Who Needs Practice? He'd Rather Fish
Bruce Lietzke did not spend time beating balls on the range. He still won the 1988 GTE Byron Nelson Classic.
Jump on board the Tour Backspin journey through the past as we head back to the 1988 GTE Byron Nelson Classic. One of our favorites from the ‘80s, Bruce Lietzke, handled the firm and fast TPC Las Colinas course to prevail in a playoff over a player you may never have heard of. Scroll to learn more as we take you inside the ropes that week.
One of the few chances we get to see the PGA TOUR players team up and play different team formats was on display last week at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans. It was a fun change of pace as we head towards the second major of the year in a couple of weeks. Scroll down for my take on the fun in the PGA TOUR Wrap-Up, and check out the Clips I Loved.
PAST TOUR BACKSPIN ARTICLES ON THE BYRON NELSON GOLF CLASSIC
I just realized that I’ve interviewed a player from each one of the articles linked above. Pretty cool to have talked with Bruce Devlin, Johnny Pott, and Ben Crenshaw.
Enjoy the golf this week from Texas.
The golf world lost another great one with the passing of J.C. Snead on Friday. Snead, the nephew of Sam Snead, won eight times on the PGA TOUR and four times on the Champions Tour.
Before playing on the tour, Snead played professional baseball in the Washington Senators farm system.
He often lived in the shadow of his famous uncle.
"If my name had been Jones or Brown, maybe I would have been better off," Snead told the Roanoke Times in 1990. "I know I was not a great player, not a Nicklaus. When I was at my best, so were Nicklaus, Trevino and Watson. But I played as well as some of these guys who are your everyday heroes.”
He finished second four times in 1974 and set the record, for two years in a row, for the most money won without winning a tournament.
Read the obit from Tim Schmitt of Golfweek HERE.
He will be missed.
There was a lot of fun golf to watch on TV this past weekend. The team format at the Zurich Classic was a birdie fest but also included some pressure packed action on the last few holes. There was also carnage that led to a five-way sudden death playoff in the Chevron Championship, a major on the LPGA Tour. Which one did you watch? Scroll down and let us know in this week’s The Tour Backspin Poll. Let’s see, got a hole-in-one. Check. Did it with a 1-iron. Check. Drinks Johnny Walker. Check. This is what we are led to believe in this week’s Vintage Ad from 1988. Scroll down to view.
The Tour Backspin Poll
In last week’s Tour Backspin Poll we asked if you thought Rory would win the Grand Slam this year. There were 57% of respondents who thought that there were too many things that could go wrong for him to achieve the Grand Slam, while 43% think he can do it. The courses certainly line up for him and it will be exciting to find out if he can achieve a Grand Slam.
Which golf did you watch on TV last weekend? The PGA Tour in New Orleans or the LPGA major, the Chevron Championship? Let us know in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
We’re playing Byron Nelson Classic trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to take the challenge. Give us your best guess in this week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? and if you get it correct you may win prizes from the Tour Backspin Golf Shop.
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Okay, we're on the tee, let's get going.
Enjoy!
Larry Baush
Part-Time Fisherman, Part-Time Golfer Wins The Nelson
Bruce Lietzke rarely spent time on the practice tee. Jim McLean, who lived with Lietzke when they were teammates at the University of Houston, once wrote that Lietzke literally never practiced, and “I mean never.”
Lietzke would rather spend his time with his family, old cars, or fishing, than laboring on the practice tee beating balls. Nicknamed “Leaky” for his dependable fade, as well as a play on his last name, Lietzke turned pro in 1974 and qualified for the PGA TOUR at the 1975 Spring Q-School. By 1988 he had settled on a playing schedule that included only 20 to 22 tournaments a year.
“If I played in 28 to 30 tournaments, about five or six times a year I’d be in tournaments and saying to myself, ‘I’d rather be home with my kids,” Lietzke admitted to Mike Towle of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram the week of the 1988 GTE Byron Nelson Classic in Irving, TX.
“I could quit golf right now and never have any regrets or disappointments. I could quit this afternoon.”
The GTE Byron Nelson Classic was played at the TPC at Las Colinas, a course that measured 6,767 yards and played to a par of 70. Lietzke, who had been winless since the Honda Classic in March of 1984, was teeing it up hoping to win a tournament with Byron Nelson’s name on it. Nelson was one of Lietzke’s idols and the fact that Nelson retired at a relatively young age to become a rancher was something that Lietzke admired.
“The man this tournament is named after probably most epitomizes a person leaving in his prime,” Lietzke said before the start of the event. “I could quit golf right now and never have any regrets or disappointments. I could quit this afternoon.”
