THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 27, 1998

Bruce Lietzke

BRUCE LIETZKE: Oh, good for him.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Okay, I had ended up -- no bogeys yesterday. That is something I was kind of trying to strive for today, especially early this morning when the wind wasn't doing very much and that lasted for two holes. I made my first bogey of the tournament on No. 2 after opening up with easy tap-in birdie on No. 1. My bogey-free-golf ended there. I made another bogey on the front 9 on No. 7 from out of a green-side bunker, but fortunately, I was making the opportunities that I gave myself for birdies. Made some really good putts. Made some more good par-saving putts which obviously you have to do to be under par. And, my ball hitting still isn't very sharp. And, it probably shouldn't be since I haven't played in several days. But, my driving was pretty good. My putting has been excellent for two days and I want that to continue for the weekend. And, I really just need to hit high iron shots a little closer. I am hitting a lot of greens, but I am not hitting the irons pretty close. I know that has been the secret of my success in the past. I always considered this a second-shot golf course. There is a slight premium on the drive here, but really -- and the premium being that to hit a high soft-iron shot into the greens - and obviously you need to be coming out of the fairway to do that - but the real key are those iron shots here. And, I know that is the secret to my success over the years is -- my only option is a high fade. That is the only shot I hit and that just so happens to be the kind of shots you have to hit into these greens when they get as firm and fast as they are. When I got here Monday and I heard the five or six day forecast was for dry and breezy and I knew that the tournament committee would be able to regulate the amount of water on the greens. I know they always wanted to get this golf course firm and dry. And, they were going to have the opportunity to do it and especially after my practice round on Tuesday, I knew that this was going to be a week that the irons are going to have to really be soft with a lot of spin to try to hole them on these real firm and relatively small targets that we have here at the Players Club so -- and, again, I have hit a lot of greens. I just haven't hit it very close. My lag putting has been good, so I have kept 3-putts to a minimum. I have driven the ball good, so I am hitting a lot of fairways and those are the good parts. The bad part is: I need to be a lot closer to the pin more often and especially continue to avoid those bogeys like I have done for the first two days.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Birdie on 1 was a tap-in with a pitching wedge second shot to about two feet. I made that. No. 2, 3-putt, bogey from the back of the green. I was probably 35 feet away. I missed just about a 3-foot second putt. I made a birdie on No. 4 from about six feet and my second shot there was with a 9-iron. I birdied No. 6 after being in the right rough. I hit a pitching wedge to about 20 feet to the right of the flag and I made a nice long curling birdie putt on 6. My second and last bogey of the day came on No. 7. I hit a 5-iron second shot into the left fairway bunker. Blasted out as good as I could, but it went about 15 feet past the hole which was about as close as I could get it and I missed that 15-footer. And fortunately that was my last bogey of the day. I did make a good par-saving putt on number 9. I was over the green in my third shot, and I chipped back about 12 feet past the hole and I made a real nice par-saving putt from 12 feet on 9. Back 9 was mostly 2-putt pars. My birdie on the back 9 came on the 11th hole when I 2-putted. I hit driver and 3-wood, just into the right front fringe and I was only 20 feet from the hole and my first putt from the fringe came up about a foot to the right and I tapped that in for an easy birdie. All 2-putt pars the rest of the day. No. 14, I missed the green to the right, but I was in the fringe and I putted through the fringe and made -- I take it back. No. I ended up chipping that. I had a putter out and I went to a wedge so I did -- I missed the 14th green and I chipped three feet from the hole and I made that for a par. Missed makeable birdie putt on 16 from about eight feet, but I made par there. 17 was a 2-putt par, and 18 I came up short of the green about ten feet and I hit a pitch shot with a sand wedge, to about six feet past the hole and I made that one coming back for a good par-saving and round-saving putt.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, I played nine tournaments last year. I am only going to play ten tournaments this year and I know what those tournaments are. The remainder of my schedule is Houston, Dallas, Colonial, and then Las Vegas which is late in October so, I have got three tournaments in May and then I won't play again until the -- I think it is the third week of October.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I am retired. This is kind of something I wanted to do. I started thinking about retiring in 1982 and I just didn't do a very good job of it. I kept playing 18 tournaments and 20 tournaments and 17 tournaments and those were still weeks away from my family and I thought that was going to be enough to keep me satisfied competitive-wise and to keep me satisfied and keep me at home enough. And it wasn't enough. I continued to be at tournaments. I continued to play good at tournaments but I never -- I just didn't want to be there. Just constantly missed being with my family and so I made some kind of a real commitment to myself that I was going to play the SENIOR TOUR. I did all the math and I figured out that my kids will be going to college -- my youngest will go to college when I am 52 years old and my wife would still like to do some travelling. She didn't do much travelling before we got married, and the SENIOR TOUR is just a great opportunity to, you know, travel around. Maybe do some travelling that we didn't get to do before and so, I made a commitment. I was going to play the SENIOR TOUR actively and I don't know how many tournaments that is going to be. And I just didn't want to play this Tour right up to the day that I turned 50 and then go out and play a pretty full schedule of senior events. I am ready to take a little bit of a break and so I made a commitment to myself last year and I just didn't know if I was going to be able to do it, but I told myself I would play no more than 10 tournaments. I did a good job last year, only played nine last year and I was going to play probably nine this year until I got a phone call here Sunday night and said: "Would you like to play?" And I didn't give them an immediate answer. I had to think about that. I had seen the fishing forecast for this week in Texas and I promise you, and I don't care what my position is on the score boards, this is going to be the best week of fishing in Texas, a great five-day forecast (laughter). I had my boat ready to go, and, boy, I got that phone call Sunday night, and I had to think about it for a while and see. I have proven to myself I am human. I still err in my ways and here I ended up coming here even though the fishing was going to be fantastic this week. It is a course I like to play and it is a course I have got a good history on, but that is pretty much -- my involvement in the SENIOR TOUR and my commitment to the SENIOR TOUR just makes me want to take my time off now. So I just kind of consider myself in a retirement mode and I still like coming out -- I still love to play golf, and I am still competitive. I just don't care if I play a whole lot of tournaments and I don't care where I fall on the money list or things like that anymore.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I'd make more money, obviously have more chances to win, but I did that. I went through that. My first eight years on Tour, before my kids were born, I measured myself just about every week and I knew where I was on the money list and I knew who was ahead of me and I knew who was right behind me and I knew which tournaments were bigger than others. Those were things that mattered to me when golf was the No. 1 thing in my life. And, it hasn't been since my kids were born. And, you know, those first few years it was kind of tough to start taking time off and play pretty good and then go home for a four-week period and watch your name fall down the list. But, I always had that option of going back out and playing and I have always stuck to my guns pretty good through these years since my kids were born. The last few years I have had no regrets at all. I still just love doing this right here. I can play well this week and just go home and it won't bother me that everybody else is going to the next tournament and it doesn't matter that I keep falling down the money list.

