Big golfing drawcard is set to retire

Press, 27 October 1982, Page 36

Big golfing drawcard is set to retire

Last August, as Bruce Lietzke pocketed a cheque for $76,500 after winning his second Canadian Open, he startled the press room by saying that he would quit golf in three to four years. Here was a 31-year-old star of the American circuit, the winner of nine tour events and more than 51.3 million in seven years, talking about retirement.

But there was the comforting thought that Lietzke, who will be the leading drawcard at the $lOO,OOO Air New Zealand Shell Open at Titirangi from December 1 to 5, had retired once before and come back. That was in 1973. “I had played so much through high school and I knew I would come back but at that point I was tired mentally of the competition and needed the time to think about some other things.” The retirement lasted six months and he turned pro in 1974. He joined the tour the following year and five years 10 months later he had his first million. When Lietzke talked in Canada about his retirement, he touched upon the factor which contributed to his first break from the game.

“I find now that occasionally I don’t enjoy playing under the kind of pressure I

played under today. If I don't enjoy it, I don't want to stay out there.

“I’ve always admired athletes who knew enough to quit while they were in their prime. I’ve also seen athletes like Muhammad Ali who tried to hang in too long. You can see it in their faces that they don't enjoy it as much as they used to. “My enthusiasm for the game has dwindled in that I’ve found something more interesting than golf — that’s a wife."

Last year, Lietzke married Rosemarie Nelson, whose sister, Soozi, is married to Jerry Pate. Lietzke said he didn’t know what he would do in his retirement. “I’ve avoided working seriously for 31 years. The only job I ever had was as' a security guard for an oil refinery in Beaumont, Texas. I had a pistol in one drawer and a bullet in the other drawer and I didn't have the key to either one. ‘T’ve simply lived golf for the past 25 years but now I've found something better.”

The I.BBm Lietzke once said that he wasn’t really playing for the money. “I’m past the stage of trying to win money now. If I’m not in contention in a golf tournament, if I’m just in the middle of the pack playing

for a cheque, I'm not enjoying myself. “The purest enjoyment I get out of the game now is when I’m in contention and I’m presented with a challenge I’ve never met before. The great satisfaction comes from breaking all those barriers I set for myself, in satisfying my own ego. “I really think these challenges keep me going. I'm so obsessed with breaking those barriers that I can block out negative thoughts — like I've never been able to hit this shot before or I’ve never even attempted this shot under pressure before, things like that. I can maintain very positive thoughts because of the challenge.” Away from the world of golf, Lietzke taks the same escape road as many of his contemporaries — he fishes. He is part-owner, with his brother, Duane, of a 52-acre lakefront property in Oklahoma, and enjoys tooling about in his 6m boat. “We’re exposed to thousands of people at our golf tournaments, millions more through the television cameras. “I think those times of solitude on the lake are what get me rejuvenated and back out on tour. I think everybody has to have something like that.”

Lietzke is also’a car freak.

He includes a 500 h.p. TransAm in his five cars and has a completely outfitted garage at his lakeside home.

“I love taking one of my cars into the garage and just getting dirty, scraping the knuckles up a little and getting under a car and inspecting it. I can do the minor things. I can tear an engine apart. “Putting it back together is when I have a tough time. I always have a bunch of parts left over.” On the course, Lietzke is equally skilled with his hands. Last year, when he won three tournaments and $343,446 — fourth best in the land — he figured prominently in the tour statistics. First in par breakers, first in eagles (12), second in scoring (70.01 average), third in hitting greens in regulation and sixth in birdies (360). Like last year’s Air New Zealand Shell Open winner, Bob Shearer, he putts crosshanded and fades the ball from left to right. He began playing golf at the age of five when his brother, then an assistant pro, gave him a cutdown set of clubs. The 1971 Texas State amateur champion, he was a roommate at the University of Houston of last year’s Titirangi guest, the British Open Champion, Bill Rogers.