FAMILY FOCUS STEADIES LIETZKE'S GAME GOLF IS AN AFTERTHOUGHT FOR DEFENDING CHAMP.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

Bruce Lietzke hasn't practiced golf for 21 years. He prefers spending time with his family, fishing or tinkering with his collection of muscle cars. He even started this year with a golf-threatening medical condition known as a ``frozen shoulder.''

But when the U.S. Senior Open begins Thursday at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, there will be few hotter golfers than Lietzke. Not only is he the defending champion - and with a well-thawed frozen shoulder - he might also be one of the game's most successful part-time golfers since Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam as an amateur in 1930 and then retired at age 30.

Lietzke has been taking his retirement in installments since his first child was born in 1983, the last time the 53-year-old former University of Houston standout practiced.

Despite that, he has won a combined 20 times in the past 27 years on the PGA Tour or Champions Tour while never playing more than 25 tour events in any single year.

It's all about keeping a balance for Lietzke.

``How I'm remembered as a golfer is not terribly important,'' he said after winning five times in his first two years on the senior tour. ``I'd rather be remembered as a father and a husband.''

Then he went out and pretty much ensured he'd be remembered for both, defeating the hottest golfer on the 2003 Champions Tour - eventual Player of the Year Tom Watson - in a final-round showdown at last year's U.S. Senior Open.

Lietzke finished that tournament at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, with typical Lietzke golf. He displayed the erratic ball-striking anyone might expect of someone who never practices and seldom plays. But he also showed the kind of tenacity his longtime rivals had seen so often once he finally showed up at a course.

Lietzke hit just 12 fairways combined in his final two rounds of that 2003 championship. But he turned a seven-fairway third round into a 64 - equaling the best score of the tournament - then finished bogey-bogey in a final-round 71 to hold off Watson by two strokes. ``He was leaking a lot of oil, smoking,'' Watson said. ``But it still worked.''

It's been working this way for more than two decades for Lietzke, whose priorities changed dramatically with the birth of his son, Stephen, in 1983.

``I knew a long time ago that I wanted to be a very active father,'' said Lietzke, whose daughter, Christine, was born in 1985. Time with them and wife Roseanne have taken him away from the tour so much that a columnist once wrote the best way to hide out from Lietzke was to get in the closet with his golf bag.

In another often-retold tale, Lietzke's caddie once put a banana under Lietzke's driver head cover at the end of a tour season, knowing his boss couldn't possibly mean he wouldn't practice at all. When the next tour season started, the caddie found the banana - blackened and unmoved. Lietzke's commitment to his family mirrored a similar approach by his idol, Hall of Famer Jack Nicklaus.

``He told me that it kept him mentally fresh,'' Lietzke said. ``His golf game didn't change, he didn't practice much at home, so there were similarities.''

Thanks to Lietzke's perseverance in the 2003 U.S. Senior Open, he and Nicklaus share another similarity - as past winners of U.S. Golf Association championships.

Lietzke has just the one to eight by Nicklaus (two U.S. Amateurs, two U.S. Senior Opens, four U.S. Opens). And although Nicklaus is not playing this week, Lietzke will be facing one of the year's strongest Champions Tour fields in his bid to become the first to win consecutive U.S. Senior Open titles since Gary Player in 1987 and '88. Topping the competition is Hale Irwin, the senior superstar who won three U.S. Opens on the PGA Tour and two U.S. Senior Opens. Watson also is in the field at par-71 Bellerive, which, at 7,117 yards, is the longest course in the history of the U.S. Senior Open.

``This is a golf course that doesn't favor anybody, and that's what you want in a championship,'' Lietzke said. ``But I have a list of two guys (Irwin and Watson) who probably will have an advantage. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.''

But don't count Lietzke out. He has proven he can win as a part-time pro. And if he doesn't, well ...

``Golf is still the same priority as it was,'' he said after his 7-under-par 277 to win last year's U.S. Senior Open. ``There's nothing wrong with being a father and good husband and winning a couple of golf tournaments every now and then.''

Dave Shelburne, [phone]

dave.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Bruce Lietzke hoisted the U.S. Senior Open trophy last year after his two-stroke win over Tom Watson.

Ron Schwane/Associated Press

(2) Bruce Lietzke celebrated after sinking a birdie putt on the 18th hole during the third round of the U.S. Senior Open last year.

Mark Duncan/Associated Press