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OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE PRO-AM

February 24, 2006

Bruce Lietzke

LUTZ, FLORIDA

BRUCE LIETZKE: We have to speak up real loud. I played with Trevino today, my ears are really ringing. You have to give me some volume, I'm not hearing quite as well as when I started out my round. Always fun to play with him.

DAVE SENKO: Great start for you, you have to be very pleased today it start off with 6 under 65.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, this is a golf course that I just don't have any kind of history on. I have nothing to feed off of and now I do. Now that I've signed that score card with that good score on it, it's the first good round I've had since I played here. I missed the one year, one of my shoulders was messed up, so I missed it.

This has always been a course I thought I should play well on every time I have played here and I have nothing, nothing but mediocre and bad scores to get me through this week. And now I've got one real good round that is going to give me some momentum at least starting into tomorrow I'm in the first group off tomorrow, could or could not be good news or bad news. Usually the morning tee times, the wind is a little bit down and it's become a pretty tough golf course around there, but at least I do have that.

I know by far, I'm not even sure if I've shot 60 on this golf course before, you'll have to go back. I just know that I've walked away from this tournament year after year disappointed, but thinking it's the kind of course that I like to play and that I should have success on. That gets a little frustrating. First couple of times, you know, no big deal, but like I said, I have played every year except once when my shoulder was messed up.

Anyway, I'm hoping that's all behind me. This was a really neat round. I made great, really great putts out there. Did not drive the ball very good. Mis hit driver several times on my first nine holes and actually took it out of the lineup for a couple of tee shots today where there is danger lurking on this golf course everywhere. I did hit some really good drives coming in and that kind of calms me down a little bit, too. Irons were good and putting is just fantastic today, other than that short putt I missed on 15.

It is the first success I've had on this TPC golf course and I'm hoping it leads to other good rounds. It would help through my career, I've always gone to certain golf courses and always felt good. On the PGA TOUR, it was Colonial and the Canadian Open and tournaments that I had some great success on. On this Tour, courses like the Minnesota course, in Blaine, Minnesota, and I don't have that history here.

So I've got to build a history, and this is just a start. I've still got a weekend ahead and it's the only really good round I've ever shot here.

DAVE SENKO: You birdied starting

BRUCE LIETZKE: We teed off on 1. My first birdie today came on the second hole. I hit a 5 iron that ended up about ten feet from the hole. I made that for a birdie.

The third hole, driver off the tee, and 8 iron I'm sorry, 9 iron second shot from the right rough, not a good drive at all. But right rough with a 9 iron to 20 feet, made that for a really good start, 2 under after three holes.

2 putt pars around until didn't miss any greens, had a couple of opportunities but 2 putted everything. Got to the seventh hole, really important drive there. I had to lay up with a utility club, and then I hit a real nice pitching wedge to four feet from the hole and made that for a birdie.

My only bogey of the day came on the eighth hole, another real poor driveway right into the right rough. Came up short of the green with a 5 iron, chipped past the hole poorly and missed about a 12 foot downhill putt for my par, so I made bogey on 8.

I did miss the green on 9 short. That was one of the holes I was not happy 9 is one of the toughest driving holes here. I had not hit a good drive for the day and decided to hit 3 wood off the tee. That left me a long 210 yards to the hole, came up short of the green and hit a really nice pitch shot to two feet and tapped that in for a one putt par.

Then got back into the birdies on the back nine, No. 10. I hit a pitching wedge after the first really good tee Shot of the Day, and that was kind of a big test because there was water to the right on the 10th hole, and that's where all of my bad drives had gone. But I finally put a good drive in the fairway, pitching wedge to probably 18 feet and it was a wicked 18 footer that broke about three feet and made that for a really outstanding birdie on a hole that just is not really a birdie hole.

2 putt par on 11.

