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.
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