Some people are seemingly meant to do just one thing. Like 66-year-old professional golfer Bruce Fleisher.
“I started caddying when I was seven and took up the game when I was nine,” Fleisher said. “I’ve been very blessed – my career has lasted a really, really long time.”
At the age of 19, Fleisher in 1968 became the youngest golfer ever to win the U.S. Amateur Tournament. He went on to enjoy a long and prosperous career in golf, working as a club professional in the 1980s before compiling an impressive competitive portfolio.
Fleisher’s tournament resume includes a win in the 1989 PGA Club Professional Tournament, a victory at the 1991 New England Classic on the regular PGA Tour and 18 victories on the PGA’s Champions Tour (for players age 50 and over – formerly the Senior Tour).
“There was a time when I knew I could do it,” he said. “It wasn’t ‘I think I can’ or ‘maybe I can,’ it was ‘I know I can.’”
Fleisher lives during the summer in the Western North Carolina Mountains near Asheville, and in the winter at North Palm Beach, Fla. He was in Texas County on Wednesday of last week, attending a junior golf tournament at Houston’s Oakwood Golf Club.
Fleisher met Oakwood owner Bud Evans about 25 years ago and the two have been friends ever since. The junior tournament included 22 kids ages 8 to 18. When it was over, Fleisher conducted a free clinic for the players and numerous family members and friends.
“My hat’s off to Bud for his dedication to making golf available in a place like Houston,” Fleisher said. “Same goes for the kids’ parents and everyone else involved.”
One of the things Fleisher stresses most when helping golfers learn or improve is the importance of properly gripping the club.
“If you don’t start with the right foundation,” he said, “nothing else you do matters.”
Fleisher believes the vast array of technology at the disposal of present day golfers gives them a great opportunity to learn that didn’t exists as he came up through the ranks.
“Not just with the equipment, like balls and clubs, but with the golf swing,” he said. “It’s so easy to break everything down with video and other technology, everybody needs to somehow use that as an advantage. But improving in golf is simple arithmetic; you get out of it what you put into it. If your work ethic is good, your attitude is good and you persevere hard enough, you’ll do well.”
Watching accomplished players is another good way to improve, according to Fleisher.
“Just mimic somebody who’s better than you are,” he said. “When I was young, I learned a lot by watching good players I caddied for and then trying to do things they did.”
While Fleisher sees most players focusing on distance, he thinks more attention should be paid to golf’s “short game.”
“The great majority of shots you’ll hit are from about 100 yards and in,” he said, “and putting makes up more than 40 percent of your total shots in a round. But go to the range and you’ll usually see almost everyone hitting driver.”
Fleisher is also a proponent of developing a pre-shot routine and staying with it.
“It’s important to do the same thing every time,” he said. “Find something that’s comfortable and keep doing it.”
He calls himself “retired,” but Fleisher and fellow long-time pro Larry Nelson teamed up in April to win in the Legends Division (age 60-and-up) at the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf tournament near Branson.
“I stopped regularly playing tournaments about three years ago,” he said. “I was at the point where I really didn’t have anything left to prove to myself and it wasn’t like I was bored and didn’t have anything else to do with my life, because I do. So now, my approach to golf is kind of what I’m doing here; I like to give back to the game because it did so much for me.”
Rain fell on and off when Fleisher was conducting his clinic. When a shower would start, everyone would dash into Oakwood’s clubhouse and listen to him discuss his career, tell stories and talk about golf in general.
Fleisher said he hopes to return to Oakwood next summer for another junior tournament and clinic.
“It’s a neat experience for me to see the enthusiasm a lot of these kids have for golf,” he said. “If I can just apply some fun and enjoyment and help them understand that not everyone is going to make it big but it’s still possible to love golf, then I think I’ve done something good.”
While visiting Oakwood Golf Club last week, Bruce Fleisher shared what he said are two of his favorite golf-related memories.
At St. Andrews, Scotland:
“I played in 1990 at the British Club Pro Championship at Carnoustie, which is about an hour from St. Andrews. I told my wife I wanted to go to St. Andrews and see the No. 17 – the famous “Road Hole” – because there isn’t a bunker in the world I can’t get out of.
“We drive down all dressed up, and we walked down 18 to 17. It was a week before the British Open, and cranes were out there putting up stands and people are walking around because St. Andrews is a public facility and you can walk through it to go to the beach.
“I don’t have any clubs and I’m in a coat and tie, and I go over a rope and get into this trap. I pretend I’m over a ball and I’m looking straight up about seven feet or more, and I go, ‘nope, I can’t do it.’
“As I’m leaving the bunker, an official starts yelling at me, and I said ‘you got me.’ He escorted us off the course.
“They didn’t recognize me, because I wasn’t recognizable then. I got thrown off the course at St. Andrews.”
At a U.S. Amateur anniversary event:
“My greatest moment was about five or six years ago at the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Amateur tournament in Detroit. I went with a couple of guys and we got in at about 4:30 in the morning.
“The schedule for the day was breakfast at 7 a.m., photos at 9 or 10 and a shotgun start at noon. The other two guys said, ‘see you at picture time’ and went to bed.
“But Arnold Palmer was there and I decided to stay up and go to breakfast. I really didn’t realize the magnitude of this event, and I walk into the clubhouse and there are a thousand people eating.
“I found my seat and saw a bunch of guys I knew who had won the U.S. Amateur like me. I sit down and a couple of minutes later, the speaker gets up and announces, ‘we’re sorry to announce that Bruce Fleisher, John Harris and Jay Sigel won’t be with us.’
“I said, ‘I’m here,’ and the guy says, ‘Bruce Fleisher – come on up!’ I hadn’t slept all night and I felt lousy and looked lousy.
“I get up there and the guy sticks the microphone in my face and there’s Arnie about 12 feet away. I managed to get my composure and I said, ‘Arnie, I’m going to take you back in time.’
“He sits up and gets a big smile on his face. I said, ‘I want you to think back to the Masters at Augusta in 1969 and think about this 20-year-old finding out Monday afternoon he’s teeing off with the King at 8:22 Thursday morning.
“’I want you to think about the sleepless nights Monday and Tuesday and try to imagine what’s going through this kid’s mind Wednesday night knowing that at 8:22 the next morning he’s going to play golf with the King.’
“I looked at Arnie, and he’s obviously getting emotional. I said, ‘I remember trying to tee the ball up on the first tee with my hands literally shaking and just hoping I could hit the ball.’
“I start crying, and Arnie starts crying, then the whole room starts crying. Bing Crosby’s son Nathanial Crosby – who won the Amateur in 1981 – finally jumps up and says, ‘Fleish, you’re killing me – stop it!’
“I got my composure back and said to Arnie, ‘I don’t know if you remember that day, but you shot 73 and I shot 69.’ The place went crazy.”