Lietzke Reels in a Rare Victory

Have you heard about the Bruce Lietzke golf watch? Wind it up and it stops working.

If Lietzke played any fewer tournaments, he’d be retired. Right now, he isn’t quite ready for that. In fact, Lietzke managed to pull himself away from his bass boat long enough to play nine PGA Tour events this year. He is planning to make a dramatic increase in his tournament schedule next year.

He’s going to play 10.

At 46, Lietzke is only four years away from the Senior PGA Tour, where he intends to play as many as 25 tournaments. He’s already thinking about what that may mean.

“I’ll have to play a little bit more,” Lietzke said. “You know, it’s hard for me to say the words ‘play a little bit more.’ ”

It’s not hard to see why. Lietzke’s tendency toward inactivity is legendary. He took 20 weeks off this year, from the Memorial in early June to the Las Vegas Invitational at the end of October. Lietzke is going to correct that little mistake next year. He’s not going to play the Memorial so that he can take 24 weeks off.

There are still a few days of work on the golf course for Lietzke, including the Franklin Templeton Shark Shootout at Sherwood Country Club, which ended Sunday with a bass-fishing, carpool-driving, girls softball-coaching dad on the winning team.

That would be Lietzke, who combined with Scott McCarron to score a two-shot victory over David Duval-Scott Hoch and earn $300,000 for the team.

Lietzke and McCarron finished with a 13-under 59 in the scramble format and their 30-under 186 total edged Hoch and Duval.

After losing to two guys who putt with things that look like rakes and one player who averages a tournament every time he flips a page on the calendar, Duval shook his head.

“They need to pass a rule against old guys who are retired and come out and play,” Duval said.

Of course, that would be Lietzke. He has won 13 times in a PGA Tour career that began in 1974 and has banked $2.4 million. That puts him No. 23 on the all-time money list and earns him an exemption to play on the PGA Tour in 1998.

He won only $42,880 this year, but played only twice since June. It was the eighth consecutive year that Lietzke had played in fewer than 20 events.

In place of tournament golf, he spent time at home in Dallas with his family. Rose Lietzke coached 12-year-old daughter Christine’s softball team, but dad was the assistant coach. Stephen Lietzke, 12, likes golf, so dad is spending a lot more time on the course than he usually does.

“The only great reason I can see for playing golf at home is to play with my son,” said Lietzke, who also brings Christine to dance and gymnastics and cleans out the dugout after softball games.

McCarron said all of that makes Lietzke a role model.

“He puts family first,” McCarron said. “Everyone on the tour would like to be Bruce Lietzke.”

Which might be why Lietzke has been asked by 1999 Ryder Cup captain Ben Crenshaw to be his assistant. Lietzke has accepted.

Meanwhile, he said he never tinkers with his golf and hasn’t changed his swing in more than 20 years.

Hoch said he isn’t surprised.

“What’s there to change?” he said. “You can’t tinker with that thing. Lietzke is a natural. He knows his ball is going left to right. He doesn’t have to worry about it.”

Worrying about golf isn’t something Lietzke can relate to. There is the famous story about how his new caddy once stuck a banana under the head cover of his driver after Lietzke’s last tournament in October to see if Lietzke really didn’t play all winter.

The next February at the Bob Hope, Lietzke zipped open his bag and there was a rotten banana under that club head.

“We had to throw that bag away, it smelled so bad,” Lietzke said. “And that club head was moldy, black and covered with fungus. Obviously, my caddy didn’t know my reputation.”

He was the only one. See you on the bass boat.