Bruce Lietzke

Bruce Alan Lietzke (born July 18, 1951) is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments at both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour level.

Lietzke was born in Kansas City. [One source [http://www.pgatour.com/players/intro/132058] lists his place of birth as Kansas City, Kansas; two sources [http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/players/profile?playerId=274] [http://www.golfdigest.com/newsandtour/index.ssf?/newsandtour/2002waterhouse.html] state Kansas City, Missouri ] He moved to Beaumont, Texas with his parents in 1960 and lived there until 1977, graduating from Forest Park High School in 1969.

He credits his older brother, Duane, for introducing him to the game of golf at age 5. He also credits Henry Homberg, a local Beaumont professional, along with Duane for having the greatest influences on his game when he first started playing. Lietzke attended the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. He graduated in 1973 and turned pro in 1974.

Although he had to wait until the Champions Tour to win a major, Lietzke has had a relatively successful career. He won 13 PGA Tour events and has so far won seven times on the Champions Tour. His career year on the PGA Tour was 1981, when he won three times. His best finish in a major on the PGA Tour was 2nd in the 1991 PGA Championship. He played on the 1981 Ryder Cup team.

Lietzke was well known for not practicing a great deal, and not playing in a large number of tournaments compared to his fellow competitors, electing to spend more time with his family. Despite this he never finished below 74 on the money list.

In recent years he has been plagued by the so-called "frozen shoulder syndrome" – the correct medical term is adhesive capsulitis – which has caused him to miss a considerable amount of playing time.

Lietzke enjoys collecting classic cars and has built an 11-car garage at his home in which to store his large collection; the crown jewel is a 1967 yellow Corvette Stingray convertible. He lists Bruce Springsteen as his favorite entertainer and Don "Big Daddy" Garlits as his favorite athlete. He makes his home in Dallas, Texas. In 1978, Lietzke was shown in print ads for the Dodge Magnum coupe, as also being a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda owner.

PGA Tour wins (13)

*1977 (2) Joe Garagiola-Tucson Open, Hawaiian Open
*1978 (1) Canadian Open
*1979 (1) Joe Garagiola-Tucson Open
*1980 (1) Colonial National Invitation
*1981 (3) Bob Hope Desert Classic, Wickes-Andy Williams San Diego Open, Byron Nelson Golf Classic
*1982 (1) Canadian Open
*1984 (1) Honda Classic
*1988 (1) GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic
*1992 (1) Southwestern Bell Colonial
*1994 (1) Las Vegas Invitational

Other wins (1)

*1997 Franklin Templeton Shark Shootout (with Scott McCarron)

Champions Tour wins (7)

*2001 (2) 3M Championship, SAS Championship
*2002 (3) Audi Senior Classic, TD Waterhouse Championship, SAS Championship
*2003 (2) Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, U.S. Senior Open

Senior major championship is shown in bold.

Other senior wins (1)

*2002 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf - Raphael Division (with Bill Rogers)

ee also

*Golfers with most PGA Tour wins

References

External links

* [http://www.pgatour.com/players/00/16/90 Profile on PGA Tour's official site]