Associated Press
Wednesday, July 12

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Bruce Fleisher's main claim to fame was winning the U.S. Amateur in 1968 and the New England Classic in 1991. That all changed last year when he came out on the Senior Tour and won seven times.

	Fleisher

Still, what's good for Fleisher isn't necessarily good for the tour.

"I think it would be a negative if the name players from the PGA Tour, who have built up a fan base over the years, came over here and weren't highly competitive," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Wednesday on the eve of the Senior Players Championship.

Golf fans want to see the game's biggest names try to recapture the magic. They want another chance to watch Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Gary Player go to the top of the leaderboard.

And television wants what the fans want.

"I think it's important to television," Finchem said. "I think we all recognize it, and we certainly do focus groups and stuff like that. The name players need to be in the telecast.

"And to be in the telecast, you have to be highly competitive. We need that."

Fleisher has 10 victories in the last 18 months and is second on the 2000 money list, just $10,474 behind Hale Irwin.

The difference is that Irwin had 20 wins during his years on the regular tour, including three U.S. Open championships. Irwin, the defending champion in the Senior Players Championship, has won 28 times as a senior, including his second U.S. Senior Open two weeks ago.

Fleisher understands, but he isn't about to apologize for the millions of dollars he's winning as a senior.

"There's only a few Lee Trevinos and Tom Watsons," Fleisher said. "Those guys need guys like me to play. They have to have someone to beat up on."

Unnecessary changes
Jack Nicklaus, who designed the TPC of Michigan, seemed surprised when informed that about 200 yards has been added to the Old Course at St. Andrews, site of the British Open next week.

"Why?" Nicklaus said. "It's been the same golf course since Julius Caesar came through. Why would they want to change it?"

Nicklaus said attempts to make a course more difficult for long hitters like Tiger Woods and John Daly are futile.

"It will only affect guys like me," Nicklaus said. "It wouldn't have affected me 20 years ago. It won't affect those guys now."

Victory drought
Tom Watson comes to the TPC of Michigan riding a streak of 19 straight rounds of par or better, the longest active streak on the tour. He has been under par in 27 of his 32 rounds this season.

But when is the senior rookie going to win?

"As the year has gone by, I've finished second four times," said Watson, who won once in 1999 after joining the senior circuit last autumn. "I've had my opportunities and haven't made the best of them."

Watson said he'd grade himself at about a B-minus.

"Simply because I have not won," he said.

Nervous Nelson
Larry Nelson won two PGA Championship titles and a U.S. Open during his days on the regular tour. He has won seven times since becoming a senior, including twice this season.

Not bad for a man who almost never uses the same club twice.

"My search is to find something I'm comfortable with for a long period of time," Nelson said. "I've won twice this year and seven times since I've been on the Senior PGA Tour, and none of them with the same putter."

Nelson, who brought two putters and three drivers with him this week, said that after winning the 1981 PGA title, he never used that driver again. He used three different sets of clubs while winning the PGA in 1987.

"I do have the same wife. I've had the same wife for 30 years," Nelson said. "It's not that I can't fall in love with something and stick with it. I just cannot -- I have not found the putter yet that I'm in love with."