An interview with:
BRUCE LIETZKE

RAND JERRIS: It's a pleasure to be joined Bruce Lietzke in the interview area. Bruce, a very fine round of 7-under par, 64 featuring 9 birdies. You looked very comfortable out on the golf course today particularly on the greens; was that very much your mindset throughout the round?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Well, you don't intend -- it's a feeling it just comes to you some weeks and some weeks you don't have it. I have had a good feel on these greens all week. I putted well last week in Grand Rapids. Putting to me has mostly been kind of a streaky thing. I get on good putting streaks and then I get pretty mediocre for times and that is what today's round was all about and that's probably what kept me in the golf tournament early in the week.

I haven't driven the ball particularly well. I have hit my irons nicely but I putted good every single day so that probably has been the factor, of the number of birdies that I've made. My speed on my putt has just been excellent and I've read the greens real well and for three days it's been the only thing I really haven't had to work real hard at at this week's tournament.

RAND JERRIS: Could you talk a moment and walk us through the birdies and bogeys on your card.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yes, I started off early in the day birdie on the first hole. I hit a 9-iron second shot and made about a 12-foot putt for birdie on the first hole. The next birdie of the day came on No. 4. I hit a driver off the tee and hit a 5-iron second shot about ten feet from the hole. Made that for a birdie.

Bogeyed the next hole No.  5, I drove it into the left rough. Chipped out with a sand wedge and then hit a real nice approach shot for my third shot that landed two feet from the hole and then spun off the front of the green, well off the green, and I chipped up nicely about five feet and tapped that in for a bogey on 5.

And birdied the next hole; I hit a 4-iron to about a foot from the hole and made that for birdie.

Bogeyed No. 8, drove it into the left rough, chipped up into the fairway with an 8-iron and then my third shot was also with an 8-iron that flew over the green and I wedged up to about 20 feet from the hole and I 2-putted for a bogey on 8.

No. 9, I drove it in the fairway. Actually I drove it in the first cut of rough and I hit a 7-iron to 16 feet and I made that for a birdie on 9.

Another birdie came on No. 11, a 3-wood into the fairway. No, I'm sorry; a 3-wood into the right rough and hit a 9-iron from out of the right rough luckily just carried over the front bunker, landed short of the green and then rolled up about six inches from the hole and I tapped that in for an easy birdie.

I birdied No. 13, the par-5, I hit a tee shot into the fairway. A 5-iron; yes, a 5-iron second shot on the green. 30 feet from the hole and almost made the putt. Actually caught, I think, just a little bottom part of the lip and tapped that for an easy birdie.

14 was another birdie. I hit the fairway, hit a -- let's see I hit an 8-iron to ten feet, made that for birdie.

15, a tee shot in the fairway, a 7-iron to eight feet, made that for birdie.

And my closing birdie on the 18th hole was 2-iron off the tee and a pitching wedge to probably 16 feet and made that for birdie.

RAND JERRIS: Thank you. Some questions out here, please.

Q. If someone had told you this morning you are going hit eight fairways what would have you guessed your score would have been?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Four or five over par. It was just a round where the putter, again, the putter worked brilliantly today. I have putted great all three days. But particularly today.

And what I did well after driving it in the rough though was my recoveries were to the correct side. I either left myself the kind of chips that you want to have, or I didn't get too greedy trying to chip back out in the fairway or trying to knock it on the green or I'd just chip to the fairway sometimes where I could have tried sillier shots. My strategy was good once I was in the rough but you certainly don't expect to shoot a low round when you miss that many fairways and when the rough is as penalizing as it is. My strategy once I was in the rough was pretty good and I made a bunch of -- I chipped in once. I forgot about the chip-in; actually that was  --

Q. 14?

BRUCE LIETZKE: -- that was the 14th hole. Yes, 14 was the -- that's right, I didn't put a circle around the par-5. The 14th hole was my chip-in from short of the green. I drove it into the right rough. I chipped out with an 8-iron short of the green. It was a shot that I could have tried to -- I take it back. I hit a 6-iron from out of the rough. And it came up just short of the green where I was actually trying to miss it.

The one place you can't go on the 14th hole is over the green. I could have tried to take a 4- or 5-iron and chased it up there and I decided I wanted to be short of the hole so I left a 6-iron short and I chipped in. I think we figured it was about a 27-yard chip. I was about 10 yards short of the green and I think the pin was only 17 yards, so it was about a 27-yard chip-in on 14.

Q. Bruce, can you talk a little bit about when you look back over your career, I guess, the reputation is that golf has always been important but not the be-all and 7do-all; can you just talk a little bit about where its always fit in and what a major championship would mean in light of how you approached the game through years?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Golf was the No. 1 priority for me my first eight years on TOUR. I was a bachelor when I came out in '75. I was not married, golf was pretty much everything to me and I decided I would measure myself as far as tournament wins, major wins, Ryder Cups. But in the back of my mind I knew once I was married and had a family I knew that would come to an end. So I did; I pushed myself pretty hard and it turns out I pushed myself for about eight years.