12 was probably a pivotal hole for me. Hit a really good drive again. Again, with danger on the right, and that's what had been bothering me during the day, that sort of perfect drive down there and I hit a 6 iron. It was straight downwind, hole was only 495 and hit a great 6 iron that landed in the only place you could land it on and keep the ball on the same plateau. So virtually a very lucky shot to land exactly where you want it to, and it left me about an eight foot eagle putt. Putting straight uphill it was definitely an easy putt. I couldn't put it within eight feet if I hit that shot 50 times. So lucky to make the eagle, but hit some good shots to do it. Was happy to walk away with eagle 3 on 12.

2 putt pars 13, 14.

15, had a second shot from the left rough I guess I would call it, not the fairway, and hit a 5 iron I believe that almost flew in the hole, trickled just three feet past the hole and then I just pulled that putt just a little bit. I was putting downhill and I couldn't hit the putt very hard. Tried to just ease it down there and I pulled it just a little bit and it broke away.

So disappointing par after I hit such a great iron shot that almost flew in the hole and flew about two or three inches from the hole.

Got it back real quick on the 16th hole. Driver off the tee, a 4 iron second shot. Going back into the wind now, 16, 17 and 18 actually 15 through 18 are really playing tough with this northerly wind. I hit 4 iron after a good drive on 16, and I hit it about 12 feet from the hole, just barely made it. It just got to the lip of the hole, hesitated, and fell in for birdie on 16.

2 putt on 17 for par. 2 putt on 18 for par. So just missed one green, maybe, that I'm thinking of, the eighth hole, and then after a real poor front nine of driving, a pretty good back nine of driving. So I was planning on maybe going to work on that driver after my first five or six tee shots, but the way I finished, I'm putting the clubs away and like I normally do, I haven't hit balls after a round it's been about 10 or 12 years, so I kind of put pressure, I didn't want to have to do that so soon again. Anyway, the driver felt good on the back nine. I'm not sure why, but it did.

Q. How long was that 6 iron on 12?

BRUCE LIETZKE: 188 to the hole is what I had, straight downwind.

Q. Last year, you might have played more tournaments in one year than you had played in a couple of years combined in other years of your career. Just wondering how that was, I mean, we all know about your reputation for playing little, and now things have changed, just wonder how it went and to play that often?

BRUCE LIETZKE: It's okay. I've actually played 22 tournaments a year since I've turned 50 in 2001 of the last year, I did play 23. I added one tournament so my daughter could caddie for me. I had 22 on my schedule and my daughter decided she needed summer spending money, so she made me add a tournament.

And that's exactly why I didn't play very much tour golf in my late 40s is because of those kids. The kids were in high school, or grade school, whatever, and this tour was a good, solid, prospect for me to come back out and play as much golf as I wanted to after they had got out of high school. I did the math pretty quick. After the Senior Tour came along and all of a sudden it went from about six or seven tournaments up into the 30s and popularity was huge, I started thinking, you know what, I did math and my kids would be getting out of high school about the time when I was turning 51 or 52, and I knew they would be going to college and I would be free to play as much golf as I wanted to. That was the only reason I reduced my schedule and that was to be at home.

And that is so much to justify the guilt, some of the guilt that I felt about not playing every PGA event or skipping tournaments that I wanted to and literally taking the entire summers off to be a little league coach, both my kids actually became the golf coach of my son's high school team for four years.

And there was some guilt about skipping U.S. Opens and British Opens and stuff, but the thing that justified it for me was that, you know what, when I'm 50 and if I don't have some other job and I've never had any other job, playing tournament golf was my whole deal, I said, man, that Senior Tour, which is now the Champions Tour, my wife and I can go back on the road like we're tour rookies and play as much golf as we wanted.

So this has been in the plans for a long time, playing 22, 23 events. Now, I'm no Dana Quigley, don't confuse me with him. I still love my weeks off. But this is that reward, and for me, I was lucky that I could still play the PGA TOUR and was still pretty competitive even playing nine or ten tournaments a year and actually could make enough money to live on and put my kids through college. And now we're able to do the same thing, the kids are still in college and I can play more golf if I want. I just feel real good about those decisions. But more than anything, I was lucky that I reduced my schedule and was still competitive. If I had reduced my schedule and I wasn't doing any good, then I would have found a job should where that would have kept me at home because being at home in those years was the whole key for me and old Bruce was pretty lucky that I could take all those weeks off. When I did decide to sneak out, especially when the kids got back in school, they developed something of a routine. And I would sneak out for a couple of weeks and play a tournament and still be competitive.

