home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 7, 2006

Bruce Lietzke

HUTCHINSON, KANSAS

RAND JERRIS: Bruce Lietzke, minus one for the championship, with four birdies and four bogeys. An even round 70 today.

Q. A little roller coaster today, but still even par 70 and still in the hunt.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, and it was a pretty good round for me. I really didn't expect to get too much out, and actually I'm not sure the wind blew as much as I was expecting. I heard that Western Kansas was having 25 and 33 mile an hour winds earlier this morning, and I kind of was expecting that. I was expecting to really struggle a lot on this golf course.

I don't think it ever quite blew that hard. It probably blew up to 20, maybe, at the worst. It was I still had my hands full, and it's real hard to make birdies out there. I played with Massy Kuramoto and really who played pretty good, and he made one birdie all day. I was really lucky to make my last birdie of the day on number 7, and I holed out a bunker shot to get it.

The bogeys were pretty bad bogeys really, so I suppose the round could have been better. But I was really expecting a real struggle today, and I don't think the winds quite blew like I was expecting. No really low rounds. I don't know if tomorrow's round was the low round of the day.

But I will tell you it was a struggle, and probably even in this morning, I still think the wind was blowing a little bit this morning. So overall an even par today is I've got to be pretty happy with it, and I struggle on golf courses I struggle under these kind of conditions. I'm a high ball hitter, and once that wind starts to blowing like that I have to work harder than other guys.

I can shoot good scores, but I have to work really hard because I only hit the ball high. So I'm happy to kind of be right where I am.

Q. Talk about 7, because not only did you end up in the bunker but before that you were

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah. I was in the right heavy grass, heavy rough. Just had to chip out almost sideways. Still had 175 yards to the green. Hit a poor 7 iron into the green side bunker. I was only 25 feet from the pin, but a pretty difficult shot.

I had a big, big, high lip right in front of my ball, and I splashed it out exactly like I was hoping. It wasn't a terribly lucky shot. It would have only gone about a foot by the hole, and it just happened to be dead on line and went right into the hole.

I was really butchering that hole up pretty bad, and I felt pretty ashamed to go to the next hole and have the honors with that birdie. Wayne Levi played it beautifully. Hit a driver and a middle iron. 3 putted for an easy birdie, and I felt real terrible having the honors on the next hole, because his birdie was way better than mine.

Q. Talk about your putter. You had 8 one putts and whatever since you had getting to the greens were made up right there.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, I chipped pretty nicely today. I did putt okay. I didn't make any real long putts today, nor yesterday. Really the putting stat probably is more of a reflection of how well I was chipping. I just putted from off the green on nine there. That's what you need to do on golf courses that have greens this small. You're not going to hit 16 out of 18 greens. I can't imagine anybody did something like that today. You're going to miss a lot of greens.

You're hoping to chip the ball well and make the recovery putts, and for the most part that's what I did. But none of those recovery putts were long, long putts. My chipping was good. I had a zero putt on number seven, so that helps the stats too. But.

The putter felt very good for the last two days. Haven't made anything long, but I made all the short ones. That's one of the things you need to do. I'm probably going to have to make some longer putts to get in contention, but you definitely want to make all the short ones, and I'm doing that so far.

Q. You said yesterday about club selection and having to really think about what you want to do because of the wind that had been blowing so many different directions. Same thing today, wind out of the south?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Lots of times today I'm going to say five or six times today I hit a different tee club than I did yesterday. Actually the wind was almost the same direction. But a lot of the fairways were firmed up. The greens really firmed up today. I think that probably six or seven times today I hit different clubs off the tee than I did yesterday.

So it's still a real strategic kind of golf course where you have to stand on every hole, and before you just reach for that driver head cover, you got to determine where you want this ball to end up and where you don't want it to end up and make your decisions on that. So it's a I love playing golf courses like this. You really have to work all day. It's not a second shot golf course. It's not a putter's golf course.

It's you got to do everything. You got to drive it wisely, you do have to hit great iron shots, and you got to chip and putt. That's what golf's all about. So this course does ask you to do everything.

Q. When Tom put up a number like that early in the morning and your thoughts about your fears that the wind might come up, different mindset when you step up to the tee box and you see a number like that coming um?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Not on Fridays. And not when the tournament's still so young. It tells you that a score like that is capable. But it also tells you that probably the best player one of the at least one of the top two or three players on this TOUR just shot a 4 under, and he's won every British Open on every kind of golf course. It probably means that might be the best score of the day too. And you just have to forget it. But on Friday, that kind of score doesn't mean a whole lot.

Q. As you tried to find your winning form these last months, has any one thing held you back in your game?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Early in the year I was not putting well. First four or five tournaments I just had a bad putting slump. I worked my way out of that and I'm putting pretty well and hitting the ball pretty well, so no real factor. I'm healthy. Shoulders are all doing fine for the last year and a half.

I just am starting to find some form, and the putting really held me back the early part of the year. I think this is only about my 10th or the 11th tournament, so the first five tournaments of the year that's half of my schedule. That's half my year.

So getting kind of busy. I'm going to skip a few tournaments later this fall but play next week and like to continue on this trend and try to get in contention, stay in contention, and then finish on top one of these times.

