Azinger, Holmes and Weekley. Photo: dave Pinegar/TPGL
Animal analogies come easily to Weekley, who, it is safe to assume, was the only one of the 24 golfers competing last week to bring deer hunting into his pre-shot routine. "When the pressure gets to me," he said, "I'm sittin' there thinking to myself, 'This deer's going to step right around this corner. You know he's going to come out. Do you think you can make the shot?' If you're not a big deer hunter and you don't put yourself in those places, it's kind of hard to imagine. Things that have already happened to me. I think of what happened last time. Now, let's see if we can make it a little better this time."
Weekley expressed regret that his effort to amp up the gallery got to Westwood Friday afternoon. "I hated that Lee and them felt I was pumping them up just to aggravate them [the Europeans]," Weekley said. "I just wanted the crowd to be there, be a part of it. I wasn't trying to be disrespectful by no means. Why not get the crowd fired up?" He cracked them up at the first tee Sunday. After hitting a big drive, he galloped off the tee using his driver as an imaginary horse like "Happy Gilmore." "I'm always nervous, you know, out there on the first hole," Weekley said. "I felt like I had to do it to loosen up a little bit. It's just my nature to be a little goofy anyway."
Azinger stopped laughing long enough to go up to Weekley on the first fairway and urge him to settle down. He followed instructions well, holing out from a bunker on the seventh for an eagle and building a 4-up advantage through 10 holes en route to a 4-and-2 victory over Oliver Wilson. Weekley couldn't walk very far without hearing someone yell "Boo" or "Boo-S-A." A few guys wore camouflage outfits with duct-taped "Bs" on their backs. "Being able to show them a little bit of golf, and them hollering and hooting your name, it's unreal, it really is," Weekley said. "The support that the fans gave us, I think it took my game to the next level."
In the closing ceremony Azinger made a point of thanking "our fans, the 13th man. You were unbelievable. You made the difference this week, you really did." Later, when questioned specifically about the galleries, he was steadfast. "I thought the crowd was phenomenal," Azinger said. "They made a big difference, and I thought everybody was beautifully behaved. There was a lot of alcohol served out there, and there were no fights going on, nobody screaming at inappropriate times. The incidents, if there were some, were few and far between."
A golf purist could argue that things weren't wholly civil, but for an American team that found an elusive victory amid the southern comfort, there was plenty of peace in all the noise. In any accent, that much was certain.
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