How It Began

Bruce was born in Boston, and lived his earliest years with his parents and two brothers on Nonesuch Pond in Natick, Massachusetts. When Bruce was only two years old, his father died. His mother decided to move with her three boys to Sarasota, Florida, to be near her mother and father who had recently retired to that area.

As a young boy growing up in Florida, Bruce proved to be a natural athlete, and excelled in all sports. Throughout elementary school, he won numerous awards as a swimmer, specializing in the butterfly and breast strokes. He played the positions of catcher in Little League Baseball and quarterback in Little League Football. In junior high, he was a fullback on the school soccer team. At Riverview High School in Sarasota, he took up tennis. 

Once he was introduced to golf (more on that below), he joined his high school golf team, and was a frequent medalist in regional tournaments. In college at Florida State University in Tallahassee, he played volleyball for his fraternity (Lambda Chi Alpha) in intramural games. He also competed in local golf tournaments during his time in Tallahassee. 

At the age of 13, Bruce was diagnosed with Osgood–Schlatter disease, a painful condition which affects the ligaments of some adolescents during growth spurts. His doctor told him that for the next year and a half, he should not play any sports which involved running. This effectively ended his school careers in baseball, football, and soccer, since he would be almost 15 years old by the time he could have played those sports again and being denied the chance to develop more mature skills over those intervening years. For a kid so connected to the world of athletics, this was devastating news. 

After almost 18 months of sports deprivation, Bruce was encouraged by a friend to come hit a few golf balls into an open field with him, since this activity would not involve running. That was the first time Bruce had ever held a golf club. He hit 10 or 15 balls into the field.

A couple of months after that brief introduction to swinging a golf club, the same friend invited Bruce to come with him to try playing a real game at the Bobby Jones Municipal Golf Course in Sarasota. Bruce didn't even own a set of clubs. His friend's father loaned him a set. 

When Bruce stepped onto a golf course for the first time, he had had no training, and no more practice than the one time of hitting some balls into a field with a friend's club. 

In his first game ever, Bruce shot 109, simply watching what his friend did and imitating him. 

The second time he played, he shot 101. 

The third time he played, he broke 100, and never shot over 100 again. He started playing every Sunday with borrowed clubs. (His scores continued to drop dramatically, and for decades now, he has maintained course averages ranging in the 60s and low 70s.)

The natural talent in golf revealed itself immediately. No lessons. Not even his own set of clubs, until his uncle bought him a set as a reward for making his first hole-in-one at age 15. It happened on Mother's Day, Sunday May 13, 1973, on the 13th hole at the Bobby Jones Municipal Golf Course, mere months after the first time he ever swung a club.

And so began Bruce's lifelong love affair with golf.