Weir hasn’t given up on the game he loves

The next time you’re enjoying a well-deserved or much-needed beverage on the 19th hole at any golf course in Canada, scour the walls for a photo of Mike Weir being helped into his green jacket by Tiger Woods.

It’s there, you’ll find it.

So, this story begins at the only place it can, Augusta National, where in less than two months, the 2003 champion is set to compete in his 20th Masters.

There’s a saying that, if you want to learn a lot about a person, play a round of golf with them. But for touring pros at the zenith of the sport, it often takes the Masters to see what a player truly is made of.

Greg Norman will remain forever haunted by Augusta; Rory McIlroy is still looking to exorcise his demons; Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia have seen the darkness and the light; and for Tiger, Jack and Arnie, well, nothing but all-you-can-eat Champions Dinners. For whatever reason, Augusta National often tells a player’s truest story.

Earlier this week, 16 years after defeating Len Mattiace in a playoff and a day after playing four tournaments in five weeks, the 48-year-old Weir drove down Magnolia Lane to get some work in as a member of golf ’s most exclusive club.

“Monday was a nice day. The ball was travelling a little bit, it felt good,” he said by phone from his home in Utah. “Then we had Tuesday, which was pouring rain and about 40 degrees (Fahrenheit). It was survival mode.”

Leave it to Augusta National to tell the story, because after plenty of sunny times, there have been some cold days for Weir’s playing career. But if you’re a Canadian golf fan dwelling on what once was for Weir, you should know that he isn’t living in the past. Weir plans to play a full schedule on the developmental Web.com Tour thanks to an exemption for former PGA Tour players aged 48-49.

“I’ve felt re-energized for a while, and I think it just brings that out, knowing you’re going to be out there and competing,” he said. “I’ve been real excited about my game, motivated about the game, I love to compete, I love the game still, I love to work on my game. So having full access to the Web.com Tour is, to me, a no-brainer.”

Weir popped into the news last week at the LECOM Suncoast Classic in Florida, where he shot 66-68-69 and found himself tied for 10th heading into the final round. A 75 on Sunday dropped him down the leaderboard, but Weir says his game has improved every week during this latest stretch.

“The last few years, you go play an event, then you have a month off, you maybe play two in a month, and then have more time off,” he said. “It’s hard to get in a tournament rhythm when it’s so random and you’re not sure you’re getting in.”

Some are wondering why a Masters champion who has made nearly US$28 million on the golf course is grinding it out on the Web.com Tour. For the answer, we head back to 2012, back to the year he missed the cut at every tournament he entered, and of course, back to Augusta.

It was Saturday afternoon at the Masters, where a day later Bubba Watson would claim his first of two green jackets. The driving range was a ghost town but at the end, there was a speck of movement. As far away from the entrance as you could get, Weir was alone, working on his game, one day after shooting 79.

“Whatever I did to miss the cut that week, I was going to be trying to figure out some solutions, and I wasn’t just going to sit around in misery, I was going to go try to figure it out,” Weir said. “That’s what got me on the PGA Tour.”

To those fans who might be uneasy with Weir’s refusal to give up, you’re finding fault in the very quality that allowed him to take Canadian golf to its greatest height.

Great golfers can be a stubborn lot. Just ask anyone who has read a thing or two about Ben Hogan. Now, very few will ever know the unbelievable high of a tickertape parade down Broadway, or the unthinkable low of being down to your last dollar or having a father who committed suicide, but Weir has often reflected on Hogan’s single-minded pursuit of a golf swing he could count on.

“He’s been a golfing hero of mine, and somebody I’ve studied and admired,” said Weir. “His determination and work ethic, from that old caddy yard and having to scrap and fight for everything, he’s someone in that regard I can relate to, maybe not to the degree that he had to struggle, you think back in those days, all the family things he had to deal with and everything. But he’s just been somebody that I can relate to with trying to figure out a way to get better.”

Even though Weir’s goal for this year is to crack the Web.com Tour’s top 25 and get back on the PGA Tour, he understands it might not be in the cards. He’s also looking ahead to the Champions Tour.

“Obviously, I’m creeping in on that magic 50 number here,” he said. “I want to be sharp for that tour. You have to be ready to go.”

As a young player out on the Web.com tour, there’s plenty to learn from a Masters champion. With a short game that still stands out, Weir has been asked questions by some of the game’s up-and-comers. Weir has no interest in keeping secrets and wants to give back to young players in the same way he says veterans such as Vijay Singh embraced him years ago.

Canadian PGA Tour player Mackenzie Hughes says that, while Tiger was everyone’s golf idol growing up, Weir was the first person to make him think making the PGA Tour was possible for a kid from Ontario.

“It was definitely inspiring and cool to see someone from your home country do something so big on the world stage,” Hughes said.

The 28-year-old from Hamilton remembers caddying in the pro-am at the 2004 Canadian Open and having Weir in his group. As any fearless 13-yearold would, Hughes peppered him with questions.

“If it seemed like I was bothering him, I probably would have laid off a little bit, but no one ever told me to stop,” he said.

Ten years later, Hughes was playing his first full year on the Web.com Tour, when Weir invited some Canadian players over to his house for dinner, a gesture much appreciated by a young man trying to get comfortable to life on tour.

The Web.com Tour is off for the next month, so Weir has time on his hands. He plans to work on his game.

What will happen next is anyone’s guess, but this week, one of his daughters is coming home for spring break, and he wore his green jacket to dinner on Monday.