The weather during the first round was warm and almost windless, conditions that had many of the players and experts expecting very low scores. The scoring in the pre-tournament shootout on Wednesday seemed to give credence to these predictions. Payne Stewart won a $1,000 bonus for making the most birdies during the exhibition. Stewart made four birdies finishing second in the shootout to Sandy Lyle, the reigning Masters champion.
Stewart kept his momentum going in the first round. Teeing off at 8:26 from the 10th tee, Stewart fashioned a round of 66 and headed to the house he was renting with friends for a little pickup basketball. As he left the course he held a share of the lead with seven other players.
“That’s the way it is on tour these days,” he said to Galyn Wilkins, sports columnist for the Fort Worth Telegram-Star. “So many good scores . . .so many good players.”
By the time the day was over, there were another four players added to the list at 66. Mark Wiebe birdied two of his last three holes to post a 6-under 64 late in the day, securing the first-round lead. Then, Brandel Chamblee, a rookie who earned his tour card in 1987 and had made only two cuts in eight starts, birdied the final hole to post a 65.
The players at 66, in addition to Stewart, were Curt Byrum, George Archer, Jeff Sluman, Ben Crenshaw, Davd Frost, Peter Jacobsen, Tommy Nakajima, Bruce Lietzke, Clarence Rose, and Dave Rummells.
Because the conditions were so good, there were 52 players who bettered par in the first round.
“The greens are putting really well, and the course is playing relatively short,” Jeff Sluman, one of the players at 66 explained. “If you’re driving the ball well, you’ll be hitting a lot of wedges to the greens.”
Ben Crenshaw belted his drive off the first tee in the second round and watched it end up only about 10 yards from the green on the downhill 352-yard. As he walked down the fairway he started thinking about putting his game into aggressive mode. He then walked onto the green and felt how firm it was and changed his mind.
“The greens were firm, and the course was fast,” he said to Charles Clines of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I started playing very cautiously after that.”
He played for pars and let the birdies come to him, which they did as he recorded a 5-under 65 and a 36-hole total of 131 good for a two-stroke lead. Jeff Sluman followed his opening 66 with a 67 and shared second place with the first-round leader, Weibe. John Cook, with a second round 64 to go with an opening 70, and Craig Stadler (68-66) were another shot back at 134. Lietzke fired a 69 in the second round and was tied, at 135, with the rookie Chamblee.
The cut came at 3-over 143 and equaled the lowest cut total on the tour for the year. The Tournament Players Champion, Mark McCumber, and Lee Trevino both made the cut on the number, but Arnold Palmer, the 58-year-old crowd favorite had to withdraw due to pain in his ribs after a double bogey on the 10th hole.
Jeff Sluman was able to avoid the pratfalls that the other leaders experienced in the third round to take a one-shot lead. Ben Crenshaw, playing with Sluman, bogeyed three of his last five holes to finish his round with an even-par 70.
“I had a nice round going and had notions of running away with it,” Crenshaw told reporters, including Denne H. Freeman of the Associated Press, after his round. “Then I made two bogeys before I could turn around. I was very disappointed I dropped three shots like that.”
Lietzke had his chance to hold the lead but three-putted the final green and had to settle for a 66.
“Although it has been a year since I’ve been one shot out of the lead, I think I know what it takes to win,” Lietzke declared after his round. “I just need to be in contention on the final three holes. It’s just like an NBA game. You want to be there in the final two minutes.”
Sluman was one of the tour’s steadiest performers. In 1987 he finished in the money 22 times in the 32 events he entered. His third round included three birdies and no bogeys, and he explained his final round strategy to reporters.
“I’m not going to do anything differently on Sunday,” he said. “I’m going to play just like I was 10 shots behind instead of one shot ahead. If I looked at the scoreboard it would drive me nuts.”
There were 60,000 golf fans cramming the course to watch the final round on a breezy and hot Sunday and they certainly got their money’s worth. Jeff Sluman stumbled to a 76 and was left behind by the other leaders. Bruce Lietzke, Ben Crenshaw, David Graham, and Clarence Rose all took advantage of Sluman’s downfall as they jockeyed around the top of the leaderboard.
Rose, who started the final round two strokes off the lead, fashioned a very solid round of 69 on Sunday to finish at 271. Graham charged up the leader board where he started his day four shots off the lead, but his charge was too little and too late as his final round 68 put him one off the lead set by Rose. Crenshaw bogeyed two of his last eleven holes and finished with a 71, and a four-day total of 272, tied with Graham.
Lietzke came to the final hole needing only a par to secure victory. His drive ended up in the left rough and he attempted to hit a 7-iron over a tree, and a bunker, that were in front of him. When he saw his shot flair up too high, he knew it would not cover the bunker. His resulting lie was buried in the sand, and he contemplated how to play the shot.