So it still fed my ego, my golf ego, but I also felt like I was being a father and a husband at the right time in their careers and now they are on their way. They are in college and it's all roses now.

Q. Obviously you've been fortunate, you've talked before about being able to putt the club as way for long periods and not have to kind of pick it right back up. Have other players come to you and ever asked you how do you do it? Do they marvel at that, especially the ones who work at it so hard?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, I think they marvel at it. But just what you said, they work at it so hard; they are working on something. They are working on whatever their guru teacher or local PGA pro has told them to be working on. And everybody out here, 99% of the guys, are working on some part of their game. They are working on irons or drivers or grip, a new grip or a new setup or a new shaft. And you have to practice.

If I messed around with shafts and weights and swing thoughts, I'd have to practice, too. I wouldn't be any good at all doing it the way I do it. But I don't have those thoughts. I'm using the exact same swing that I've used for 30 years. I've made no changes in my grip or my setup or my stance. My equipment is actually the same, the same dimensions, same weight, same loft from 30 years ago.

And that's when my swing kind of evolved right down here in the State of Florida during mini tours, and I haven't changed one thing in the golf swing. I have developed muscle memory, it's what the teachers call it. I think every amateur in the world, unless they play golf 300 days a year, should play the way I play. They should try to find the one swing they have and learn to develop it and repeat it.

But for whatever reason, human nature is the guy that hits that fade out there every time, he hates it. Oh, he wants to hit a hook because his buddy Joey hits a hook. And the guys that hit a hook, man, I want to hit the high, soft fades. It seems to be human nature not to be satisfied. And you'll hear Tiger Woods saying, you know, he's tweaking his swing. He wants to be better. And I gave up that thought.

Now, who knows how good I could have been if I had gone searching for a better swing. But what it's done, it's allowed me to go home and take three or four weeks off, not touch a golf club, comeback out, and within one or two practice rounds, that swing is right back where it was four weeks ago, and personally, you know, I still have all my hair. I don't rip all my hair out. (Laughter). There's the guys that work on different stuff and working on different swing thoughts, they have to go out there and practice and I decided not to go that route. I decided to stick with this swing, actually, in the early days until it fell apart. That was my thought with my swing teacher, who is my oldest brother, because I had this loop all of a sudden and all I could do was hit a fade. But all I was doing was hitting low scores because I was willing to live with that fade until he could come visit me and work on my swing.

In the meantime, with those mini tours here in Florida where that swing developed. I made a bunch of money on mini tours, won a whole bunch of tournaments, went through summer qualifying school and made it on the Tour in June of '75 with that swing that I was not crazy about; that it was fading every time. By the end of that first half of the year, had moved up to 70 something on the Money List, my rookie half season.

My brother came and saw my swing in November during the off season, he said, "Man, you're right, you've got something going." We didn't have video cameras back then and I didn't have his set of eyes to tell me. He said, "I don't know where you got this swing, but you've got this loop, and that's why you're hitting a fade." He said, "I can correct it quickly, but man, you've done pretty good this year with this goofy swing money wise, experience wise."

Now, our thoughts were, let's just go with it until it fails and then he said I'll straighten you out and get you back in your own swing. That was in 1974 when I was here in the mini tours and I have not changed one thing in that swing. I haven't moved my hand over, the grip size, every variable is the same, there's not a variable at all.

I'm a freak, nobody else out here has done that. Freddie Couples is a little bit like that. Nicklaus never tweaked his swing very much and he also went home and put the golf clubs away for long periods of time. He's a devoted family man, not to my extreme. If Jack had a major championship coming up, he would slip to Augusta National and he played lots of practice rounds, and I haven't done that. But there are guys similar to me but for the most part most of these guys think I'm a nutcase.