Q. Are you playing well enough to like your position?

BRUCE LIETZKE: No, I don't. I can't say that I like my position as far as winning this event, no. I think I'm going to work a lot harder shooting scores on this golf course than Tom Watson is. Allen Doyle is a better wind player than I am. Can't think of some of the other names out there, but I would not say I like my position right now, no.

I would like to have a lot more confidence. I would like to be driving the ball a little bit better, and I just this golf course I have a history of playing U.S. Open courses, and I just never have felt I never have liked being handcuffed off the tee.

Every U.S. Open I ever played you can't miss it left, you can't miss it right. The Senior Open I won at Inverness, I drove the ball poorly all that week. I was actually swinging pretty good. My irons were great that week. I just don't like the mindset that I get in when I feel squeezed in. My swing just doesn't work. I won there really strictly because I chipped and putted better than anybody else that week. That's what I probably am going to have to do.

I guarantee you I can't beat Tom Watson on this course from tee to green. I'm going to have to beat him around the greens. I'm going to have to have a whole lot of four putts or something like that. He is the king, I think, of these style golf courses. And when 20 mile an hour winds blow, he's the best player in this field. And he probably wants this event more than anybody else. I heard him say that he has missed out on this, at this tournament a few times, and a player of his caliber, that leaves a lasting mark. Winning this would erase all these things, so I really believe he's the man to beat.

Q. When you won in 2003 you used the word "survival." Is it to that level here?

BRUCE LIETZKE: I don't feel that yet, but, boy, we still haven't seen the toughest pins yet. And by Sunday afternoon the energy level will be just down to where you feel that. I don't feel that yet. If the wind had blown 35, 40 miles an hour, that's probably it would have been a tremendous struggle. Like I said, I was a little I was pretty happy that we weren't faced with those kind of winds.

So, no, I don't think it's in the survival mode yet, but look me up on Sunday afternoon when these greens get real hard, real fast, and I really believe they're saving the toughest pins for Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday afternoon that's probably that's what most USGA events seem to be by Sunday afternoon. It's who survives that test of golf.

Q. Tom's ability to play in his prime so well in difficult conditions, was that as much as anything something that caused mere mortals to say, you know, he's great?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, because he didn't relinquish leads. He was a he wasn't a Tiger Woods kind of front runner where he ran away from the field, and neither was Jack Nicklaus for that matter. But Tom had a real reputation of just holding on, and the tougher the conditions, the better, the more disciplined he was, the better decisions he made.

Jack Nicklaus was like that to a certain extent, but when it comes to a links style golf course and wind blowing, I don't think there was ever a better one. Certainly in my age range Tom Watson was the premier player under those kind of conditions. And also, when he got the lead he kept it. He started out with that choker label in the Western Open in the middle '70s. Those words were never mentioned again, because he just never gave tournaments away after that.

It was a different feeling though, Nicklaus, you did you almost relinquished it. If you saw Nicklaus' name at the top, you just figured he was going to win a tournament, and he always did find a way.

Watson, I guess I never feared that name mainly because he was more of my generation. But he did go on and win just like Nicklaus did. Nicklaus was kind of a feared name. Watson, I guess, because we were the same generation, I never feared him. But boy, he was the player under these kind of conditions, and that's what from what the weather man says we'll be faced with British Open kind of surroundings with winds and all that.

Allen Doyle's a great wind player, and I seen him play some really tough conditions, a U.S. Open last year. But I said early in the week Tom Watson was my pick early in the week, and he still is.

Q. The fact that you prevailed against him at Inverness though, does that that's got to help some I would think.

BRUCE LIETZKE: Oh, it's a sweet feeling to me. I tell you, it probably because I've beaten him in a couple of playoffs on the PGA TOUR too, but those are the reasons that he wants this tournament. I promise you, he wants this tournament more than anybody else in this field. Because of those kind of circumstances there, he had Bruce Edwards on the bag for just about the last time and had a gallery pulling for him and all that.

So he remembers those kind of things and doesn't hold any grudges. But he if he gets another chance I don't think that I never gave him the lead back that day. Heaven help me if I had, because I guarantee you he wouldn't have given it back. He's got the lead now, and I fully expect him to be in the lead. We're going to have to catch him. I just don't believe he's going to fall back.

Q. Because you were hitting those hooks so well that day?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Two of them anyway, two good hooks. Those are on my resume forever. You may never hit another good bunch, but I hit two that Sunday that were keepers.

Q. Playing both in the morning and afternoon, was there any advantage or disadvantage playing at one time or the other?

BRUCE LIETZKE: Yeah, it's definitely better in the morning. There's more moisture on the greens, the winds are usually lighter, and they were lighter yesterday for about three or four holes. But the greens are very, very dry right now. There's a couple of them that are not the green color anymore. They're starting to turn brown. I saw them. They're out syringing the greens.

These were tougher conditions this afternoon. Had dryer greens and harder fairways too, and I don't really like hard fairways. I like fairways to stop and I can put some spin on the ball, even with a 3 wood or something like that. The ball's bouncing in the fairways, and that means it's usually bouncing towards the rough. So much harder in the afternoons.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297