As one of the top money earners on the 1999 Senior PGA Tour, 50-year-old rookie Bruce Fleisher was certainly considered a contender to win the three-day Lightpath Long Island Classic, held August 6-8 at the par-72 Meadow Brook Club in Jericho. But in a solid field that was expected to provide some strong competition, none of the 77 other golfers turned out to a be more dangerous adversary to Fleisher than Fleisher himself.

Fleisher committed two egregious errors in his last two rounds, making several poor decisions along the way, and still won the tournament by two strokes with a 64-69-73-206. In the first round he blew a chance at recording the course record by picking the wrong club, in round two he nearly missed his tee time, and in round three he was assessed a two-stroke penalty after he didn't mark his ball properly on No. 18.

"You'll have to forgive me, I'm still in a little bit of shock," said the resident of Ballen Isles, Florida, during the trophy presentation on the 18th green, where minutes before he had made his gravest gaffe. "This two-shot penalty shook me up."

The costly violation occurred after Fleisher had made his second shot on No. 18. Fleisher retrieved the ball, leaving a marker in its place, but Buzz Thomas asked him to move the marker because it was in his line of play. Fleisher never moved the mark back to its original position and made his final putt from the wrong spot.

Fleisher was oblivious to his mistake even as he was walking to the scorer's tent. But before he could sign his scorecard, a keen spectator who had noticed the infraction yelled to Fleisher that he did not putt from the right location. If Fleisher had submitted his scorecard without assessing himself a two-stroke penalty, he would have been disqualified, and second-place finisher Allen Doyle (-8) would have had one of the cheapest victories in Senior Tour history.

Instead, Fleisher remained the winner, albeit with a score of -10, instead of the -12 he thought he had.

"In all rights and purposes, I probably shouldn't be here," concluded Fleisher at a press conference. "The way I'm gonna look at this one - it's going to teach me a big lesson."

Fleisher may have learned a valuable lesson, but it was he who was schooling the competition for most of the tournament. Despite his absentminded foibles, he led the Lightpath from wire to wire, only the second golfer to accomplish that feat at the Long Island Classic.

Fleisher outdistanced his closest competitor halfway through round three. He opened the door a little after a double bogey on No. 13, but promptly slammed it shut and bolted it when he saved par on No. 14 with an outstanding 15-foot putt. "I thought that was the turning-point putt, no doubt," said Fleisher.

Four holes and a two-stroke penalty later, Fleisher finished his third round with a +1. Not exactly the score of a champion, but Fleisher's first two rounds of -8 and -3, respectively, more than made up for it.

Fleisher ripped through the Meadow Brook course's front nine on the sunny, but windy first day, registering six consecutive birdies on Nos. 3-8. In the next four-hole sequence, Fleisher birdied the easy No. 10 and saved par in spectacular fashion on the other three.

Fleisher's tee shot struck a tree on the dogleg No. 9, setting up a tough angle for his second shot, which subsequently landed in the bunker. An even worse tee shot on No. 11 sent the ball wayward left into the high grass, from which Fleisher hit the ball into a sand trap. And on No. 12, Fleisher's second shot hooked to the left of the green. In all three instances, Fleisher corrected his errors with chip shots of deadly precision, never landing more than five feet from the hole.

"It saved the round," said Fleisher, adding, "It's not about the good shots you made; it's how you recovered from the bad shots."

Still bogey-free, Fleisher birdied three additional holes for a -9, placing the course record of 64 (-8), set in 1997 by Jose Maria Canizares, in jeopardy of being broken.

But for some reason, at the infamous par-3 No. 18 Fleisher chose to hit 8-iron from the tee, even though most players use at least a 6-iron to reach the highly elevated green. "I guess I felt like I was Tiger," Fleisher jested. His drive fell short, and he bogeyed the final hole to only tie the course record.

Fleisher said that he paid no attention to the course record anyway. "The course record doesn't really mean anything," he contested.

