WHILE he has many virtues, Boo Weekley is never likely to be mistaken for a student of the game.
When the likeable Ryder Cup player made his debut at Loch Lomond in 2007, he accompanied Paul Lawrie and was blissfully unaware the Aberdonian had lifted the Claret Jug at Carnoustie in 1999.
In the course of conversation, Weekley asked the Aberdo
nian if he was playing in the following week's major. "I kind of put my foot in my mouth there," recalled the man named after Yogi Bear's sidekick.
This week the American was sitting beside Sandy Lyle in the players' lounge – the only Scot ever to win at Augusta – and was surprised to learn he was a past Masters' champion.
"I don't know nothing about the history of golf," confessed the game's favourite country bumpkin. "I was sitting in there yesterday with Sandy Lyle and never even knew he won the Masters (in 1988]. Seriously, I don't keep up with golf."
Not since Sam Snead brought his folksy brand of homespun wisdom to Scotland has the game encountered a 'Beverly Hillbilly' of the calibre of Weekley. Like Slammin' Sam, Boo knows how to tell a tall tale and is no slouch when it comes to coaxing a golf ball into the hole.
Although he creates the impression of a dunce when it comes to the history of the Scottish game, Weekley is a smart golfer who used his expertise to find a way out of the drudgery of working as a labourer at a chemical plant.
"I play golf because it's the last resort I had," he said. "I know what it's like to work from 5am for eight or ten hours a day at the plant and I got tired of that. So I decided to try something a little different and it all fell into my lap.
"I know what it's like to go out and work, which is a pain in the ass. It's the way I was raised. I think that's how people can relate to me, because I understand where they are coming from, more or less."
Having secured a place in Ryder Cup folklore when he rode an imaginary horse down the fairway at Valhalla last year, Weekley was uncertain if he could produce a similar party-piece to celebrate a first win at the home of golf. "In the record department, that was a one-hit wonder," he beamed. "I still can't believe I really did that.
"But you never know. If I've got a ten stroke lead here on the 18th on Sunday, I might ride it all the way up the fairway. Or I might even walk on water…"
The full article contains 458 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
