Hyundai Team Matches: Senior PGA Tour standout puts golf in

perspective

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT COAST - Like the hilly golf course at Pelican Hill Golf

Club, Bruce Fleisher of the Senior PGA Tour had plenty of ups and downs

during the year 2000.

On the up side is finishing second among the Senior Tour money

leaders, winning over $2.3 million in his second year on the circuit.

On the down side is losing two people in his life to death: His father

and a close friend, who was brutally murdered.

Oh, sure, fame and fortune is nice. But reality for Fleisher struck

home this year.

“I’ve had some success out here,” said Fleisher, the 1999 Senior Tour Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year, then coming back with another

solid campaign in 2000.

“I like the feeling and I want more.”

Asked his high and low points of the year, Fleisher said with a laugh,

“the high point is my bank account.”

But, while golf has given Fleisher a new lease on life financially,

the real world has been cruel.

First, he lost his father this year.

Then, a close friend of his, Nelson Gross, was murdered in the summer

by three New Jersey thugs. It was a wild affair that shook up Fleisher,

who said the accused murderers “wanted $20,000 (from the restaurant Gross

owned), scared the busboy and then slashed his throat.”

Fleisher added that the accused then started stabbing his friend “over

100 times and then threw him over a bridge, after completely decapitating

him ... (law enforcement officers) found these three guys, who were

apparently bragging in the Bronx about what they had done and bought a

motorcycle with the (stolen) money. Two of them are getting life (in

jail) and another’s getting 20 years.”

Fleisher, whose eyes filled up after speaking about his late friend,

was about to rebound and play solid golf, despite a heavy heart.

“(Gross) was on his way to see me play golf,” Fleisher said. “He was

going to meet up with me that weekend ... but he was abducted that

Wednesday.”

On the golf course, Fleisher said he has had “a wonderful year.”

For the second year in a row, the self-described journeyman finished

ahead of every big name on the circuit -- except for leading money winner

Larry Nelson.

“I don’t understand it,” Fleisher said. “I’m not even going to try to

figure it out.”

Two years ago, if somebody invited Bruce Fleisher to play in the

Hyundai Team Matches at Pelican Hill, you’d check them into an

institution.

But the easygoing Fleisher, whose life has changed beyond belief since

earning his Senior Tour card, will team with David Graham today in the

first round against Allen Doyle and Dana Quigley.

Fleisher realizes what’s happening and is cashing in, knowing the

proverbial window of opportunity on the Senior Tour is between 50 and 55.

“Hey, I’m not going to kid you, I’m out here to make money and make my

life more comfortable,” said Fleisher, 52. “I don’t need the adulation

and attention that goes along with winning. It’s wearying.”

As a Senior Tour rookie in 1999, Fleisher came away with all the top

honors, after becoming the first ever to win his first two starts, when

he claimed the Royal Caribbean Classic and American Express Invitational

in successive weeks.

“Don’t think for a minute that anybody out here doesn’t want to win,”

Fleisher said. “There are some guys, from what I’ve read, who say they’re

just out here to give back (to the game). I get a little annoyed when I

read someone say that they’re just here giving something back. If you’re

not here to win, why are you here?

“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to play on the Senior Tour, and

everything that has happened is beyond my greatest expectations.”

Fleisher is also a former playing member of the golf fraternity in the

old Crosby Southern Pro-Am at Irvine Coast Country Club (later the

Newport Classic Pro-Am).

Fleisher won the 1977 Crosby Southern and played in the event again in

1986.

“I can’t tell you how fortunate I feel,” said Fleisher, who has won

over $4.8 million in two years. “Prior to this, I was a survivor, I was a

journeyman. In terms of dollars and how much you make, I’ve never

measured life like that. But I am certainly reaping the rewards out here.

How long is it going to last? Who knows? I’m just going to try to be the

best Bruce Fleisher can be.”

Fleisher, a former club pro in the mid-to-late 1980s, has won

tournaments in Brazil, Jamaica and the Bahamas. The 1968 U.S. Amateur

champion played in more than 400 events on the PGA Tour, but won only

once -- the 1991 New England Classic.

“Bruce still can’t believe what he’s doing,” Gary McCord said. “He has

guys coming at him who were show ponies on the big tour, and for years he

was eating their dust. Only now he can handle them.”

Fleisher hopes to be the leading horse this weekend.