Q. If a shot calls for a hook do you just find a way to hit a fade?

BRUCE LIETZKE: It depends on how the only time I hit a hook is if it's an emergency hook, a back left pin placement, that's not a mandatory hook for me. A lot of the guys that like to shape their ball, a back left pin means you're supposed to hook it on there, and nowhere on the score card does it say you're supposed to hit a hook. You're just supposed to make a good score.

And if there's no obstructions the only hooks I hit are if I'm dead behind the tree and it's an emergency kind of hook. And also if I'm on a tee shot that is some kind of a mandatory tee shot, I do have a weak shafted 3 wood. But my hook 3 wood, it goes straight, and that's my hook.

So my answer is I've got an emergency hook swing that it has to be an emergency. It doesn't just have to be a left pin. It doesn't have to be a right to left wind. It just has to be an emergency for me to hit a hook. I don't practice that hook swing on the practice tee. I'm always practicing my muscle memory swing. But there are things I can do to my golf swing, I don't like to do it two shots in a row, so if I recover, I try to make sure I recover on the first one. But that's it. So emergency hooks only.

Q. What is the longest that you've ever put your clubs aside? And in that regard, when you went and picked them up again, did you have to knock the cobwebs off them or did you leave something in the bag you wish you had not left in the bag?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Well the banana story is a true story, but that was only 15 weeks.

I took almost six months off. My son was born in October of 1983, and the PGA Championship which was I think the first or second week of August was at Riviera. That was my last tournament of the year, I came home at the PGA, put the clubs away, I wanted to be with my wife. She couldn't travel anymore because she was very pregnant. And I did not touch a golf club from middle of August till my first tournament back was the Bob Hope tournament in late January. Now, this is five or six months: September, October, November, December, January. It was 5 1/2 months, and I did not touch a golf club. I went to the Bob Hope tournament, I played two tournaments on the West Coast and at the Bob Hope tournament and literally did not touch a golf club until I went to the Hope in January.

And because I had not practiced any, I pulled a chest muscle. I actually shot 66 the first day back in the tournament, and actually I think I shot 65 67, and then I pulled a chest muscle and had to withdraw from the tournament. I was not leading, but I was outside of the Top 10, and I took about three weeks off to repair that. I played one more tournament on the West Coast and then I won my first tournament in Florida, the Honda Classic, in 1984.

So three tournaments after taking 5 1/2 months off, I won. And boy, that was the time I remember sitting back. I had just taken 5 1/2 months off, and in '83 I played pretty decent but wanted to be there with my son. I think I've got it figured out. I can take this kind of time off and the skills that I lost would be back within two or three practice rounds. Like I said, I came back to the Bob Hope after 5 1/2 months. But 1984, I shot like 65 67 and withdrew from the tournament, and then I think I shot 70 in the third round and had to withdraw. That was the time that was probably the ultimate test.

Then later, actually in 1984, I hired a new caddie, and that was the banana story. I hired him in August, my last tournament that year was the Disney World tournament. And he's only worked four or five weeks for me, and I told him, now get all of the towels and rain suits, anything that's wet in there, take it out of the bag. Man, it's been a long season, which it hasn't, I only played about 17 tournaments, but I thought it had been a long season.

I said, "Man, I'm not touching these clubs until I see you at the Bob Hope tournament," and that was I think 15 weeks. He didn't believe me. Because I went back into the locker room and was getting my shoes out of the locker and he stuck a banana, a whole banana up in the head cover of my driver just thinking, "I know he'll at least swing a golf club." I was living in Oklahoma and the weather is pretty cold in Oklahoma and I know he's figuring like he's surely going to swing the driver.

And 15 weeks later, I pull up at Bermuda Dunes there for a practice round, and boy, he rips he grabs those clubs out of the trunk and he's ready to go. Hey, he's fired up to play this year, and he goes to the back cover and he was trying to find that banana, and there it was. He pulled that head cover off, and I didn't know what he was doing and there was nasty old fungus. (Laughter). This is a wood driver, this is back in wood drivers and I was convinced that it had oozed into that driver and I had to have another sent to me. The head cover was ruined, the bag smelled bad, so I had to have the bag sent. But he never doubted me again.