“If I went for the pin, I would have to splash the ball and hope to hit in the rough hope the ball would roll close to the hole,” he explained later.
He elected instead to play away from the pin settling for a two-putt bogey that placed him in a sudden-death playoff with Rose. Both players hit good drives on the 554-yard 16th hole, the first hole of the playoff. Both players laid up short of fairway bunkers that protected the hole.
“If you go in the bunker, you have no chance,” Lietzke later explained to reporters.
Rose hit his 6-iron approach shot to the fringe while Lietzke’s 7-iron stopped about 18 feet from the hole. After Rose chipped up to a couple of feet from the hole. Lietzke, who had missed many makable birdie putts in regulation, finally came through in the playoff sinking the winning 18-footer.
“I had no special feelings on that putt at all,” Lietzke declared after the playoff. “I had most of my putts on line today, but very few dropped. It was a 16 to 18-foot putt, the same kind I had all day. I hit it solid, but it was going a little faster than I wanted. But it caught most of the left lip and went in.”
Lietzke won $135,000 which helped his early retirement fund immensely. Rose took home a check for $81,000 for his runner-up finish, the fifth time he had been a runner-up. Ben Crenshaw and David Graham each earned $43,500 for the week.
It was quite the week for Lietzke, a player who did not enjoy practicing or playing in too many PGA TOUR tournaments. A player who would rather fish or spend time with his family. The week put him closer to achieving what his idol, and the namesake of the tournament, Byron Nelson, accomplished with his early retirement to become a cattle rancher.
Final round coverage from ABC of the 1988 GTE Byron Nelson Classic. Come for the golf, stay for the commercials. This clip does not include the playoff won by Lietzke.
Coming Next Week: Doug Sanders defeats Lee Trevino to win the 1972 Kemper Open for his 20th, and final, PGA TOUR victory
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WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Congratulations to Glenn Blue, winner of the WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest. He correctly identified #11 at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, LA. This was a tough one as there were only two correct answers. We’re adding more to the gift discount code to The Tour Backspin Golf Shop that Glenn has as he is a multiple winner. We are sending discount codes to the winners of WHAT HOLE IS IT? in 2025 so that they can choose their prize from the offerings in The Tour Backspin Golf Shop, including the Tour Backspin 19th Hole Hot Sauce. Winners can combine multiple discount codes to use on a single order, and the codes never expire. When the code is redeemed, the prize will be sent with free shipping, so getting your prize will not cost you anything. Check out The Tour Backspin Golf Shop HERE.
The Herbert C. Leeds Trophy has been sent to the 2024 winner, Doug Posten, and we expect a picture of his victory pose soon.
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BONUS STORY
As players from the PGA TOUR completed practice rounds and the first round of the GTE Byron Nelson Classic the second week of May in 1988, most were complimentary about the condition of the course.
By Friday, they were singing a different tune and even Tom Diamond, the greens superintendent of TPC Las Colinas, realized that the condition of the course was deteriorating. The warm 90-degree temperatures had dried out the course, especially the greens. Diamond, and his crew, resorted to a rarely used defense against the conditions and began watering the greens in the middle of Friday’s second round, and again during play in the third round on Saturday.
“The PGA is completely happy with the golf course and so am I.”
By Sunday, the complaints from players were becoming louder and hard to ignore. Byron Nelson, the host of the tournament, called a press conference, in the middle of Sunday’s final round to address the criticism.
“The PGA is completely happy with the golf course and so am I,” Nelson insisted to the assembled press including Mike Towle of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “We have had probably the driest year ever to this point. Only two inches of rain have fallen here this year, and we’ve already used 30 million gallons of water more than last year.”
Players were critical of the condition of the greens feeling that they were too firm. One of the most critical was Payne Stewart who not only felt the greens were too firm, he claimed the fairways were on the verge of brownout. His contention was that not enough water was being used to keep the course in condition and the result was that it was becoming unplayable.
After shooting a 73 in Friday’s second round, Tom Watson spoke to Towle about the firmness of the greens.
“The thing that bothered me is the guys thinking we were leaving water off the golf course purposely to make it play harder. Hey, we don’t mind if someone shoots lights out here.”
“I hit my approach right next to the hole [at the par-4, 9th hole] and it flew 60 feet past,” Watson said. “The speed of the putting wasn’t bad, it’s just that the greens got awfully hard. But I don’t mind that if there is consistency to the greens. The greens were softer the last two days.”
Nelson admitted that he had not spoken to Stewart, or Watson, but that he had heard about the complaints.
