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Weekley Able To Stand Out Among Clones

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By MICK ELLIOTT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 6, 2008

Updated: 05/06/2008 12:40 am

PONTE VEDRA BEACH - The PGA Tour needs more players like Boo Weekley. OK, maybe not exactly like him.

It is true: Camouflage does not look good on everybody. And a mouth full of chewing tobacco oftentimes can have its drawbacks. Also, he openly admits preferring time spent in the woods hunting or fishing than on the range practicing golf.

All the same, Weekley, famous professional golf redneck, has become a one-of-a-kind character who, in a PGA Tour world of look-alikes and sound-alikes, is a breath of fresh air.

Even better, he arrives at TPC Sawgrass for this week's Players Championship much more than a likeable conversation piece. He's among the favorites - for this week and beyond. After winning last month at Hilton Head for the second consecutive year, Weekley is No. 23 in golf's world rankings and sixth on the U.S. Ryder Cup team standings.

Allow yourself the pleasure of imagination: Ladies and gentlemen, representing the United States of America - Booooo Weekley.

"I mean, it would be an honor to do it, but it ain't going to make or break who I am as a person or as a golfer if I made it or not," Weekley said. "I'd love to do it. I'd love to represent my country.

"I believe I'd be good at it because I believe so much in the way I was raised. You believe in everything that's in front of you and our forefathers and everything that gave it to me. It would be great to honor my state and my country and my hometown."

What is there not to like?

Weekley will arrive for Thursday's opening round of play without an entourage, accompanied only by polite manners. He will answer questions with "yes, sir," or "no, ma'am." He looks people in the eye. His stories never center on self-serving or self-destruction.

"Well, I have to say the good Lord starts everything, and then comes my family," Weekley said. "That to me is my whole world. If I ain't got them with me or in my heart or around me where I can't talk to them, I might as well quit doing what I'm doing.

"I'd much rather be home with them, whether I am taking care of them or just seeing them, sitting down and having a pecan pie with them or something, you know? But I have to say it's all about the family."

Helping make the story complete, the 34-year-old nicknamed after Boo-Boo of Yogi Bear fame is steadily establishing himself among America's top players.

"He's a very good ball-striker," Aaron Baddeley said. "He hits it very straight. Creative. He can hit the draws, hit the fades, he can shape the ball. I think that's one of his standout points. And he's very relaxed. He's not a serious guy out there, which can be good."

It would be easy to suggest Weekley simply doesn't know any better.

From the Florida Panhandle town of Milton, where he and Bubba Watson once played on the same high school golf team, Weekley is a little bit country while his friend is more rock n' roll.

Weekley is the one who punctuates conversations with "reckon." He's the one talking about moving on from professional golf into a second career: "Hunting and fishing." He's the one who, after CBS' Jim Nantz introduced himself to Weekley at Hilton Head, admitted to having never heard of the well-known CBS commentator. "I don't even know what he does," Weekley said after Nantz departed.

Wonderfully unaffected by his growing celebrity, Weekley is the guy who put great thought into explaining where he plans to keep the winner's trophy from Hilton Head. It seems a new home for wife and expecting-mother Karyn and the couple's young son is under construction. "So it might sit in the barn for a couple months or however long it takes to finish the house."

In a game that has long carried an elitist label, Weekley is as earthy as dirt floors. He's funny without trying. He's a golfer appealing to an audience that the game rarely has even bothered to notice.

With a noticeable paunch on a 6-foot, 210-pound frame, a balding head and slow Southern twang, he may not be golf's most traditional role model, but no sport could ask for a more genuine representative to make new friends.

"I hope it's mostly the kids," he said. "That's who you want to touch anyway is the kids. And I hope they don't chew."

This week could be yet another step in Weekley's growing legend. The Players Championship, golf's self-proclaimed "fifth major," is one of the year's most visible events. The TPC Sawgrass course rewards accuracy and shot-making, both of which are among Weekley's strengths. Also, with Tiger Woods still mending from knee surgery, top billing for the week is up for grabs.

Weekley would love to help anyway he can.

"A lot of the players out here, I think, take it for granted," he said. "The fans is what pays the bills, a lot of it, you know? I mean, I think in respect you ought to just smile, wave, whether you don't want to or not.

"But for me it's fun because I like to go and talk to people. I'm an outgoing person and my personality fits in just either on the other side of the rope or inside the rope. It really don't matter to me. Lately, the way I've been driving it, I've been outside the ropes, so I've been able to talk to a lot of people."

Reporter Mick Elliott can be

reached at (813) 281-2534

or melliott@tampatrib.com

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