Bruce
Fleisher learned a couple of lessons today at the Senior Tour Championship: keep
on grinding and keep your mouth shut.
Fleisher's rookie season on the Senior PGA Tour has been fabulous with seven victories
and $2.3 million in winnings, both circuit highs.
His nearly flawless 66 today left him tied at 10-under 206 for the lucrative season-ending
event with Bruce Summerhays. But Fleisher had to overcome his own annoyance, partly
because of his big mouth, to do it.
On Thursday, Fleisher told a room of reporters an anecdote about golf great Raymond
Floyd and his wife, Maria, that was published Saturday. The gist was Fleisher
and Floyd were grouped at the PGA event in 1992 and after Floyd double bogeyed
a hole, Maria came up to her husband and said, according to Fleisher, "You're
throwing our money away." Fleisher said Floyd told her, "Honey, I didn't mean
to make double bogey."
Kind of cute, right? Apparently not to everyone, and Fleisher said he spoke with
Maria Floyd during the round about it.
"I
was annoyed this morning," said Fleisher, who had seven birdies and one bogey.
"But I tried to get it out of my mind."
Fleisher said the story was just a funny remembrance. "I've had a wonderful year.
I certainly don't want to ruin it now," he said. "Sometimes honesty hurts, unfortunately.
I guess that's why people have little white lies."
Fleisher also had to figure out how to keep making birdies without feeling his
best.
He started
five back of second-round leader, George Archer, and quickly made four birdies
on the front. His 20-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole lifted him back in front
and, after his only bogey on the next hole, consecutive birdies on Nos. 15 and
16 kept him there.
"I
just don't feel like I'm on," Fleisher said. "Obviously, 66 is pretty darn good,
but I don't feel like I'm striking the ball like I have been."
Summerhays was striking the ball about everywhere. His 68 included an eagle, a
double bogey and one of only two birdies - that was nearly an eagle -- on the
difficult 430-yard 18th hole.
The two, who shared the opening round lead, are two strokes ahead of Archer and
three in front of CBS Sports wise guy, Gary McCord, who fired the tournament's
low round of 7-under 64.
"Sometimes
up-and-down is fabulous," said Summerhays, the former Stanford golf coach who's
won twice in six years on the Senior PGA Tour. "It's gets boring doing the same
thing out there. But tomorrow, I want to be boring."
Summerhays snapped in a 20-footer for eagle on the par-5 fourth, then took the
lead with birdies on the fifth and sixth holes. But he drove into the trees and
landed in a bunker on No. 11 for a double bogey that seemed to end his momentum.
"I've had double bogeys before. I tried not to think about and didn't let it affect
me," he said.
Apparently
not. He rolled in a 14-foot birdie putt on No. 14, put a 6-iron within four feet
on the par-3 17th hole for a birdie and landed a 6-iron to 6 inches on the final
green where other players, including two-time Senior Tour Championship winner
Ray Floyd, laid up.
Archer, who held a three-shot lead at the start, looked done in his bid to win
as a 60-year old. He made bogeys on the first, third -- he missed a tap-in par
-- and seventh holes to fall three shots behind Summerhays. But three straight
birdies on the back nine got him back in the hunt with a 73.
McCord, who played just 16 Senior events this year because of his side job as
CBS Sports wacky golf analyst, had four straight birdies on the front and three
in row on the back at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club. He was a stroke off the event's
course record.
Divots:
Mike Hill, who won the Senior Tour Championship in 1990 and 1991, took the Super
Seniors title here with a three-round total of 6-under 210. He was five shots
ahead of Jim Dent and earned $128,000 ... Archer had toyed with reporters and
fans for two days about his mysterious red hat with the CH logo he got in Hawaii
last month. It stands for California Hat company. On Saturday, Archer wore a new
white hat with the name Cubic Balance, the company that makes his recently acquired
driver. ... Jim Feree, who joined the Senior PGA Tour in 1981 and won two titles
and about $2.6 million since, says he will no longer play a full-time schedule.
The 68-year-old golfer says he may play three or four events next season.
