Sports: Weir's long road started left

Golf

Weir's long road started left

A letter from Jack Nicklaus telling him to stick with his southpaw swing was one impetus for the Masters champ.

By BOB HARIG, Times Staff Writer

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The letter remains in his office, and Mike Weir might want to put it close to the sterling silver replica Masters Trophy that is sure to take a prominent place among his tournament artifacts.

It's no stretch to say that one indirectly led to the other.

Some 20 years ago, when Weir was a Canadian teenager tinkering with both golf and hockey, he wrote to golf great Jack Nicklaus for some advice. Weir penned the letter with his right hand but played golf left-handed.

He asked the Golden Bear if he should switch sides when it came to golf.

"He wrote back and said to stick to your natural swing," Weir said.

And there began the process to golf immortality.

Weir on Sunday became the first left-hander to win the Masters and the second lefty to win a major championship, joining Bob Charles who 40 years ago defeated Phil Rodgers in a 36-hole playoff at the British Open.

Only six left-handed golfers have ever won on the PGA Tour, and 21 of their 36 victories have come from one man: Phil Mickelson. Other than Mickelson, Charles and Weir, only three lefties have won tournaments, no more than once each.

Being left-handed put Weir at a disadvantage in terms of finding clubs and equipment, but perhaps more burdensome was his upbringing. Weir was raised in Sarnia, Ontario, about 60 miles northeast of Detroit, where the weather is more conducive to slap shots than chip shots.

"I was really just a summer golfer," Weir, 32, explained on Sunday night, still getting used to a Masters green jacket that didn't quite fit. "I would play hockey through the winter and fall and spring and then play golf in the summer. It was just a seasonal sport and I didn't grind too hard in the offseason. But I did hit a lot of balls. My dad put a net in our garage to hit balls into. And we would fish balls out of the pond at my golf course and save those. So on a decent day in the winter, we would go pound them out into the lake. I grew up on Lake Huron. That was the extent of my golf, really."

It wasn't until Weir attended Brigham Young University and started playing golf for the Cougars that his game blossomed. And it still took a while for Weir to make it to the PGA Tour.

He toiled on the Canadian Tour, which is a notch below the developmental Nationwide Tour. He went to Australia and Asia. There were seven trips to the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament. And though he turned professional in 1992, Weir's first season on the PGA Tour didn't come until 1998.

"It was a long road," Weir said. "It took me six years out of college to get on tour. And those times missing Q-School and playing overseas and the commitment that takes, not only for myself, but for my family, my wife. It's a lot of time away. She (Bricia) caddied for me at odd times.

"And it's unbelievable progression that I've finally gotten here. But even back then, I think I believed that I would get here somehow. I would figure it out. My golf swing wasn't very good back then and I knew I would kind of figure out a way to do that."

How bad was it? Weir realized it when playing in the 1994 Canadian Open and came upon Nick Price, who was hitting balls next to him on the driving range.

"The sound his shots made off the club was a lot different than mine," Weir said. "I knew then I was a long way away."

In 1999, Weir's second full season, he broke through with seven top-10 finishes, including his first victory at the Air Canada Championship. That was preceded, however, by a final-round pairing with eventual PGA Championship winner Tiger Woods, who went on to win his second major title as Weir shot 80.

Weir went on to capture two of the tour's biggest events, the 2000 World Golf Championship American Express Championship in Spain and the 2001 Tour Championship.

Now he has added three wins this year, which is even more impressive when you consider how much he struggled last year. Weir appeared poised to break into the top echelon of PGA Tour golfers. But he couldn't manage a single top-10 finish in 2002, dropping to 78th on the money list.

His desire to get better might have caused him to get worse. Weir sought more distance, and typically trying to get longer can cause a golfer to stray off course. He also altered his preshot routine, which might seem annoying to some but obviously works. When Weir addresses the ball, he takes the club about halfway back, which leads many to believe he is going into his backswing, returns it to the ball, then fires.

Weir abandoned that last year, and it was no coincidence that his game slipped.

With the preshot routine back, a better mental attitude and an improved short game that really paid off during the final round Sunday, Weir is atop the golf world.

He won the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, outdueling Jay Haas on the back nine. Then he won the Nissan Open, rallying to defeat Charles Howell.

That put him back atop the PGA Tour money list, a perch from which he slipped in March but where he is again after his Masters victory.

For the first time since 1999, someone other than Woods leads the money list after the Masters.

"It's tough to grasp right now," he said. "But I know it's pretty special."