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He just practices winning

Bruce Lietzke never works on his swing. He avoids the range and burnout, his way.

By BOB HARIG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 12, 2002

LUTZ -- The driving range is a popular place early in tournament week, but don't look for Bruce Lietzke there today. If golf is, indeed, a "four-letter word," then "practice" is profanity for one of the Senior PGA Tour's newest members.

Lietzke is playing in the Verizon Classic, which begins Friday, but don't expect him to tear up the turf around the TPC of Tampa Bay. He'll get ready in his own way, which means keeping his clubs in the bag and his mind free of mental constraints the game offers.

"I'm of the belief that if you go out and practice just for the sake of practice or because you're bored, you can develop bad habits just as easily as you can develop good habits out there," said Lietzke, who won two senior events last year after turning 50 in July. "I don't work on my swing. I don't change my swing. About the only thing that can happen to me out on the practice tee is that I can get into bad habits.

"I warm up, play my 18 holes, and get off the golf course. I don't ever hit balls afterward. That's the way I've done it for 27 years and it has worked."

To the amazement and envy of those who follow the game, Lietzke won 13 PGA Tour events playing a limited schedule and rarely picking up a club. In the last 10 years of his PGA career, Lietzke never played 20 events in a season. For the past five years, he played 10 or fewer while looking forward to the senior tour.

Lietzke's reasons: He disliked being away from his family, especially in the summers when his children were out of school in Plano, Texas, and he has a swing that repeats without much effort, producing a controlled fade that he uses no matter the circumstances.

"I still have only one golf swing that I take out on the golf course," Lietzke said. "There's nothing for me to go on the practice tee to work on. I've got one swing that has stayed exactly the same for 27 years. My swing doesn't get any better if I were to go home for two weeks and hit balls. It stays the same whether I hit balls or whether I take two weeks off. That two weeks off is what relaxes me mentally."

His ability to go weeks, even months, without practice is legendary. In fact, Lietzke often would put his clubs away for the winter, never looking at them until the first tournament the next year. Several years ago, Lietzke's caddie didn't believe it. So he stuck a banana under the head cover of Lietzke's driver -- only to pull the head cover off at the first tournament to find, in horror, the rotten banana still there.

"He's always amazed all of us," said friend and fellow Texan Ben Crenshaw. "Here's the reason (it works) I think: Bruce Lietzke has some of the best rhythm I've ever seen. It never changes. Even on a windy day, he does not try to knock the ball down. He just grabs two more clubs and hits it the same. He's got beautiful timing. And he's always had that, going back to when we were kids."

A few years ago, Lietzke did the math and figured his youngest child would go off to college when he turned 52. So he started to prepare for the 50-and-older circuit in the only way he knew: by playing less.

At the other extreme is Dana Quigley, who will play in his 170th consecutive senior tournament for which he has been eligible dating to 1997 at the Verizon Classic. This will be Lietzke's 173rd event -- since 1990.

"You've got to remember there's only been one like him who's been able to do that, in all the golf we've heard about and talked about and read about," Quigley said. "He's the only one. So we know that's not the norm. It works for him. If he played all the time, he'd probably get sick of it and lose some of his edge. He's still my pick to be the top player out here this year. He's an awesome player."

Lietzke earned more than $1.1-million on the senior tour last year, playing just 10 events, winning twice and finishing 16th on the money list. He could contend for the money title if he played enough.

But if Lietzke is true to form, he'll plan a schedule that gets him to just enough tournaments to be a factor on the money list but far fewer than his peers. He knows that's not normal, but it is difficult to argue with his success.

"I look to shoot low scores and I really believe the way to shoot low scores is to play one swing all day, all week and all year," he said. "It's human nature to want to be better. I don't want to be better. I want to be exactly like I was yesterday."

QUALIFYING: Palm Harbor's Jay Overton, who qualified for each of the past two Senior PGA events and went on to finish tied for fifth and tied for 10th, respectively, failed to qualify for the Verizon Classic on Monday. Overton shot 69 at Fox Hollow Golf Club and lost in a playoff for the final spot.

Jimmy Ellis and Butch Sheehan qualified with 4-under-par 67. Jim Holtgrieve, Michael Zinni and Overton shot 68. Holtgrieve birdied the first playoff hole to claim the last spot. More than 140 players competed for three spots in the 78-player field.

PRO-AM: Pro Rocky Thompson and amateurs Wayne Jefferson, Steve Gaines, Patrick Sullivan and Mike Dempsey shot 56 in the scramble format at the TPC of Tampa Bay. Pro Joe Inman and amateurs Pradip Patel, Gavin Farrell, Rupesh Shah and Dave Lee shot 57. ... Harold Henning withdrew from the Verizon and was replaced by first alternate Bobby Walzel.

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