Boo finished day one at -1.  Good luck in Charlotte this weekend Boo!

By Bob Verdi

Boo Weekley’s caddie has a real appreciation for life inside the ropes. Time in Iraq will do that .

Sure, Joe LaCava has fun working for Fred Couples, but Joe Pyland’s job as Boo Weekley’s bag man is a blast, too–although it’s not his most important job ever.

Grillroom: How did you and Boo hook up?
Pyland: He was three years ahead of me at Milton (Fla.) High School. I looked up to him because he was a great golfer. I dreamed of doing what he does. Wasn’t good enough.

When did you start together?
At a Hooters Tour event, early ‘06. After I got back from the service. He was just on the outside of the Nationwide Tour, which he finally made, and he’s never looked back.

Did you ever imagine Boo would make it big?
Yes, sir. Just a matter of time till he got his confidence. And after a few tournaments, I said to myself, “This is what I want to do … this is my career.”

It wasn’t easy climbing the ladder.
No. We roomed together for a while. He’s a good roomy. Very neat, doesn’t iron. But I snore. So he kicked me out.

You went to Iraq?
Twice. Enlisted in the Army, then went back as a civilian contractor. PGA Tour is almost like the Army. Players are like the officers, caddies are like the enlisted men.

Dream job?
For me, yeah. You can see why people like Boo. And he’s great with soldiers. He did a clinic for them at the Masters. I was at a bar in Augusta and a couple of them came up to me saying Boo was unbelievable. Good heart.

Ryder Cup?
You know, when Boo wants something like he wanted that, he really plays hard. I didn’t know about his Happy Gilmore thing, though, until later that Sunday night. I was walking ahead on the first fairway.

You don’t talk much about Iraq.
It’s tough. People over here don’t understand how tough. Wouldn’t wish it on anybody. But people also don’t hear about good things we’ve done over there.

You probably appreciate the golf life more than most.
Absolutely. When people think winning the Ryder Cup was big, that’s true. But the proudest thing I’ve done is enlist in the Army and wear that uniform, serving my country.

Boo is -5 going into Sunday.   Keep up the great work Boo!  Continue to check www.booweekley.com for updates.

That is a given now that Ryder Cup star Boo Weekley has committed to play the week of April 20-26 at TPC Louisiana. Weekley last played in New Orleans in 2007, one week after scoring his first win on the PGA Tour at the Verizon Heritage.

“I love coming to New Orleans, ” Weekley said Wednesday while preparing for today’s opening round of the WGC-CA Championship at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami. “First thing, it’s close to the house (Milton, Fla.). New Orleans is only three hours from my house to there, so it’s an easy drive. I get my family to come down and watch me play, who don’t get a chance to watch me play, except on TV.

“I love coming over there, just ’cause a lot of the people over there are like the people I’m used to. It feels like home, the same atmosphere; you can party there a little bit on Bourbon Street.”

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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Boo Weekley kissed his cap and waved goodbye to the fans at Harbour Town Golf Links, his two year run as Verizon Heritage champion over.

“I just hate that I didn’t get to win again,” Weekley said Sunday.

In the past two years, Boo Weekley has risen from a struggling, little-known pro with the funny name to one of the sport’s most engaging characters.

And Weekley understands that it might not have been possible without his two victories at Harbour Town.

“I wouldn’t say it’s all here, a lot of it’s got to do with the Ryder Cup,” Weekley said. “But this was a good place to start at.”

Weekley came to Sea Pines Resort in 2007 only weeks after a heartbreaking finish at the Honda Classic that some worried might derail his stay on the PGA Tour.

He missed a 3-foot putt on the 72nd hole that would’ve won that tournament, then lost in a playoff.

But then Weekley’s legend took off at Harbour Town. Again faced with a fading final-round lead and tour star Ernie Els in pursuit, Weekley chipped in on the 71st and 72nd hole to win.

