CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – John and Cathy Weaver and their only child, Drew, touched down in England June 14 for what John considered a nice little summer vacation. In lieu of the annual week at the beach, Cathy wanted to see some English castles and historic sites. And John and Drew would play some golf.
In fact, John and Drew, right off the plane, decided to tee it up. They ventured to Royal Lytham and St. Annes for a practice round for the British Amateur that was a few days away. The winds were howling 40 mph, so there wasn’t anyone on the tee sheet, leaving father and son to explore links golf for the very first time together in their maiden trip to the United Kingdom.
John, a family-practice physician from High Point, N.C., recalls Drew, a rising junior at Virginia Tech, hitting the ball pretty solidly that first day, but nonetheless shooting 80.
“I looked at him afterward,” John says, a smile creasing his tanned face, “and thought, ‘What have we gotten ourselves into?’ ”
He had no idea.
Nobody did.
Nearly a month later, on a blustery Friday under steel-gray skies, the two were strolling down yet another links side by side. John wasn’t playing, but carrying Drew’s maroon Hokies bag, as he'd done at the British Amateur. And Drew, now the newly minted British Amateur champion, was competing among the best names in the game at the 136th British Open.
“It’s been one hell of a summer,” said John, shaking his head in near disbelief behind the 18th green at Carnoustie some 20 minutes later. Behind him, Tiger Woods was finishing his second round. “Really, it’s been like some Disney movie or something.”
Disney writers might have scripted a little kinder ending. Despite pars at Carnoustie’s brutal three closing holes, Drew Weaver’s two-round total (76-72–148) left him on the outside looking in for weekend play. Over two rounds at Carnoustie, he tied Phil Mickelson and David Toms and beat the likes of Stuart Appleby, Geoff Ogilvy and a couple of big III’s – Davis Love and Charles Howell. But only one amateur, Northern Ireland’s superstar-in-waiting, Rory McIlroy, will play on Open weekend.
Weaver, the first American to win the British Am in 28 years, thought if he could make the cut at the Open he’d greatly improve his chances of making the U.S. Walker Cup team that will play in Ireland in September. He now knows barring a stellar showing at the U.S. Amateur next month, he may be on the outside looking in there, too. He hopes what he’s done in the past month has caught the eye of U.S. captain Buddy Marucci and those who select the U.S. squad.
It should.
“There’s definitely people out there who are doubters,” said Weaver, 20. “When I won the British Am, they might have been a little upset because I threw myself right in the middle of the Walker Cup picture. But I have a good amount of game, and it was nice for me to go out and play well in a setting this big.
“If Capt. Marucci thinks that’s enough for me to be on the team, then that’s great. If not, there’s really nothing I can do about it. I played as hard as I could.”
There’s no doubting that statement. Weaver puts everything he has into his game, and wears his emotions. After sloppy bogeys at 14 and 15 moved him to 6 over, he approached an R&A official at the 16th tee, asking if he knew where the cut might fall. Though roughly a third of the field still was on the course, the official told Weaver he thought the cut would be 3 or 4 over. (It ended up at 4-over 146, with exactly 70 players making it.)
Hearing the projection, Weaver squatted and slammed his right hand down in frustration on Carnoustie’s firm turf. After birdies on three of his opening six holes had moved him back to 2 over for the tournament, finishing outside the cutline was far from his mind.
“I played my heart out today,” he said. “I really had it going early and was well inside the cut line. I wouldn’t say I broke down or choked or anything . . . the golf course just kind of got the best of me. I missed some putts, some 6- or 8-footers, and you can’t make every one of those.
“But I played my heart out and couldn’t ask for anything more. I gave it everything I had.”
His last chance came at Carnoustie’s monster finishing hole, the 499-yard 18th. He pounded a drive, and still facing 225 to a back pin, and playing into a stout breeze, he ripped 2-iron onto the green. The knowledgeable fans packing the grandstands roared with approval, and showed their appreciation for what Weaver has accomplished in the last month with a rousing ovation as he made his way toward the green.
In a week filled with highlights – practice rounds with Justin Leonard, Stewart Cink, J.J. Henry and Love, six Monday holes in a sideways rain with Mike Weir, a dinner conversation with Ian Poulter – this was the grandest moment of all, being showered with affection on the home hole.
“I was obviously very disappointed with the bogeys I’d made on 14 and 15, but it was great,” he said. “I really had to take a moment and take it all in. It’s a really special atmosphere, and I hit two of the best shots I hit all week.”
When he gets home, he’ll catch his breath, then play the Cardinal Amateur in Greensboro, N.C. (he’ll finally sleep in his own bed in High Point that week) and U.S. Amateur at Olympic Club, where he made match play in the 2004 U.S. Junior. It’s been a whirlwind, dizzying month, something Drew Weaver and his parents never could have expected when they boarded that plane for England nearly a month ago.
Some summer vacation.
He was on ABC’s World News on Friday night back home, and has been so dignified in representing Virginia Tech on the heels of the unspeakable shooting tragedy that swept the campus and saddened an entire nation in April. On his bag, he sports a patch inscribed, “Virginia Tech remembers 4:16:07.”
It’s a day that never will leave him, just as his month spent in the UK competing in the British Amateur and the Open – with a start at the European Tour’s Scottish Open sprinkled between – never will leave him. In a few months, he’s grown tremendously, as a person and a golfer.
“Virginia Tech is always with me,” he said. “Everywhere I go, I represent the university. All that I do, whether it’s on the golf course or off it, I’m striving to represent the university in a positive way.
“To honor the victims of April 16th, I feel, is something I’m doing by carrying the golf bag and being part of the university.”
Weaver missed the cut and he learned a lot. And now he hopes the powers that be deem him worthy to make one more trip across the pond for the Walker Cup at Royal County Down in Ireland.
If Weaver represents his country the way he has represented his beloved Virginia Tech, Buddy Marucci couldn’t find a better young man.
And then Drew Weaver’s magical summer would have the fitting Disney ending it deserves.
Posted: 7/20/2007
print
email
discuss