“The thing that bothered me is the guys thinking we were leaving water off the golf course purposely to make it play harder,” the golf legend said during his presser. “Hey, we don’t mind if someone shoots lights out here. But we aren’t going to soak things up too much at night because then we will end up with puddles due to the clay-type soil.”
Nelson was asked if he thought that modern-day professionals were too spoiled by immaculate playing conditions.
“There is so much more consistency to the greens than when I was playing,” he said. “When I was playing, we never had bent-grass greens in Texas, only Bermuda grass.”
In other words, shut up and play.
Here’s some more of the film that we have cleaned up and digitized for the Tony Lema documentary. If you are my age, this will bring back some memories. If you’re younger, this is how we watched lived tournament golf back in the day. Coverage started on the 16th hole. (clicking on link will open this post on the web, scroll down to video player).
Click on image to view on the web.
You can now support the induction of Tony Lema into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Sign the online petition HERE.
Clips I Loved
Not exacly the way to start off your defense of the title.
Brutal finish at the 72nd hole of the Chevron Championship.
I think a life-time ban from golf is in order here.
From Jake Knapp’s girlfriend Makena. She’s a keeper!
Rapaport always takes on the hard questions to get to the heart of the matter.
This is hilarious. I met Dylan at the Golf Writers Association of America and he’s a real good guy. Also, he lives in Seattle.
Caddie change for Colin Morikawa.
PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | Zurich Classic
Last week, I wrote this about Andrew Novak in the PGA TOUR Wrap-up:
Novak has been playing very well and seems poised on the precipice of capturing his first PGA TOUR title.
Not only do my predictions rarely prove correct, but even if they are correct, it never happens so quickly.
Andrew Novak, along with his partner Ben Griffin, made me look like a fortune teller at the Zurich Classic as they held on late in their round to capture the team event. Things were getting pretty hairy down the final stretch as contenders made mistakes left and right.
Griffin made a clutch putt on the 17th hole that turned out to be the difference maker.
Jake Knapp and Frankie Capan III chances went down the drain when Capan hit his tee shot into the water at the par-3 17th resulting in a bogey. They finished in third place.
The twins Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard took advantage of a fortunate drop from TIO after almost hitting out-of-bounds and applied pressure on Novak and Griffin with a birdie at the 18th hole.
Griffin hit the fairway on the 72nd hole and the team made par for a one-stroke winning margin.
Griffin, who became burned out and walked away from professional golf, took a job as a mortgage loan officer. His trainer, Randy Myers, put Griffin in touch with Doug Sieg, a former college quarterback, now CEO and managing partner of Lord, Abbett & Co., a global investment management company headquartered in New Jersey. Sieg offered financial help for Griffin to return to professional golf.
“If it weren’t for Doug Sieg and Lord Abbett … he offered to pay all of my expenses for two years to play professional golf,” Griffin said after signing his card Friday at TPC Sawgrass. “He saw something in me that some other people may have saw, but he was able to put the check forward to me to allow me to play professional golf.”
For Griffin, it was his first win in 90 starts on the PGA TOUR and for Novak, it was his first win in 100 starts. Novak also became the first player to win a PGA TOUR event the week after losing in a playoff the week before since Patrick Cantlay did it in 2022. Cantlay also happened to lose the RBC Heritage, in a playoff, before winning the next week in the Zurich.
Read more from Josh Berhow of golf.com HERE.
Here are the final round highlights from the Zurich Classic:
Tour Backspin Quiz | The CJ CUP Byron Nelson Trivia
How did Bob Eastwood win the 1985 Byron Nelson Golf Classic and how did Payne Stewart help him win?
Scroll down for answer
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
More on Ben Griffin’s return to professional golf from the PGA TOUR.
More from Dylan Dethier as he explores the clues on changes to the Tour Championship from golf.com
Christopher Powers of GolfDigest.com explains the best gambling games you can play.
Bunkered has the details of the new PING deal to sponsor a LIV Golf team.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Bob Eastman won the 1985 Byron Nelson Golf Classic by defeating Payne Stewart in a playoff. Eastwood came to the 72nd hole trailing Stewart by three shots. He birdied and Stewart double bogeyed to set up the playoff. Stewart again double bogeyed the first playoff hole to lose the title to Eastwood.
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Vintage Ad
Final Thoughts
If you caught the Warren Zevon reference in Past Tour Backspin Articles, what album was that song from?
I would certainly count that as a hole-in-one (Blind Shot).
How funny that Jake Knapp’s girlfriend flew to the wrong city?
How fortunate was that TIO drop that the Højgaard twins got on the 72nd hole at the Zurich?
If you haven’t done it yet, scroll back up to the link for the online petition to get Tony Lema inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He’s deserving of the honor.