Those kind of experiences just convinced me that I've got it figured out: Don't mess around with this swing. And again, all I did was just reinforce the thoughts that I had been having for years and years before that. And it just continued to carry through to this day more than 30 years later.

Q. How was it playing with Lee Trevino today?

BRUCE LIETZKE: It's always fantastic. I'm really happy to see him generating some clubhead speed. I think his first tournament back after this operation at the Hickory tournament in North Carolina in September of last year, I think that was his first week back, and boy, he was fresh from surgery. We had heard scary things that he may never play golf again, and his swing looked really good and out there today. He had good clubhead speed. He was about even with me most of the day. He doesn't fly the ball very far, but he never did. He always hit that low, chasing driver.

I have a good time watching him, and he's happy to be out there. He likes his home time, too. He's a real private person, but he loves still being on the golf course even at his age. So he was happy and I was happy to listen to his stories. Some of them I've heard before, but he had a few new ones today and the gallery just loves being around him. It was fun.

Q. Is Dana Quigley your alter ego?

BRUCE LIETZKE: It makes him something of a freak, too, somebody that plays golf on this tour and travels and goes through the rigors of playing every tournament, especially going back to the years when there were 38, 39 tournaments out here and he played every one of those.

I'd have to say he's a freak, too, because he goes home and he doesn't rest his brain or rest his body like most of us out here do, so everybody takes a few days off here and there. He's back at his home course in Bear Lake or whatever it is. 34 holes, every day. He's as much a freak as I am.

I also happen to be one of his biggest fans. I think he's one of the greatest people that we have on this tour. And although we don't see eye to eye on the amount of golf that we play, I'm a huge, huge fan of his. I admire him as much as anybody out here.

What we have is different passions. His passion is golf and he will tell you that. My passions are my kids first, my cars and my wife and immediate family and all of those are all lumped in together as passions. And he has kids and all that, but his true passion is playing golf every day, and I admire somebody that. It would be like somebody being critical of me of collecting my cars. "Well, you would have to be an idiot to have that '67 Corvette. You could be driving a Mercedes or something like that."

I'm not going to criticize anybody else's passions. He loves golf. I love tournament golf, and that's as far as my passion with golf goes is tournament golf.

Q. You said you don't hit balls after a round. What's your routine for warming up?

BRUCE LIETZKE: I give myself about an hour. I hit balls for about 40 minutes. I've got a routine, I hit the same clubs, pitching wedge, 7 iron, 4 iron, driver, if there's a practice bunker near the practice greens, I might hit bunker shots, but I practice with the same clubs. Again, it falls into that routine of trying to do the same thing. And then I putt for 20 minutes. I do practice an hour before every round and I never practice after a round.

Q. What does your collection consist of now?

BRUCE LIETZKE: '67 Corvette; two '68 Shelby Mustangs; one is a convertible and one is a fastback. '68 Hemi Roadrunner, '69 Dodge Super Bee, '66 El Camino, that's my every day car, 1927 Model T Hot Rod and Street Rod Model T. And a '79 Firebird that I used to drive on Tour for several years in a row back when the tour was kind of geographically set out. I'd drive from January through May West Coast up and down from the West Coast tournaments and I would drive to Florida and play Honda, Doral, Bay Hill. And after the Texas tournaments, I'd park that Firebird.

I think that's all my hobby cars or my muscle cars. I've got a bunch of trucks and my wife has a car, my kids have cars. I've got a total of 14 cars. That's my list of muscle cars right there.

Q. Are you able to fix them?

BRUCE LIETZKE: I do all the work except paint and body work. I don't do any of that stuff. All of the mechanical wiring, one of them the Dodge Super Bee is at a shop in Wisconsin right now, they are going to ship the car back to me. I took everything out of the car and I'll do the interior wiring, wheels, suspension and all that. I do everything except paint and body.

End of FastScripts.

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