCE LIETZKE: It will be black when it gets painted. It is not painted yet.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Pretty easy. Bogeyed my first hole with a sand wedge to the green. 3-putt. No. 2, short of the green; pitched up just past the hole; not a very good pitch shot, but I made a 15-footer for birdie coming back on 2. I believe all my pars were 2-putt pars until No. 9 and No. 9 I hit a pitching wedge to six feet, made that. No. 10, hit 7-iron to about 16 feet. Made that. No. 11, I hit a driver and 3-wood just off the fringe of the green. I pitched to about five feet, made that for a birdie. No. 12, I hit a pitching wedge, second shot to about eight feet. Made that for a birdie. All the rest were 2-putt pars. I may not - No. 1 might have been the only -- actually I didn't miss No. 1. Hit it to the front of the green; may have hit all 18 greens, I haven't thought about it. But just right off the top of my head I don't think I missed any greens today.