Associated Press
Thursday, July 27

JERICHO, N.Y. -- The Long Island Classic will be the fifth Senior Tour event this year that Bruce Fleisher has started as defending champion. Twice he's come away as a repeat winner, but each time there has been one perk.

"Your picture is all over the place," Fleisher said Thursday, the day before the 54-hole tournament was to get under way at The Meadow Brook Club. "Really, it means you're at a place where you have had success. And here, this is one of my favorite courses."

Fleisher's rookie year saw him win seven tournaments and sweep the postseason awards. There hasn't been much of a sophomore jinx, as Fleisher has won three times and sits in second place on the money list, just $35,000 behind Hale Irwin.

"It has all been so overwhelmingly wonderful. It's a wonderful place to be at this stage of my life," he said. "I've been able to enjoy it a little more this year with Tom Watson, Lanny Wadkins and Tom Kite coming aboard to take away a little of the pressure. I'm starting to have my fun."

Fleisher opened with an 8-under 64 last year and went on to become the first wire-to-wire winner of the Long Island Classic, which is sponsored by Lightpath.

His lead was so impressive that he withstood a two-stroke penalty on the final hole when he failed to move his coin back to its proper place before putting out. That came a day after he almost missed his tee time over a miscommunication.

"I was given a gold coin with `move me back Bruce' on it. I keep getting reminded," he said with a laugh. "Hopefully my caddie will take a little better care of me and watch my back better. He got scolded for all that."

While Fleisher feels comfortable returning to the scene of one of his wins, Kite and others here for the first time ran into some weather problems. A steady rain drenched Long Island on Wednesday and Thursday, canceling the two pro-am events that would have been used as practice rounds by the professionals.

Instead, all the players could do Thursday was hit balls on the driving range and use the practice putting green.

"I walked around a little bit today," Kite said Thursday. "My learning curve will be going straight up starting tomorrow. It's a bad situation for the tournament with rainouts like these. Obviously, the amateurs want to play, but for those of us here for the first time and who haven't seen the golf course, those were our practice rounds."

Kite hasn't had a rookie year like Fleisher did, but he has won twice and sits sixth on the money list with just under $1 million.

"The biggest adjustment for me to this tour has been the 54-hole events," Kite said. "I tried too hard to make it happen right away because you don't have that extra round and I was putting myself behind the 8-ball. It took some time to adjust to that."