By JUSTIN JARRETT
jjarrett@islandpacket.com
843-706-8120

Lounging comfortably in a chair in the lobby of the Inn at Harbour Town, just a choked-down pitching wedge from the first tee box of the course that made him a household name, Boo Weekley ponders a question.
What is it about this place ... ?

The answer is obvious — Harbour Town Golf Links requires accuracy and ingenuity, and Weekley is widely considered one of the best ball-strikers on the PGA Tour — and yet Weekley never settles for the obvious answer.

“I just like being here,” Weekley says, a smile spreading across his face. “If I pass away, I’ll probably be walking up and down this golf course. It’ll be like the ghost of St. Andrew’s or something, but I’ll be the ghost of Hilton Head.

“I’ll have a golf club and some guy with a bagpipe playing behind me.”
The last bit brings a deep chuckle that shakes his gut, but he’s not kidding.

Perhaps no player other than five-time champion Davis Love III is more closely associated with Harbour Town and the Heritage than Weekley, who came to Hilton Head Island in 2007 as a little-known character from the fringes of the PGA Tour. He emerged from a wild Monday finish as something of a cult hero, an anti-stereotype whose talent on the golf course is exceeded only by his overflowing personality.

The partying throngs of Heritage fans embraced their everyman champion when he returned to defend his title last year — camouflage popped up around Harbour Town like the grass after the first soaking rain of the spring, and choruses of “Booooo” echoed down Harbour Town’s tree-lined fairways as Weekley once again tamed Pete Dye’s famed layout.

The consummate showman, Weekley seemed to thrive on the attention. Like a basketball team gaining momentum from a raucous home crowd, Weekley’s game elevated as the crowds following him increased in size and zeal, and he held off a charge from young gun Anthony Kim and past champion Aaron Baddeley.

As hard as it is to imagine, Weekley’s following probably will be even larger and more zealous this year. His star has risen dramatically since he last teed it up at the Heritage, propelled into a new stratosphere by his performance at the Ryder Cup, where he mounted his driver like a stick horse and galloped down the first fairway — then proceeded to help the U.S. team recapture the Cup by earning 21⁄2 points in his three matches, including a 4-and-2 victory over Oliver Wilson in the Sunday singles matches. Much like he has at Harbour Town, where Weekley says he feels like he’s at home because of his bond with the laid-back crowd, he flourished at Valhalla, where he felt free to let down his guard.

“It was kind of like you can go out there and be who you really are as a person and kind of let your emotions blow and show a little more than normal,” Weekley says, “and that kind of suited me pretty well.”

What ensued was a whirlwind the likes of which Weekley usually associates with the storms that blow up off the Gulf of Mexico. Before he knew it, he was sitting in a chair beside Jay Leno, signing a book deal and launching a clothing line.

“There’s so much that has happened since my second win here,” Weekley says. “My life, it’s just been turned upside-down.”

All that attention seems to go against Weekley’s everyman persona, but he has taken it in stride, realizing his time in the spotlight won’t last forever. He reportedly earns more than $2 million per year in endorsements, which will help him toward his goal of trading his golf clubs for rifles and fishing rods.

“It’s never a bad thing when somebody’s calling wanting something,” Weekley says, “because there’s going to come a time when there ain’t nobody going to call you.”

‘I’M HERE’

The calls weren’t coming too often two years ago, when Weekley’s closest brush with victory on the PGA Tour was at the Honda Classic, where he three-putted on the 72nd hole and wound up tied for second after a four-man playoff on Monday.

That all changed after another Monday finish, when Weekley tamed the heavy wind coming off the Calibogue Sound by chipping in on the final two holes and donning his first tartan jacket. Suddenly, the PGA Tour had a new average joe hero — a John Daly without the off-course issues — and Weekley had a newfound confidence that he could make it on the PGA Tour, where he foundered as a rookie in 2002.

Weekley has said he never felt comfortable during his first stint on the tour, when he made only five cuts in 24 starts and faded back into the morass of the Nationwide Tour.

He found that elusive comfort zone at Harbour Town.

“I’m here,” Weekley says of the feeling he gets when returning to Harbour Town. “Seriously, when I walk out there, I feel like I grew up here. The way the people have treated me ... they don’t say, ‘How you playing?,’ they say ‘How you doing?’ You know what I mean?”

Weekley is hesitant to say Harbour Town is the place that made him — he has proved himself elsewhere, after all, claiming 11 top-10 finishes and 25 top-25s in less than three years on tour — but he recognizes the role his Heritage success has played in helping him get where he is.

“It helped me get over the hump,” Weekley says. “It’s got me to where I believe more in myself.”

He should be swelling with confidence this week.

In only two starts at Harbour Town Golf Links, Weekley has proven he knows every nook and cranny of Pete Dye’s tree-lined track, and his success here has made him the new face of a tournament whose roll of champions is a veritable who’s who list of golf legends.

On that windy Monday two years ago, Heritage tournament director Steve Wilmot glanced at the leaderboard and saw a few names that would fit right in with that list of champions — Boo Weekley wasn’t one of them, but he beat all of them.

“A month later, I was still kind of going, jeesh, you have Mr. Palmer and Mr. Nicklaus and Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Payne Stewart, and you go on and on and on,” Wilmot says. “And then Boo Weekley? But you know what, he can play, and he’s been a great champion.”

SHOOTING FOR THREE

Now he sets out to do something no one on that illustrious list has achieved — to conquer this course three times in a row.

The odds are not good. In the past 20 years, PGA Tour players have won the same event two years in a row on 36 occasions, but only seven times have they won three consecutive. Not surprisingly, Tiger Woods was responsible for six of those seven.

Doing so at Harbour Town might be even more unlikely, considering the course’s tight fairways and tiny greens allow little margin for error.

But if anyone can do it, Weekley seems to fit the bill, because the course suits his game so perfectly.

He loves staring down Harbour Town’s tree-lined fairways and zeroing in on targets, a skill fostered by growing up on the similarly designed Tanglewood Golf Club in Milton, Fla., and honed in tree stands as well as on tee boxes. And he possesses an uncanny ability to work his shots in either direction, a necessity at Harbour Town, where even a seemingly perfect drive can wind up behind a well-placed tree limb.

“It’s very similar to the one I grew up on,” Weekley says. “I feel comfortable here. When I look down the fairways, I’ve got targets. That’s what I’m always thinking — I want to start it there and make it go over here. ... That’s what I like about playing old, traditional golf courses.”
Even with all the success he has had here — he has carded scores in the 60s in seven of his eight Heritage rounds, only failing to do so in last year’s final round, when he played conservatively and shot even-par 71 en route to a three-shot victory — winning three in a row won’t be easy.

Payne Stewart nearly did it in 1991, tying for fourth after winning the previous two tartan jackets, but five-time champion Love missed the cut in his three-peat bid in 1993.

A strong field, including some of Weekley’s best buddies, will be gunning for him.

“I love him; he’s one of my closest friends out here,” says Brandt Snedeker, who has made the cut in all three of his start here, including a tie for 16th in 2007. “But I told him I don’t want him to win this thing three years in a row, because I want to win it this year.

“And that plaid isn’t flattering on his big, old gut. I think it’s time to see somebody new in it.”

Weekley, of course, has other ideas. And even if he doesn’t make it three in a row, he plans on adding more tartan to his closet before he puts away his clubs.

“I’m very fortunate to win this tournament two times already,” Weekley says. “I can see myself, if I stay out here about another 10 years, I’ll win it a couple more times, too.”

Boo's Career Timeline

Fall 2001: Finished tied for 23rd at the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, earning his tour card.

2002: Made PGA tour debut. Missed the cut in 19 of 24 starts and lost his tour card after earning only $95,206.

2006: After four years on the Nationwide Tour, finished seventh on the money list to graduate and earn his second shot at the PGA Tour. In 24 events, claimed nine top-10 finishes and 14 top-25 showings.

April 2007: Earned first PGA Tour victory with back-to-back chip-ins on the final two holes of the Verizon Heritage, edging Ernie Els for a $972,000 payday.

2007: Powered by Heritage victory, earned more than $2.6 million and finished 25th in the FedExCup standings.

November 2007: Teaming with former high school teammate Heath Slocum, finished second in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China.

April 2008: Played in first Masters Tournament, tying for 20th.

April 2008: Successfully defended Verizon Heritage title, beating Anthony Kim and Aaron Baddeley by three shots to become the first back-to-back winner at Harbour Town Golf Links since Davis Love III in 1991 and 1992.

Sept. 2008: Helped U.S. team recapture the Ryder Cup, earning 2 1/2 points in three matches, including a 4-and-2 win over Oliver Wilson in the Sunday singles matches. Became a crowd favorite when he rode his driver down the first fairway “cowboy horse” style.

2008: Won nearly $2.4 million with five top-10s and 11 top-25s, and finished 33rd in the FedExCup standings.