Montreal's Canadian

Great Expectations: Weir is subjected to intense interest from his hopeful countrymen. Photo: Charles LaBerge

At Royal Montreal, Weir will have to concern himself only with beating his opponents. Score won't matter as much as it does on the PGA Tour. With all eyes on him, though, he will still need all the concentration he can muster. He won't be able to avoid the spotlight, not that he would want to. Besides, he has learned how to cope.

"I don't play for Canada," Weir says. "Sure, I realize how closely people are watching me, but it's not like I'm out there thinking about that when I'm over the ball, or even at other times. I couldn't play if I did that."

There are no precedents for what Weir faces as the lone Canadian, although Richard Zokol has some sense of what he is experiencing. Zokol was tied for the lead going into the last round of the 1987 Canadian Open but shot 75 as Curtis Strange won. Zokol won the 1992 Greater Milwaukee Open and for a time was the main Canadian his countrymen looked to on the PGA Tour.

"Mike's a big fish in a small pond in Canada," Zokol, 49, says. "If he were an American, he'd be like a Mark O'Meara or a Zach Johnson, a very good player who won a major and some other tournaments. But in Canada he's in a different stratosphere. He's the only guy who's ever won a [professional] major. Canadians expect so much of him, and he also has high expectations. Meanwhile, the interest in golf has exploded exponentially in Canada since I was out there, too. There's no way Mike can enjoy the anonymity that I had and before me, [George] Knudson, [Dave] Barr, and [Dan] Halldorson and [Jim] Nelford."

Surveying his career, Weir says, "If I think about where I was 10 years ago and where I am now, I'd have taken it in a heartbeat back then. But that doesn't mean I'm satisfied. I want to get back to where I was in 2003. It felt so easy then. I think I can get back there, but it doesn't get any easier."

Maybe he will find inspiration at Royal Montreal. "We'll have tremendous support there," he says. He looks forward to coming up with the goods. He knows he will feel emotionally engaged when he gets to Royal Montreal, and that he will get the proverbial chills up his spine when he hears "O Canada," the country's national anthem, played during the opening ceremonies.

"I realize that the microscope is on me," he says of all the attention. "But it's not a concern of mine. I don't play to get nice articles written about me. I play for the challenge of the game. I like the hard work."

Jim Weir will be at the Presidents Cup. He sometimes finds himself thinking about the competition -- and the possibility of his brother playing Woods in the Sunday singles, in perhaps the decisive match.

"Mike could leave quite a legacy for golf in Canada if that happens," Weir's brother says. There is another way to look at Weir's career, and it's equally valid. Simply, no matter what happens in Montreal, Weir has already left quite a legacy for golf in Canada. He can only enhance it at Royal Montreal. If he can find the game he knows he can play, and that he has played, he'll do just that.