Posted by Jason Sobel
Golf fans, meet your newest hero. Boo Weekley's got the name, he's got the game and now, with a Monday win at the Verizon Heritage, he's got a trophy.
In case you missed the final round, Weekley pulled off his best Larry Mize/Craig Perks/Chris Couch impersonation on the last two holes. On the par-3 17th, he duffed his first chip from the greenside rough, then holed his second one for par. On the final hole, he chipped onto, across and over the green and -- once again -- holed his next one for par to clinch the win.
To say Boo has a flair for the dramatic is an understatement; this latest bit of magic comes only six weeks after missing a 3-foot putt that would have won the Honda Classic.
What else should you know about one of the biggest characters to hit the professional golf scene in a long time? Well, here are 10 things to know about the man named Boo:
1. His real name is Thomas Brent Weekley, but he was given the nickname as a child because he liked Yogi Bear's sidekick, Boo-Boo.
2. He went to high school with fellow players Heath Slocum and Bubba Watson. He and Slocum played on the same varsity team (Watson is younger) and remain close friends.
3. He attended the college golf hotbed of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, where he studied -- surprise, surprise -- turf grass science.
4. The TV announcers relayed a famous Weekley story during the final-round coverage on Monday. Along with some friends, Boo attended a county fair at which there was an orangutan sitting in a boxing ring. The idea? Land a punch and win $100. So Weekley got into the ring and circled the animal a few times. The orangutan barely moved, barely looked his way. Weekley figured he'd land a punch from the right side, so he got ready, swung and ... woke up an hour and a half later in the back of a pickup truck. And no, he didn't win the $100.
5. When Weekley first played the PGA Tour in 2002, he wore camouflage pants and tennis shoes during tournaments. He has since toned down to polyester/cotton blend pants and golf spikes (he only found traditional shoes that didn't hurt his feet within the past three years), but eschews the standard cotton trousers due to an allergy. "I just had a rash on my right leg that was down the back of my calf," he said earlier this year. "Went to the doctor and they looked at it and said everything looks fine. Doesn't look like it's going to come back."
6. Though his downhome twang can be considered a language all its own, he is, uh, not exactly bilingual. "I took Spanish twice in high school," Weekley said earlier this season at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico. "I never got above 50 in grades. I flunked right on out of Spanish. I reckon I'd have to keep taking it. That's why I couldn't go to school in Florida."
7. Upon losing in a playoff at the Honda one day after missing that 3-footer on the final hole, Weekley was asked what he'd do next. His response: "Go party!"
8. Weekley is a greens in regulation machine. Entering the Heritage, he was 27th on tour at 67.43 percent. Last year on the Nationwide Tour, he hit 74.31 percent, which topped Tiger Woods, who led the PGA Tour.
9. He was perhaps the only player happy that Sunday's scheduled round never came to fruition. "Actually it's going to help me because I didn't get much sleep last night," he said after the round was postponed. "We stayed up too late playing cards, and tried to go to sleep and the place I was staying, the air-conditioning was broke so I had to sleep with the windows open and all that storm came through and it got to blowing the shutters around where I was staying at, so I didn't get much sleep."
10. Weekley can already make plans for the 2008 Masters. After past champions and those who finished high enough in this year's tournament, Boo becomes the first player to qualify based on the "new old" rule that says all PGA Tour winners make the field at Augusta.
