In European terms, Weekley was the man of the match
By Vartan Kupelian, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
He is an American original.
Think about it. If you were going to put together a professional golfer, piece by piece, what are the chances the sum of those parts would resemble Boo Weekley?
It's safe to say you couldn't -- wouldn't -- come up with him.
Weekley's different, and it's a refreshing difference. Clearly, he approached the Ryder Cup unlike any other golfer ever has, at least going as far back as we remember. His manner was equal parts respect and irreverence for the competition. That's the obvious conclusion, but there is more.
Boo Weekley was just being Boo Weekley.
He embraced the Ryder Cup in his own unique way. I believe Weekley discovered there was more to golf than he had ever before experienced.
Before the Ryder Cup, golf was simply a means to an end for Weekley, the game's foremost outdoorsman. The Floridian would rather fish and hunt than play golf, and he made that clear at the Buick Invitational last January at Torrey Pines.
When all was done and the United States had reclaimed, at long last, the Ryder Cup, Weekley was asked if he'd rather be hunting than celebrating an American triumph. It was a rhetorical question. Everybody knows Weekley would rather be hunting or fishing.
"No, I don't think so," he said. "This is more right up my alley here. ... It's pretty awesome. It ain't nothin' like shootin' a deer."
A convert, just as David Duval was in 1999 and Hunter Mahan, Weekley's teammate, was this year at Valhalla.
We were standing behind the 18th green on the North Course at Torrey Pines when Weekley, before the conversion, talked about his life and his career. He said, in no uncertain terms, that his goal in golf was to win $8 million. When he reached that number, Weekley said he would retire to the outdoors and hunt and fish for the rest of his days.
Weekley has earned $5,096,599 in the last two years. He won nearly $500,000 in three years on the Nationwide Tour, 2004-06, so he is less than $3 million from his goal.
But I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon, even when he reaches that number. All that changed at Valhalla for Weekley.
That's a good thing for golf and for the Ryder Cup. Weekley is a character. The game needs him, and I think he discovered at the Ryder Cup that he needs the game a little more than he would ever have imagined.
Never mind that some of his antics riled the Europeans. It doesn't matter. That was just Boo being Boo, and anybody who doesn't understand that doesn't know boo.
When he qualified for the U.S. team, Weekley said that he would do whatever Captain Paul Azinger asked him and that he would be happy -- and totally unbothered -- to go against Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood or any of the other European stars.
What's more, Weekley said he'd take them out. Brave talk and perhaps rash, but the U.S. team needed somebody to say those things instead of waltzing around.
The entire team was bolstered by Weekley's personality. He brought an arm-waving, combative attitude. He didn't care that Westwood was annoyed by his cheerleading, although Weekley did apologize after Friday's match with Westwood and Soren Hansen. Weekley is a quick study. He toned things down Saturday, but there was simply no holding him back Sunday.
He had the bit in his teeth, which might explain his galloping down the first fairway.
Nick Faldo, the vanquished European captain, had no ill feelings toward Weekley.
In a very nice show of class, Faldo, who seldom is accused of having any, refused to make excuses or carp about Weekley.
"Well, he's such a nice guy," Faldo said.
He wasn't kidding. This wasn't sarcastic Nick.
"(Boo) walked up and said, 'Is it like this over there?' meaning Europe," Faldo said. "I said, 'It sure is.'"
That speaks volumes. If it's like this two years from now in Wales, is there any chance Weekley won't want to be there whether he has banked $8 million or not?
During the Americans' celebration, Weekley was still at a loss to describe the occasion.
"It's just so unreal, the feeling that you get," Weekley said. "Your arm hairs stand up and you get chills when they start hollering your name and 'USA'. The adrenaline, it's just unreal."
See you in Wales, Boo.
Swing thoughts:
• What a Ryder Cup does for the winning side is create unforgettable vignettes, like Anthony Kim, during the team interview, chanting, "Boo, Boo."
Another: J.B. Holmes' soaring drives and the looks on the face of his European opponents when he smashed another golf ball from Louisville to London.
• Jim Furyk deserved to win the match that finished off the Europeans. There wasn't a player more worthy of that honor. But Miguel Angel Jimenez didn't deserve to be on the other end. That honor should have gone to Westwood for all the sour grapes he was trying unsuccessfully to swallow.
• No. 2 is still No. 2. That's what Tiger Woods has called Ian Poulter -- No. 2 -- since the Englishman's much publicized interview during which he considered himself the most obvious challenger to Woods.
Poulter's comments were worth a good laugh at the time, but at the Ryder Cup, he demonstrated that it wasn't idle bravado. He played terrific golf and displayed uncanny putting skills.
But Poulter's contention that Anthony Kim body-checked him Saturday -- a claim widely circulated in papers throughout the United Kingdom -- was silly. Poulter accused Kim, a spectator at that point, of intentionally lowering his shoulder and barging into Poulter. Please. Grow up.
As the biggest Arsenal fan on this side of the pond, I'd expect more class from Poulter, the biggest Arsenal fan on the other side of the pond.
Vartan Kupelian is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.
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