Though his caddie, Dennis Turning, was the one who suggested the 6-iron, Fleisher said it was his own final decision to make, and he made the wrong one.

His caddie also played a prominent role in the next day's misadventure. After a frantic search, Turning found Fleisher dawdling around the clubhouse with eight minutes to go before his 11:40 a.m. tee time. Fleisher misread his time on the schedule, and thought he had another hour to go. Missing tee time is an automatic disqualification.

Asked if he started to panic, Fleisher replied, "I was surprised; I didn't have time to be nervous." The caddie sure was, though. According to Fleisher, Turning said, "Bruce, I've never been more nervous in my life." Fleisher was forced to forgo his putting and driving practice, but he still shot 3-under, all on pars and birdies.

While Fleisher was scrambling to make tee time, 50-year-old Mark Hayes, who was paired with Fleisher and Leonard Thompson on Saturday, was about to have problems of his own.

Having Monday-qualified on the Bethpage State Park Red Course, Hayes birdied seven holes in his first round to go 7-under-par, one behind Fleisher. Hayes, who played on the PGA Tour in the 1970s and '80s with nominal success, is attempting a comeback on the Senior Tour, and it appeared that in only his second-ever Senior tournament, he was going to vie for the trophy. But just before round two, Hayes felt the cruel sting of fate, quite literally.

"I got stung by a bumble bee on the first green," said Hayes. "It kind of threw me off stride. [The bee] was on the back of my shirt, and I felt it rustling around. I reached back and he stung me real quick two times."

The stings on his thumb and middle finger caused swelling and discomfort which, according to Hayes, hampered his play on the first few holes. But even Hayes admitted that the bugs in his swing did more damage to his game than the bug in his shirt.

"It was very frustrating. I never really felt comfortable," said Hayes. "I three-putted three times, mainly because I hit it a long ways from the hole."

Despite his up-and-down round of 1-under, Hayes was still in second with a -8. He crept as close as two strokes behind Fleisher in the final round, before destroying himself with double bogey on No. 9. With too big a deficit to make up and very difficult wind conditions, it all quickly unraveled for Hayes, who shot a 75 and ended in 13th place.

If he had won, Hayes would have earned himself a full year's exemption on the Senior PGA Tour, giving him a legitimate chance to boost his standings on the Money List. The last time a Monday qualifier won a tournament was when Dana Quigley did it at the Northville Long Island Classic in 1997.

After Hayes imploded, Doyle, Canizares, Ray Floyd and Joe Inman remained distant threats. All finished before Fleisher, none higher than the rookie Doyle at 8-under. So all Fleisher had to do was be wary of the gusty winds and not make any aggressive mistakes.

But Fleisher was a mistake magnet all tournament. He was too aggressive on No. 13, and he paid for it with a double bogey.

"I was very comfortable, sailing along," said Fleisher. But on 13, "I made a very stupid mistake. It happens." Fleisher's over-aggressive iron shot, his second on the par-four hole, landed in the bunker just short of the green. He then missed the green again on his third shot, a chip. After he finally touched the green on his fourth shot, he two-putted from there for a double bogey.

With his momentum spiraling downward, Fleisher's second shot on the par-4 No. 14 also found the bunker. For his third shot, he chipped the ball a good 15 feet past the cup. But with a putt that practically sealed the victory, Fleisher successfully negotiated one of the course's most precarious greens.

After birdying No. 17, Fleisher then made his shocking error on 18, giving him his second double bogey of the round. That he still won by two strokes seemed like a miracle to him. Maybe, as Fleisher suggested, two friends of his who recently died, Leo Berger and Nelson Gross, were helping him out there on the course.

Fleisher got to thinking about what might have happened if the two-stroke penalty had cost him his win.

"I was lucky I had that four-shot lead, I can tell you that."

In a tournament full of mistakes, there was no mistaking that fact.