Some of the best theater at a golf tournament — especially on the PGA Tour Champions — isn't the final putt on 18 or a holed bunker shot. It's the stories on the practice range. Perfected over time, told again and again, the tales elicit hearty laughs, not-safe-for-print nicknames, firm backslaps and occasionally a pause for reflection.
Such was the case Monday at TPC Twin Cities when the handful of players already in town for this week's 3M Championship offered thoughts on 2001 tournament winner Bruce Lietzke, who died Saturday after a 15-month battle with a rare brain tumor known as glioblastoma.
"Great guy, great personality," said 2003 3M winner Wayne Levi. "Our lockers were always right next to each other — Levi and Lietzke — and there wasn't a better person to put your shoes on with. It's a sad thing that happened with him; you'll always remember that fade and how many tournaments he won without really practicing much."
Indeed, stories are ample of Lietzke's aversion to putting in much time on the craft away from the course. Yet, he won 13 times on the PGA Tour and another seven events after turning 50, including the 2003 U.S. Senior Open.
His final victory on the regular tour came at the 1994 Las Vegas Invitational, then a 90-hole event. Lietzke shot 28 under, beating Robert Gamez by a shot.
"He was quite a bit older but I found out right away if Bruce came to a tournament, he was going to work," said Gamez, who made his Champions Tour debut last week. "And, you know, it showed. He perfected that swing, and it was great to watch him with that big old banana cut out there and go, 'Man. This guy has it.' "
And not just on the golf course.
University of Houston teammate Fuzzy Zoeller remembers their fishing excursions just as much as golf successes.