I married in 1981, continued to play the Majors and continued to work out, work for Ryder Cups and things like that. And then my children were born in '83 and '85 and beginning in '83 my golf priorities just totally fell off and golf was my way of life. It was my job but it was not probably in my top five priorities.

But I was very lucky to continue to play a limited amount of golf, be at home as much as I thought I needed to be and play a limited number of tournaments and still be competitive and went on to win more tournaments and continued to make a career out of playing the PGA TOUR. But I just didn't play the same number of tournaments that everybody else did. And at that point I didn't care where I was on the money list. I didn't care about making the Ryder Cup anymore and I didn't care about major championships anymore.

Q. Back in those days how did you determine which events you were going to play and why didn't you play in any U.S. Opens after Oakland Hills? Was it Oakland Hills or some other reason?

BRUCE LIETZKE: I didn't hear the first part of your question.

Q. How did you determine which events you were going to play back in those days in what amount to a limited schedule compared to some of the other guys; was there a method to that?

BRUCE LIETZKE: No, my method was my son started playing little league baseball when he was with about four years old. My dad was a little league coach on my baseball team and I was going to be a little league coach if my son decided to play baseball. And '85 was my last U.S. Open. I really quit playing summer golf entirely. I quit playing the British Open in '83 -- I'm sorry, '82 was my last British Open. I played '80, '81 and '82. And I didn't go to the British Open because that was a summertime tournament. And I quit playing the U.S. Open because that was summer that I coached my son's little league team for about six years. He turned to Junior Golf and my daughter started playing softball and I coached her team for about four years and the last few years I have been -- my son has been playing Junior Golf and I kind of escorted him around the Juniors, the summer Junior schedule.

But really, my golf, I just quit playing summer golf when my kids got to be baseball age and summer age; I just didn't believe in dragging my kids -- after they had been in school for an entire year, I didn't think dragging them around motel rooms for a summer of TOUR golf was the way that they wanted to leave and it was not the way that I wanted to live. I really started skipping tournaments that I really wanted to play. I started skipping the Memorial tournament and that has always been one of my very favorite of all of the tournaments on TOUR. That is the one I wanted to win the most. I started skipping that because they also moved it into the summertime. But after '83 my -- I just didn't particularly care what my career looked like after that. That really was my career, as far as pushing myself as hard as I could for those first eight years.

Q. You are going to be paired with Tom tomorrow, how old were you when you guys first played each other; what was that relationship or rivalry like; he is a couple of years older?

BRUCE LIETZKE: He is a couple of years older. I came out in '75 and he had already been on the TOUR for two or three years. We're both Kansas City boys. I was born in Kansas City and he continues to live in Kansas City.

Q. Did you play college golf?

BRUCE LIETZKE: We didn't play college golf that I know of. I don't ever remember playing college golf against Tom but we have been competitors for years and years. Most of the very close friends that I have now are the ones that I played college golf with. Either at Houston or Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite, we played lots of golf matches together when they were at Texas. So my closes friendships are those college buddies that I had. Tom and I, as far as I know, never played any college golf together at all.

Q. What exactly would you say it is about your game that allows you to go long stretches away from it through the last two decades, but when you show up in a tournament you are usually -- you are usually pretty competitive and your game seems in tune pretty well; what is it about your swing, your game that's simple enough or whatever that allows you to do that?

BRUCE LIETZKE: It's very simple. It's the exact same swing that I have had for almost 30 years now. I have changed nothing in my golf swing in 30 years. It allows me to take two weeks off or two months off. Not touch a golf club and when I come back it's the exact same swing because it's the -- I had the same muscle memory. I haven't confused my muscles by working on a long swing. I haven't confused my muscles by working on a radical set of irons or a 48-inch driver. The specs on my clubs are exactly as they have always been for 30 years. The weight and everything is exactly the same. And once you used the same golf muscles and done the same swing year after year after year, you can take time off and that same swing will be -- the first swing you make after two months off will be that exact same swing.

But it goes against human nature. And literally everybody that fades the ball thinks they want to hook it so they go out and work on their hook. And the guys that hook the ball think they ought to be faders. And everybody is looking for 15 extra yards of distance which never translates into good scores, but they think they want 15 extra yards so they use radical golf equipment or they changed their golf swing and they read a Golf Digest article that says David Leadbetter says you are supposed to be doing this. And every time you make a change in your golf swing you are starting at ground zero again. You have to develop new muscle memory and I never had to do that. I never changed anything in my swing so it continues to be the same swing from 30 years ago.

RAND JERRIS: One last question back here.

Q. What did you think of when Fernandez shot 64 yesterday and did you think there were that many birdies out there for you or anybody else for that matter?

BRUCE LIETZKE: No, I didn't, especially the way the wind started blowing. As the day went on the wind got gustier and gustier. I didn't expect that anybody would go out and shoot a 63 or 64; I thought 1- or 2-under would be a good round of golf today. You don't think about that very long. You don't want to restrict yourself to shooting a 1- or 2-under par so you want to bring yourself back to earth. You think about realistic scores but you never know in this game. And, you know, it was possible yesterday and obviously it was possible today to shoot a low score and that's makes it possible tomorrow to do the same thing.

RAND JERRIS: Bruce, congratulations again on your fine play.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Thank you.

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