Weekley backed up that victory by repeating in 2008 and played his way on Paul Azinger’s Ryder Cup team last September. There a national golf audience took to Boo’s down-home, folksy style; his “ain’ts” and “shoots” and passion for hunting and fishing; and his fun-loving, ride on his driver after one tee shot.

He had hoped to contend for a third straight title here, but a balky back - “I just slept on it wrong,” he said - and a so-so putter never got him in the running. He had his best round of the tournament, a 68, on Sunday.

“I’m still the champ. They can’t take that from me,” he said. “I just ain’t this year’s champ.”

Weekley was treated like a winner, even when it was apparent he wouldn’t prevail. Fans chanted his name, and cheered each shot as if he were born and raised on the island. Weekley’s mother, Patsy, wrote a daily diary for the local paper and thanked the locals for their appreciation of her son.

“They’re laid back, I’m laid back,” he said. “They like to goof off and holler and hoot like I do, so it’s easy.”

He admitted his walk up Harbour Town’s famed No. 18 lighthouse hole, while less stressful, was more remorseful. He expressed a liking to the tournament’s plaid jacket given its champion.

“I might even get me a kilt made out of it,” he joked.

Weekley hasn’t gotten off to the start he wanted this season. He had only one round in the 60s in his previous five events before Harbour Town. His lone top 10 came back in January, a tie for ninth at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Still, Weekley liked the way he hit the ball this week and thinks he’ll hold another trophy aloft soon. “Sooner or later, I’m going to get there,” he said. “I get that putter hot, the rest of it’s going to take care of itself.”

Boo finished day one at -2.  Keep up the good work Boo! Check back with www.booweekley.com for regular updates as Boo continues on the hunt for a 3-Peat in Hilton Head.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Boo Weekley’s having too much fun at Harbour Town to worry about chasing history.

Weekley tries for three wins in a row at the Verizon Heritage when the PGA Tour event tees off this week. But if the folksy, self-proclaimed redneck is feeling any pressure to succeed here, he didn’t show it Wednesday.

“If I win, I win,” Weekley said, a wide grin on his face. “It ain’t like I ain’t going out there to try. If it happens, man, it’s going to happen. You know what I mean? There’s no sense forcing the issue. Just go out and enjoy life and enjoy what’s in front of you.”

That’s been Weekley’s credo long before the former chemical plant worker from the Florida Panhandle became a PGA Tour champion and U.S. Ryder Cup folk hero.

Now, he’s can achieve what no one else has on architect Pete Dye’s treacherous, maddening masterpiece.

For many here, it’s a week to catch their breath after the churning stomachs and rising pressure at the Masters — if they didn’t take the week off.

Masters winner Angel Cabrera isn’t here. Neither are the two players Cabrera beat in a playoff, Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell.

Tiger and Phil? Not here either.

In all, six of the world’s top 20 players are here. Just two of the top 11 Masters finishers — Steve Flesch and Jim Furyk — are playing.

Weekley wouldn’t miss this tournament for the world, especially after the past two years.

He broke through for his first Tour win in 2007, chipping in on the 71st and 72nd holes to outlast Ernie Els. Weekley doubled up last spring, his second career victory coming by three strokes over Aaron Baddeley and Anthony Kim.

Weekley’s only problem this week could be a balky back. He said he felt like he “slept on a cinderblock Sunday night,” and the pain has continued.

Weekley received stretching and heat treatments the past few days, although he was seen grimacing after a drive in Wednesday’s pro-am.

Weekley said he has scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine. “It’s something that will always be there, and my beer gut don’t help it,” he said.

Should Weekley threepeat, he’d be the Tour’s first to make the same tournament his first three PGA Tour victories since Leonard Gullett, who won the Wisconsin PGA in 1929, 1933 and 1934, according to Dave Lancer of the PGA Tour.

That doesn’t include winners of the majors before the PGA Tour was formed in 1916.

Weekley would also inch closer to Tiger Woods’ run of four straight wins at the Buick Invitational from 2005-2008, the Tour’s most recent run of same-tournament success.