BRUCE LIETZKE: My first reaction was I wasn't going to come.

BRUCE LIETZKE: They wanted to know if I was committed for the tournament. I told them, yeah, I had committed early on just in case I did get in the field. And they just said, "Well, you know, it is going to be real nice here." (laughter). Sid Wilson is the guy that called Sunday night, and I -- and I didn't actually get official word. I was the second alternate Sunday night is what they called to tell me. And, the first two guys which I believe were Billy Glasson and Wayne Levi couldn't officially withdraw until Monday so they said: "You know you are still the second alternate, but we already have word that there are at least two guys that are going to withdraw. So, boy, would you like to come to Jacksonville?" And I told my wife earlier that last week that if I would have gotten a call Tuesday or Wednesday I wouldn't have come because I didn't play any golf last week, and I didn't want to come in here with a half a practice round or maybe even one practice round. I would have turned it down if I would have been fourth or fifth alternate. Scott Verplank hung around and he got him a spot and more power to him. I wasn't going to do that, but when I got a phone call Sunday night and that was enough preparation and it was also lucky that I didn't have any family outings or anything really planned as far as my family goes this week. So that was clear on my schedule. But it still took a night's sleep to convince myself to come and play.

BRUCE LIETZKE: No. No, I added this tournament partly out of my obligation to the PGA TOUR. I owe the Tour an awful lot for the years that I have been able to play. But, that is -- I am drawing my line there and I am sticking to the guns that I have done pretty good on the last few years and I am playing golf on my terms now and Augusta, I am not going to play the PGA this year. I am not going to play the Open. I wouldn't play the British Open this year. I have got my four tournaments to play and that will be my schedule.

BRUCE LIETZKE: I used to never touch the clubs until my son started playing junior golf three or four summers ago and that all changed. He wanted me to go out there. He has found some friends since then and I don't go out very often with him now. But, for the last three summers at least, he goes around plays a lot of junior tournaments and I will play practice rounds and we play on weekends occasionally now when -- in between school. So I have played some golf at home, but it is just social golf. I don't work on my swing and I haven't worked on my swing in 20 something years. And my rounds with him pretty much consist of maybe hitting a drive, jumping in a cart and picking the ball up and watching him play the rest of the holes, so I don't really -- I don't play any -- I don't play for a score and I don't go out and don't go out and work on new equipment or anything on the part of my game. I am pretty much out watching him and if he is needing any help, I am offering him. That is pretty much our golf together.

