WHILE Vijay Singh is often lauded as the most dedicated of modern professionals, Mike Weir is not far behind. The hours he spends on the practice ground and an acute attention to detail saw the Canadian crowned Masters champion in 2003, after a play-off against Len Mattiace, becoming the first left-hander to win a major since Bob Charles, the New Zealander, at the 1963 Open.
If things had turned out differently, however, he could have been playing on the ice in the NHL instead of the fairways of Wentworth. He was a gifted ice-hockey player in his teens, growing up in awe of his compatriot, Wayne Gretzky. His love of hockey led him into numerous fights on the rink and explains a scar on his finger courtesy of an opponent’s tooth.
“I didn’t take anything without giving it back,” Weir said. “If somebody hit me with a cheap shot, he’d get a two-hander back, guaranteed.”
This attitude has seen him labelled as a baby-faced assassin and fellow pros talk of Weir’s competitive desire, all of which helped him to make the grade. “He wasn’t a big kid,” Steve Bennett, the professional at Huron Oaks, Weir’s first golf club, recalled. “But when he played with us adults, we’d be hitting short irons to greens and Mike would be behind us hitting his four-wood inside us. Mike wasn’t afraid to be aggressive. If he got to three under par, he wanted to make it six.”
By this time, Weir had watched Jack Nicklaus play in an exhibition and wrote a letter to the Golden Bear, asking whether he should switch and try to play right-handed. Nicklaus wrote back simply: “Stick with what you are.”
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He did and he worked on his short game to become a brilliant chipper and putter and then later he improved his long game, studying the swing of Nick Price, the winner of three major championships, after being stunned by his technique when they met on the driving range at the 1994 Bell Canadian Open. The practice paid dividends and now he is worshipped when he returns to the country that voted him Canadian of the Year in 2000 to co-host a tournament every year.
“The crowd was rooting for Mike,” Gretzky said after his recent appearance at the event. “And we’re in hockey country. What Mike has done for golf in Canada is like what Tiger has done in the States. He says he wanted to be me when he was a kid. Well, I’m not so young anymore, and I’d like to be him.”
FACT FILE
Age: 36
Nationality: Canadian
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Wins: 11
Major wins: 1 (Masters, 2003)
Major record in 2006: Masters: tied 11th; US Open: tied 6th; Open: tied 56th; US PGA: 6th
World ranking: 36
How he qualified for World Match Play: Eleventh on the Major Championship ranking
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Previous WMP experience: Three appearances in 2002, 2003 and 2004