Defending Open Champ Fleisher Looking
For Better Days

By Tom Williams, Golf Journal

Baltimore, Md. -- Bruce Fleisher treated his first round at this year’s Senior Open like he would any other. He teed it up and tried to knock it down the middle.

Unfortunately, he didn’t always find it. And on a course where keeping it in the short grass pays big dividends, a few wayward shots led to a 5-over-par 76 for the defending champion. But after missing six of 14 fairways and hitting only 10 greens in regulation, Fleisher isn’t likely to change his strategy when he tees it up Friday morning. And why should he? It’s worked great to this point.

Despite the fact that he’s without a victory since capturing the 2001 Senior Open, Fleisher has maintained his position among the top two or three players on the Senior PGA Tour. In the 30 Senior PGA Tour events he’s entered over the past year, he has finished in the top-10 on 21 occasions, including each of the past seven events he’s played.

“I’ve played well so I came in here really feeling good,” he said. “I just didn’t play well. I’m going to try and shoot a hell of a lot better score tomorrow.”

That’s something the 53 year old is certainly capable of doing on a course set up for Open conditions. Coming into the championship, Fleisher was further under par for his U.S. Senior Open career (-7) than any other player in the field. Additionally, he held the record for the lowest 18-hole score in Senior Open history, the first-round 64 he shot in 2000. That was equaled Thursday with R.W. Eaks’ 7-under 64 round.

Fleisher’s day started on a positive note with a birdie at the par-4 10th. After consecutive pars at 11 and 12, however, he hit into thick rough to the left of the fairway at 13, a mistake that led to the first of his six bogeys, and one that he credited to not knowing the course.

“I only really played nine holes in my practice round,” he said. “I wanted to conserve my energy and maybe that hurt me. I thought it was fairway short of the bunker and I was wrong. In fact it was probably the worst rough on the course right there. I couldn’t even hit it 50 yards.” 

After bogeys at 14 and 17, Fleisher was able to notch a scrambling par at the first hole and birdie the second to get back to 1 over. That was the highpoint of his round, however, as he played the next seven holes in 4-over fashion, including a double-bogey seven at the 7th hole.

Obviously disappointed with his performance, Fleisher is looking forward to Friday trying to make some noise in the coming days.

“There’s three more days and that’s what I love about it,” he said. “If I can get back in the red [Friday], then I think I can get back in this ballgame. Just inch my way back. I’m hitting the ball good enough. It was just a lousy day.”

Tom Williams is a reporter for Golf Journal. E-mail him at twilliams@usga.org.