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Tradition vs. Weekley at Augusta Sunday, Apr 6, 2008 By Harry King LITTLE ROCK - Used for years, the CBS promo declares The Masters to be "A tradition unlike any other." Sometime today, that rock-solid slogan will go head to head with a chimp-challenging, rules-deficient Masters rookie. Welcome to Magnolia Lane, Boo Weekley. I'd like to be in the car with Weekley when he tools the 330 yards from the entrance gate to the Augusta National clubhouse, passing under the canopy created by the 61 magnolia trees that were planted as seeds about 150 years ago. The 34-year-old Weekley lists Ben Hogan as his hero, so he knows there was golf before Tiger Woods and that Nicklaus, Palmer, Snead and all the other legends of the game traveled the same road. In fact, it was six-time winner Nicklaus who described Magnolia Lane thusly: "First time and the next time, and every time it is absolutely the most sensational drive onto a golf course I've ever been. I get goose bumps every time I drive it." Weekley is a different cat. Free spirit is the kinder, gentler catch-all. His image springs from a tale he recently recounted on a nationally syndicated radio show. He says he was 16 when he lost a bet at a country fair and climbed into a cage with an orangutan. "I moved in close and faked with my right, and that's the last thing I remember," he said, adding that he woke up bleeding in the back of a friend's pickup truck. "The orangutan had knocked me cold with one punch, which I didn't see coming." That is funny stuff. A silly thing to do, but funny, and humor is a welcome respite from the half-hearted waves of acknowledgment that permeate the PGA Tour. It is another thing that Weekley said that doesn't sit right. In February, after he beat Martin Kaymer of Germany in the WGC Match Play championship, Weekley said he didn't know that a putt could be conceded in match play. Maybe he's just putting everybody on. Anybody who has played for quarters at the local municipal course has picked up a putt or kicked away a gimme. Kaymer three-putted the first hole against Weekley and told Weekley to pick up an 8-inch putt. "I'm like, 'Pick it up?'" Weekley told the media. "Honestly, I didn't know." He felt obliged to explain his ignorance to Kaymer. "I mean, it's very strange to just walk up there and just pick your ball up ... especially when you ain't used to doing it." His response was so foreign that the media refused to move on and somebody asked if he had seen putts conceded while watching the Ryder Cup or The Presidents Golf. "I don't watch golf," he said. " ... I'd much rather watch fishing or hunting or NASCAR or something. It's got to be moving, man. Golf ain't moving." One of more than 15 rookies in The Masters field, Weekley got in by chipping in on the 71st and 72nd holes to win in South Carolina last April in the first tournament played after The Masters appropriately reinstated a rule that provides an invite to all PGA Tour winners. Experience is a big plus at Augusta and it is unlikely that Weekley or any of the other first-timers will be the first rookie to win since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. Woods played in the tournament three times before the first of his four victories in 1997 and Nicklaus broke through in 1963 after five failures. Hogan was 0-for-10 prior to winning in 1951. Being in the last couple of groups on Sunday is about the only way to learn not to shoot at the sucker pin on the far right side of the 12th green. Because of their prodigious length off the tee and the fact that the four par-5s are the easiest holes on the course, rookies Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes will get more than their due leading up to the tournament. We forget that Zach Johnson won last year by playing the par-5s in 11-under despite never going for any of them in two, even laying up on No. 13 on Sunday when he only had 204 to the hole. As always, Woods is the one to beat. If he fails to break 70 for the third year in a row, the winner could be one of many. ------- Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com. |
