Sportsmanlike Weekley accepts tough lesson in good spirit  PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent ORLANDO, Fla. -- Triple bogeys are hard enough to stomach any time. Try making one while sitting down in the scoring trailer, your day's work already complete.  Boo Weekley didn't let a surprise penalty get him down Saturday. (Steve Grayson/WireImage)
Boo Weekley, a Florida native who is finding his home state not very hospitable, needed only 67 strokes to tour the wind-swept Champion Course at Bay Hill Club & Lodge on Saturday in the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. At the time, he had submitted the low round of the day. A few minutes later, he had to sign for a 69 -- simply because his sense of decorum and sportsmanship got in the way. "That's the thing about this game: You never stop learning," Weekley, 33, of Milton, Fla., said with a tortured grin. Weekley -- and a lot of other people around Bay Hill -- learned something new Saturday about the Rules of Golf. As is usually the case, it was a hard lesson, not to mention a potentially expensive one. His transgression occurred on the par-3 second hole, where he made a bogey after missing the green well to the right. Tom Johnson, his playing partner, had found the green with his tee shot, but his ball was 85 feet from the hole on the far right side while the hole location was in the back-left. Johnson decided to chip the ball through the fringe. When Weekley saw that Johnson's shot might hit the unattended flagstick, he ran and pulled it out of the hole just before the ball arrived. Had Johnson's ball hit the flagstick, he would have incurred a two-stroke penalty according to Rule 17-3. But because Weekley pulled it out during the course of the stroke -- a violation of Rule 17-2 -- it was Weekley who had to add two shots to his scorecard, giving him a 6 instead of a 4 on that second hole. He didn't find that out until after he had finished his round when PGA TOUR Rules Official Mark Russell had to interrupt what should have been a more pleasant interlude in the scoring trailer. "I'll tell you this: I've never heard of that in my 27 years in golf -- and I mean with caddies, too," Russell said. "Boo said he was just trying to help out and knew if the ball hit the flagstick, it was a penalty. I can't tell you how impressed I was with the way he handled it." "I've seen some pretty weird things on the golf course, but that's one of the hardest penalties I have ever seen," said Johnson, who made bogey on No. 2. "He was just trying to do me a favor." "I didn't think anything of it. I just knew that if it hit the pin, he was going to get a penalty, and I tried to help him," Weekley said outside the Bay Hill clubhouse.  Vijay Singh (WireImage/Messerschmidt)
Johnson, who shot 79, added that Weekley played beautifully in difficult conditions. "It was ridiculous how good he hit it; he could have been 8-under easy if he could have made some putts because the rest of his game was flawless. But there he was whistling and humming walking off the greens. We all know it's how you handle adversity that makes you a better player, but it shows what kind of person you are, too." Weekley, tied for 22nd place through 54 holes at 1-under 209, has had his share of adversity recently. Two weeks ago he sized up a three-foot par putt on the 72nd hole that would have won The Honda Classic. His miss opened the door for a four-way playoff eventually won by Mark Wilson. Though he hit 13 of 14 fairways and 12 greens Saturday in the chilly breeze that buffeted the Bay Hill layout, Weekley missed a series of putts that would have lifted him significantly up the leaderboard. He just shrugged when asked about his equanimity. "There is no use stomping around or slamming a club when there are more important things you can be worried about," he said. Such as? Ah, perspective alert here.  Tiger Woods (WireImage) "I have a little boy named Thomas Parker that I can think of, and he makes me smile," Weekley said. "My wife (Karyn) and my son ... they are what's important. I want to play well for them, but, you know, when something goes wrong, I have them to go home to, and this is just a game. Sure, it can make you mad sometimes, but you have to let it go. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt, but that's golf," he added. "You have to move on and forget about it." Before the start of the tournament, Weekley joined fellow Milton products Heath Slocum and Bubba Watson for a practice round at Bay Hill. Last week at the PODS Championship, Slocum missed a four-foot putt that would have forced a playoff with eventual winner Mark Calcavecchia. When they met on the tee, they shared a hug and knowing laugh. Golf is a conundrum wrapped inside an endless riddle with insult only a heartbeat away from the injuries it can heap upon you. The best defense is a thick skin and a short memory. "After I leave here I'll forget about this and just try to remember that I played a pretty darn good round of golf," Weekley said, trying to smile but not quite getting there. "Really, there's nothing else I can do because tomorrow I have to go out and play again, and I want to play as well as I can." Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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