November 16, 2008 12:20 am
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Golf has played a major role in Duane Lietzke’s life. And, even though he is retired, it continues to do so.
Duane, older brother of Champions Tour and former PGA Tour star Bruce Lietzke, has been a caddy, caddymaster, assistant professional, head professional and golf club manufacturers’ representative over the last 50 or so years.
“I sold for Tommy Armour Co. for 30 years, Adams for six and a half, and then I retired three years ago,” Duane says. “Now I just drive Chris (his wife of 17 years and a sales representative for several golf lines) around. My title is director of transportation.”
Among the companies that Chris represents are Hot-Z golf bags, Click Gear three-wheel push carts and Texoma, which features spikes and tees, Wynn grips and Daphne animal headcovers.
Duane and Chris are on the road and away from their home in Grove, Okla., quite a lot during the year covering her territory of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and parts of southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas.
And just about everywhere they travel, Duane sees old friends and customers. He doesn’t play much golf anymore, “maybe 25 or 30 times a year,” he says. But he enjoys teeing it up with friends.
Duane learned the game as a young caddy in Beaumont, Texas, before becoming the caddymaster, which means he was in charge of all the caddies at the golf course. From that, he graduated to the pro shop as an assistant professional. He was head professional at Rolling Hills Country Club in Wichita when he embarked on a new career as sales representative for the Tommy Armour company.
What Lietzke enjoyed most as a club professional was teaching.
“I especially liked working with kids,” he said. “Four of my junior golfers are country club golf professionals, so I guess I got them really hooked on golf.”
Duane also was Bruce’s first instructor and taught him that virtually indestructible, highly repetitive swing that has produced 17 PGA tour titles and nearly 10 wins on the Champions Tour.
Bruce was five when Duane started working with him and his young protégé decided pretty early that he was going to play golf when he grew up.
“I remember one day when he was 7 or 8, I was watching him hit golf balls from the front yard to an empty lot across the street,” Duane recalls. “He looked up and asked, ‘what are we to call me when we get on tour?’
“ ‘What do you mean?’ I said.
“ ‘You know, like Billy Casper or Gene Littler.’
“ ‘No, you’ll be Bruce Lietzke,’ I said, laughing.”
While Duane was a pretty good player in local events, he never had the game, he says, or the inclination to try the big tour.
“I figured if I couldn’t beat my 15-year-old brother, I couldn’t beat a lot of other people,” he said.
Duane is lefthanded, but learned to play golf from the right side because there weren’t many lefthanded clubs available in the 1940s and 1950s. He is in good company. Among the lefties who played golf righthanded were Ben Hogan, Johnny Miller, Curtis Strange and Bobby Nichols.
So how did brother Bruce get his nickname “Leaky?”
“It was in college and it started when somebody couldn’t pronounce his name,” Duane said. “Everybody thinks — and he let’s them think that — that it came from fading the ball. His roommate in college was Phil Rodgers. And he liked for everyone to have nicknames and so he called him Leaky.”
I’m one of those who have thought all these years that the nickname Leaky came from Bruce’s power fade. You learn something new every day.
Address correspondence to Clair Goodwin at sports@joplinglobe.com.
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