HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA | Home for Boo Weekley is a 460-acre spread of Florida Panhandle property, just north of Pensacola and just south of Brewton, Ala., where his deer roam and his fish pond is being repopulated.
But Harbour Town Golf Links is like a second home for Weekley, who won the champion’s red plaid jacket here in 2007 and 2008, catapulting him onto the U.S. Ryder Cup team. It’s where the golf world was fully introduced to Weekley with his down-home style and colorful musings.
Weekley is back at Harbour Town this week, having recently returned to golf after approximately 18 months away due to injuries, which included surgery for tendinitis in his right elbow and the removal of a cancerous cyst in his left shoulder.
Now 45, Weekley has made nearly $15 million in his career but he’s not ready to walk away just yet. He has plenty of time to hunt and fish but he wants to play golf again.
Back at Harbour Town, with its tree-lined fairways and tiny greens, Weekley is making just his second PGA Tour start this year (he previously finished T35 at the Puerto Rico Open), another step in his return to competitive golf. He’s played mostly on the Web.com Tour, finishing T10 recently in Louisiana but his goal is to be a regular again on the PGA Tour.
Without full status on the PGA Tour, Weekley is using his past champion status to get into a handful of events, hoping to cobble together a tour schedule that gets him 10 or so starts. He’s exempt into the Web.com Tour finals later this year, which will allow him another shot at returning full time to the PGA Tour.
“I’m ready to play again. I’ve got more fire right now. I’ve just gotta lose some weight. Being off so long, I’ve been kinda lazy, I ain’t going to lie about it,” Weekley said, spitting tobacco juice from time to time.
“I’ve just been around my farm, working on getting my deer herd up and working on my fish pond. Just tinkering more or less. I enjoyed it. Don’t get me wrong but over time it gets old and boring as everything else.”
In 2017, Weekley had surgery on his elbow to alleviate the tendinitis that was plaguing him. It was last summer when his shoulder problem was discovered, throwing a scare into him that went beyond his golf career.
“I went in thinking it was a little cyst and one thing turned into another and they sent it off to biopsy. It came back and had a little bit of stuff that didn’t need to be there. So they went in and cut it out. July last year,” Weekley said.
“It makes you think different. Anybody that’s dealt with a little bit of stuff, you’re still scared. It’s still, oh Lord, I need to figure out what I need to do. It kinda puts a scare in you.
“Everything is good. They got it all out. Doc told me just go do my thing now.”
At home and without golf, Weekley spent his time with his children and managing his land. He loves the outdoors. Weekley lights up talking about his adventures. Ask him about the deer on his land and he can go into detail about how they live and what they eat.
“We live in Florida so the deer ain’t going to get as big. You try to fatten them up and give them better nutrients. We grow summer crops, winter crops. We give them protein pellets,” Weekley said.
“We hunt them. We killed two decent bucks this year. My neighbor killed one of the bigger ones we’ve been looking for. We’re looking forward to next year.
“I would estimate I started with probably 25 to 30 deer. Now I have 13 different stands you can sit in and see anywhere between five to 10 deer on each stand.”
At Harbour Town, which Weekley said reminds him of the tight course he grew up playing in tiny Bagdad, Fla., he likes the way it forces players to shape shots between the trees. Weekley’s strength has always been his ball-striking and while he’s still chasing a few more yards, he feels like his game is getting close to where it needs to be.
“Just coming back is such an adrenaline rush. I might not make the cut but I can promise it ain’t because I’m not trying. … It’s just a matter of time.” – Boo Weekley
In the meantime, he’s happy to be back, walking around the live oaks and the alligators that dot the landscape.
“This is my heart. Like messing with alligators out here. There’s a bunch of ’em out here. I called a couple of them out of the water onto the bank,” Weekley said.
Can he talk to the gators?
“I’ve just got a call. I call ’em. They’ll be in the water and I can call ’em over there to us. If you want to stand there with him I can call him right there to your lap,” Weekley said.
It’s golf that is calling Weekley these days.
“My goal is if I can have the patience I have in hunting and if I can put it into golf, I’m fine. It’s just when I get impatient out here playing golf, I get like I’m bass fishing. I get in a hurry. When you’re bass fishing and go too fast, you miss a lot of fish because you’re moving too fast,” Weekley said.
“What I missed about the golf is not being able to do what I love to do. I love to stand out on the range and hit balls. I’d much rather practice hitting balls than play. Now it’s vice versa. I want to go play as much as I can and not practice as much.
“Just coming back is such an adrenaline rush. I might not make the cut but I can promise it ain’t because I’m not trying. It’s the fact that I’m not ready for this yet. It ain’t meant for me this week. It’s just a matter of time. I feel good. I’m hitting the ball good. I’m ready to do something and there’s no telling when it’s going to happen and I know it can happen any time.”