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 Mike Weir looks at his drive from the 16th tee during the conclusion of the weather-delayed first round of the PGA Golf Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin on August 13, 2010. (JEFF HAYNES/Reuters) |
KOHLER, Wis. - It’s not the place any pro wants to be on a Friday afternoon.
Especially at a major.
But there was Canadian Mike Weir, dragging through the Whistling Straits parking lot the big travel bag that protects his clubs on airplanes, looking for caddie Brennan Little to pack them up. Despite the fact half the field had yet to tee off in the second round of the PGA Championship, Weir had resigned himself to the fact his pair of 74s wouldn't be good enough to make the cut.
Despite a wonderfully gritty performance with a bad elbow on a long course in wind and intermittent rain over his last nine holes, Weir simply wasn’t up to the task and his frustration reached a new level.
Everything is on the table now to try to snap him out of his funk, including the possibility of looking for a new coach. Weir has been working with Mike Wilson for the second time in his career since dumping stack and tilt gurus Andy Plumber and Mike Bennett.
“I can’t keep playing like this,” Weir told QMI Agency. “I’ve got to figure out something different. It’s time to do something different. It’s too hard playing like that.”
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When asked if looking for another coach is an option, Weir replied: “I haven’t ruled it out.
“Sometimes another set of eyes helps. It’s a possibility. I’m going to discuss it with Mike. Maybe we keep on doing what we’re doing. I have to consider everything and keep working and see where we go from here.”
Weir has been playing through tendinitis in his right elbow and he appeared to aggravate it on the ninth hole. His driver has been wonky lately and his tee shot on the par-4 ninth found a gnarly lie just off the fairway on the right side.
Weir took a rip at it but the club caught in the heavy grass and the ball just popped out . The shock on Weir’s elbow was evident. He stood for a couple of minutes holding his elbow.
“I did (hurt it), big time,” Weir said “It was probably not the smartest play given the state of my elbow, but I figured if I could hack it on the green and make birdie; with some weather coming in, maybe three (over) could make (the cut).”
With play delayed both days by fog in the morning and the forecast for wind and rain late Friday, it’s possible the cut line could move up. It was at one-under when Weir got it up and down on the ninth for another par save.
“I’m struggling with my game and I was just trying to hang in there and keep grinding away,” Weir said. “It’s a tough course, a long course. I’ve got to hit 3-woods and hybrids into par-4s, so you’re going to be scrambling a bit.”
Fighting to make the cut, Weir made the turn at two-over. He got it up and down from the bunker on the second hole for a par but bogeyed the third and fourth holes. He missed the green of the 181-yard third hole by 30 yards to the right.
He bounced back with a birdie on the par-5 fifth to get back to three-over, but another bad drive — this one to the left on the short, par-4 sixth — cost him another bogey. He scratched out pars on eight and nine.
Weir’s opening round was interrupted by darkness and he had to come back to the course Friday morning only to be delayed for two hours and 40 minutes by fog. Weir finished off his first 18 with a double on 17 and a bogey on 18.
He sits, for now , at 126 on the FedEx Cup list, one spot outside of qualifying for the playoffs.
He will play next week in the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., hoping to have a good week and crack the top 125.
“Hopefully,” he said, “Greensboro will be more my style of game.”
chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca