Boo Weekley hits a shot last week at the Shaw Charity Classic.
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He talked about a loss of distance.
And getting back in the gym.
And getting lazy.
And drinking “them cold beers.”
And having a good time “riding around on my tractor.”
And fishing.
And “goofing off.”
All after one question. Yes, Boo Weekley is still very much Boo Weekley. He’s been reborn, too. Lucky you, should you like your golf personable.
It’s been a minute, though, since we’ve heard from him, so let’s catch up. He’s a three-time PGA Tour winner. He was a member of the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team. There, after a tee shot, he rode his driver like a toy horse. But that was but a taste of his charm. You know you’re a character when there’s a YouTube video floating out there entitled “PGA Golfer Boo Weekley Funniest Moments.” [Enjoy.] Then there’s his name. Boo is actually Thomas. The former is a play off of Yogi Bear’s sidekick, “Boo Boo.”
Over the years, though, his golf had slipped. In 2013, Weekley won at Colonial. But by the 2018-’19 Tour season, he was playing only a handful of events. Injuries hit. Earlier this year, he played eight tournaments on the Korn Ferry Tour. But in late July, he turned 50. There’s a tour for golfers who hit that threshold, with no cuts and guaranteed money. And this week, at the Ally Challenge at Warwick Hills in Michigan, Weekley is playing his third PGA Tour Champions event.
And because Boo is Boo, they’ve handed him a mic. And they’ve asked him questions. And he answered.
‘I been drinking them cold beers’
At the Ally Challenge, they wondered about his game. He said he needed to hit more. They assumed he had been working. He said he got lazy.
“So what’s the hardest part of your game to recover after a couple years of not working at it?”
“I’d say like I’ve lost a lot of distance, like I mean — well, driver-wise, I’ve lost about 20 yards. With my irons, I’ve lost probably about eight to 10 yards. So I’m just trying to figure out how to get all that back. Got to, like I said, got to go back to the gym, start working in the gym a little bit, getting myself back healthier, stronger.
“Like I said, I got lazy over the last couple years. I been drinking them cold beers and having a good time riding around on my tractor, fishing, you know what I mean? Just goofing off.
“Like I said, I really ain’t put the time in, and now after my third tournament of being out here, or this being my third tournament of being out here, I’m kind of looking back, all right, this is what I’ve got to do in the offseason to get myself ready for next year.”
‘They was about to kill some people over on 17’
At the Ally Challenge, they asked him about the course. He said every one has its own character. He stopped. He turned to his left.
“Look out. We almost got hit right here. Remind me to shut the doors.”
“Didn’t expect that happening.”
“You ought to have seen the people I was playing with yesterday; they was about to kill some people over on 17. They were hitting it all up in the grandstands. It was fun, though. We had fun. It was a good time.”
At the Ally Challenge, the talk turned to distance.
“I mean, yeah, back then, like I said, I hit it a little further back then than I do now,” Weekley said. “Like I’m standing out here on like 4, a couple of them holes, and I’m like, wow, tee off and hit it and all of a sudden I’m like, OK, what do we got, about 160? Well, how far that go off the tee? Uh, 258. Oh, wow. OK, all right. Maybe we need to work on this. Let’s try something a little different here, maybe aiming on the right side a little bit and maybe catch a slope or something.”
“Every golfer over the age of 50 is asking the same questions — where did all the distance go? So as you try to regain it, how are you doing it? Is somebody advising you on how you can recapture some of the power and some of the angle of attack and those technical things?”
“No, I just think I got to swing a little faster at it. Like, I mean, I don’t know. I don’t get into all breaking everything down. I just know I need to go back to stretching a little more, getting where I turn a little more on it. That’s just things that I got to do. That’s the way my body — that’s the way my golf swing’s built. I never was one who liked to swing at it 100 percent anyway, I like to swing at it about 85. I’d say about 85 percent is what I like to go around playing golf.”
“So we’re not going to see you on the range with a camera, a TrackMan and 14 advisors around you. Is this just Boo on his own?”
“Yeah, just me on my own. I tried all that, that ain’t work out too well, so I’m going to go back to me.”
“Oh, yeah. Like I got a teacher, Scott Hamilton, back in Georgia where I live, and he’s a good teacher. He tells me like before I came out to my first tournament up in Washington — I went and spent time with him trying to figure out — because I had five different sets of irons that I was trying to figure out which ones the best ones that would fit the way I’m hitting it right now.
“He’s like these are the ones. So I spent like two and a half days up there pounding balls and trying to figure out what I needed with the irons and stuff. He said these are the ones, so we went — that’s how we’re going about it now.”
“Whatever feels right?”
“Yeah, oh, right, whatever feels right. It’s like a gun — whatever feels right. Got to feel it.”
‘Weekley? Yes, ma’am. Monthly, daily, yearly, And then a Weekley‘
Last week, at the Shaw Charity Classic, there was this exchange.
“Boo, I’m sure the results will come around. You go from a veteran and now you’re a rookie, I guess, on the PGA Tour Champions. How does that feel for you, and, like you say, you’re joking around, so lighthearted?”
“It’s very, it’s very sincere. Like it’s unreal. I feel like I pinch myself to be able to have that opportunity again not knowing — like I tore my hip up, elbow, shoulder, stuff like that. I’m very fortunate the good Lord’s blessed me to be able to come back out and try this and be able to be a rookie again. It’s pretty awesome to feel the way I feel about it, you know what I mean. The game is the game, you know.
“They can’t kill you and eat you out here, the way I look at it. So just go have fun and play golf and just do the whole thing, you know.”
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