Weekley continued his stellar play well past Harbour Town. He was in the top 25 on the money list each of the last two years and cemented his place in U.S. Ryder Cup history with his game, his plainspoken words and his decidedly un-PGA Tour-like antics — remember that “Happy Gilmore” style gallop off the tee.

How often is Weekley asked to recreate his pony ride? “Everytime I tee it up and about every hole,” he said. “I can’t believe I still did it.”

Weekley wanted to bring more momentum into the Verizon Heritage, but he’s had only one top-10 finish this year and missed the cut at the Masters.

“It’s been a rough year so far,” he said.

Then again, Harbour Town’s narrowing fairways and smallish greens bring Weekley a confidence like few other spots on Tour.

“It can look like the hardest course in the world and it can look fairly easy when you’re playing well and you know what you’re doing,” said Davis Love III, a five-time Verizon Heritage champion who’ll play with Weekley on Thursday and Friday.

Weekley apparently knows what’s he’s doing here. Even if he doesn’t, don’t expect to see him hang his head. Life’s too good for any of that sad-sack stuff.

He joked about blowing past Love’s Harbour Town wins mark. “That’s going to be shot out of the window,” he said. “I’m going to give him six.”

He compared Harbour Town to a couple of his favorites in the Florida Panhandle, then discussed a new remedy for one of the South’s most infamous plagues — the no’see-ums.

Weekley learned from a Seattle golf pro that a few dabs of Listerine on exposed skin would keep the invisible pests from biting. Only things didn’t go so well when Weekley used it.

“I tried it with Scope,” Weekley cackled. “But they like Scope.”

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Each week during the 2009 season, PGATOUR.COM has spotlighted one key player in the field.  For this week’s Verizon Heritage, it’s two-time defending champion Boo Weekley .

Consider this file to be your one-stop source for everything concerning Boo this week, with links to Boo-related content, notes and stats, and video and other multimedia elements. Then, once competition starts, we’ll update this file every day with Boo’s results and statistics after each round in Hilton Head Island.

Can Boo Weekley Three–peat and become the first golfer in the  Verizon Heritage’s 41 year history to win the tournament three years in a row?  Tournament dates are April 13-19, 2009 over the Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

The folk hero from Milton, Florida whose colorful antics led America’s Ryder Cup team to an upset victory over the Europeans last fall, has become a fan favorite at Harbour Town Golf Links the past two Aprils when he scorched Pete Dye’s famed layout and captured back-to-back victories.  In doing so Boo tied the late Payne Stewart and David Love III as the only Heritage champions able to defend successfully. 

Weekley and five other former champions – Love, Justin Leonard, Peter Lonard, Bob Tway and Glen Day – have already filed early commitments to play in South Carolina’s only PGA Tour event.

“We are always happy to welcome back our past champions,” said Tournament Director Steve Wilmot.  “And of course this spring Boo Weekley can make history by winning three straight.”

Weekley made two phenomenal chips on the last two holes two years ago to nip Ernie Els by one stroke, while last April Boo was 15-under par to stave off Aaron Baddeley and Anthony Kim.

Love, the only five-time winner at Harbour Town at Harbour Town became the youngest champion in 1987, winning when he was only six days past his 23rd birthday.  Davis also fired back-to-back wins in 1991 and ’92 plus winning in 1998 and 2003 as well.

Former Major winners – Leonard and Tway – return.  The 1997 British Open champion, Leonard used his great short game to win the Heritage in 2002.  Tway, former PGA Champion, prevailed at Harbour Town in 1995 by whipping David Frost and Nolan Henke in a playoff.

The likable Australian, Peter Lonard, took the 2005 title while Glen Day in 1999 defeated Jeff Sluman and Stewart in a three-way playoff.

All inclusive Arnold Palmer Passes, Tournament Badges and Pro-Am spots for the Verizon Heritage are now on sale at www.verizonheritage.com or by calling the Tournament Office at (843) 671-2448.