Is Mike Weir back in December? (photo courtesy of David Donnelly)
I’ve had two interesting conversations — and one text — in the last couple of days. The first two phone calls came from Saskatchewan’s Graham DeLaet, who tied for sixth at the Frys and sits at 102 on the money list, guaranteeing him of his card. He called from Vegas.
David Hearn, on the other hand, let a chance to win on Sunday slip away and sits at the precarious spot of 26th on the Nationwide Tour’s money list. He called from Florida where he was preparing for the last two Nationwide Tour events.
And finally I received a text from Mike Weir — yep, a text. Mike likes to text.
In reverse order, here’s a snippet of what they had to say:
Weir hasn’t hit balls at all since announcing a partially-torn ligament in his right elbow in late August. And according to the text he sent me, Weir says he is another month away from even hitting balls. Surprising then to see something called “Sharkshootout.com” say he’s committed to play Dec. 10-12 at Greg Norman’s event. The website has some odd remarks (see below) so I don’t know what to make of it:
While most if not all mainstream reports have stated that Weir is done for the year due to a partially torn ligament in his right elbow, he has not completely shut the door on a start late in the schedule. He hasn’t played since missing the cut at the Wyndham Championship, but he’s 142nd on the money list and at risk of losing his TOUR card now. He didn’t commit to next week’s Timberlake Open, but he just might give it a go at the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in mid-November, especially if he’s about to get bumped outside the top 150 in earnings. If he turns that down, then the Shark Shootout might be his next start anywhere.
There’s no way he’s playing next week, and he won’t lose his tour card because he has a myriad of exemptions, including an injury exemption. Strange.
Okay, on to David Hearn.
Hearn, one of the best drivers of the ball on the Nationwide Tour, isn’t making excuses, but he did break his beloved two-year old R7 LTD driver and switched to another version of the same driver for the final round. “One bad shot was all it took,” he says, referring to a triple-bogey on the back nine. Hearn says every driver is different — even if they are set to the exact same specs. So much for you cats who think getting tour-fit will fix all of your woes. Anyway, Hearn said the new driver didn’t respond quite the same and he wasn’t as confident with it — leading to a badly hit drive. He’s got two Top 10 finishes in his last five starts and seems confident he can crack the Top 25 heading into the weekend. “There were a lot more positive things I took away from the week than negative things,” he said.
Finally, onto DeLaet, who I spoke with tonight. Weyburns’ favourite sun has hurt his back. The GolfChannel mentioned that last week. But the truth is DeLaet’s old hockey injury is so bad that he hasn’t practiced in the last three weeks. In fact, it hurts so much (“Especially when I go after my driver or 3-wood,” he says) that he hasn’t even walked the courses. Instead he’s just shown up Thursday and played. In that span he’s finished T5-T25-T6. Not bad. He said the Viking event, where he finished T5, was his best ball-striking tournament of the year: “90% of the time the ball went exactly as I envisioned it. It was pretty amazing.” But his putting — his Achilles’ heel all year — was at its worst that week.
He’s playing this week in Vegas only because his father and friends are in Vegas for the tournament. If they weren’t coming, he’d have dropped out.
“Who knows — maybe I’ll win or maybe I’ll be awful,” he said, laughing.
It was looking a little iffy for DeLaet back in September but it’s great to see he’ll be keeping his card for next year. The sound he makes hitting a golf ball is just awesome. Interesting that he played well over the last few weeks without being able to practice…maybe lower expectations allowed him to just “play” and see what happens.