BRUCE LIETZKE: No.

BRUCE LIETZKE: At home?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Kids go to school at about 7:30. I will read the paper 'til about 8:00, then I will go out. I am a collector of cars and my No. 1 hobby is working on my cars. It also keeps me at home. I used to fish an awful lot when I lived in Oklahoma. But fishing in Dallas is kind of and all-day deal and I might fish if I am home for a two week period, I might fish once in those two weeks. Most of my days are spent in my garage. I built a special garage onto the house that we just moved into in Plano, and I work on my car collection until the kids get out of school and then I run them around to soccer practice and things like that.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, I do -- I request and get quite often those kinds of and love doing it. I go to lunch with my daughter once in a while. I take the kids -- they will go on field trips sometimes and they need volunteer drivers and I will drive kids to field trips from school, so...

BRUCE LIETZKE: I have got -- my garage is an eleven-car garage -- I have got enough room -- I actually have three different garages and I have got room to store eleven cars and I have got nine right now. So I have got a couple of openings and I don't like openings.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Don't know. One of those garages I have got cars stacked on top. I bought these lifts, actually it looks like a two-car garage, but I have got four cars stacked on top of each other so it is not huge. Then I do have a real large shop area where I actually work on my cars. That has a lift. I am not sure of the square footage. I just know I have got room for eleven cars.

BRUCE LIETZKE: You would have to ask them. No, I get pretty -- I guess you would have to ask them if they like seeing me come out or not.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Oh, well, the stories -- whether they believe that I never play at home and of course the banana story kind of has cured everybody of those doubts; certainly cured that caddie of his doubt about me. So, a lot of times they question what I do when I get home and just like you did, and I tell them I work on cars all that. A lot of them just don't believe that I -- in the past never touched a golf club. And, these days, like I said, I just play very little bit of golf with my son.

BRUCE LIETZKE: No, that was Chi Chi Rodriguez. He stole that line from Chi Chi who said that about Jack Nicklaus. But Jack Nicklaus was my idol and I don't know -- I don't think I have purposely patterned my life after his, but I read somewhere where Nicklaus over his career only averaged 12 tournaments a year, and he was my idol since I was ten years old. And that is probably about what my average is going to be by the time I get on the SENIOR TOUR is 12 to 13 tournaments a year. But, no, that is a Chi Chi Rodriguez line about Jack Nicklaus. So, I can't claim that one. And John Inman shouldn't be claiming that line either. He knows that was Chi Chi's line too (laughter).

BRUCE LIETZKE: These guys aren't worried about me. We have got -- there are some guys out here way more talented than me, and it -- when it comes down -- it is going to come down to the last nine holes on Sunday and there is going to be a handful of players; I would like to be one of those handful of players. But, the guys out here are not intimidated by me and I am not intimidated by anybody else. That is kind of not the way the Tour works. The intimidation comes on Sunday and in this case, the golf course is going to be the intimidating factor. I am not going to be scared or worried about anybody else if I am coming down on Sunday with a chance to win. I have got my hands full playing a real tough golf course that is set up in a very difficult fashion. I know on Sunday, especially, because I know a lot of those pins are on the left side of the greens on Sunday, so I may have to go practice my hook -- no, I don't think I will. (laughter). I thought about it, but I won't.

BRUCE LIETZKE: The lure was the kindness of Ben Crenshaw inviting me back there. I think he wanted another set of eyes out here on Tour. Ben has cut his schedule back just a little bit and he knows I come out and play very little and he knows I have some spare time at home to do things that he would like me to do and when I got the phone call last fall, I was thrilled to do it. Ben and I are long, long time friends. If I can do him a favor in any way, I will. But in this case, it is something that I would dearly love to do anyway. Tom Kite was last year's captain or two years ago, and I could see the thrill that he had, the two years that he was involved in it. And, I know Ben can get overwhelmed and I know Tom probably got overwhelmed by some of the requests and things that needed to be done. And if I could help Ben be relieved of some of that stress on him for the next year and a half then, I would be happy to do it. But again, it is going to be great with close friends. I am no great golf historian, so I can't tell you a whole lot about the Ryder Cup. I have played in one myself and had a great time. But, I am doing Ben Crenshaw a favor and I am doing myself a favor by getting involved in a great, great event.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Last time I was there was 1966 or 1967 National Juniors.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, Eddie Pearce beat me in the semifinals, so Gary Koch was the medalist and yeah, there were some -- a lot of nostalgia. That was the last time I was at the country club. I didn't play at the Open there in 1988. So a lot of nostalgia going back there for me. Bill Rogers, I think, is going to be involved too. Bill is going to be to do some of scouting or at least some of the group surveillance. It is just going to be a great time.