Boo will tee off at 12:27 pm Eastern time for round two at the Barclays.  Watch Booweekley.com for updates.

Boo will tee off this morning in the Barclays Tournament.  We will continue to update Boo’s progress throughout the tournament.

Boo finished day two at -8.  He will start Saturday at three strokes off the lead.  Continue to check Booweekley.com as Boo makes a run for the top at the Wyndham Championship.

Like Boo’s shirt?  You can get it online in our store!

Boo is half way thru his second round of play and is currently tied for first place at the Wyndham Classic.

Boo wrapped up day one at -5, and only three strokes off the lead.  Keep watching for updates.  This looks like a good way to start the weekend for Boo.

Tomorrow Boo will start play at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, NC.  Continue to check www.booweekley.com for updates.

by Mike Hlas

CHASKA, Minn. — Zach Johnson’s threesome all had rooting sections here Thursday at the PGA Championship.

It didn’t stop Johnson, Mike Weir, or Boo Weekley from shooting 2-over-par 74 at Hazeltine National, but it made it a little more interesting. The emphasis is on “a little.”

Johnson, the Cedar Rapids lad, had plenty of people shouting “Go Zach!” Or “Go Hawkeyes!” Or “Go Drake!” or “Go Iowa!”

Minnesota is a large land mass wedged between Iowa and Canada, so it stood to figure that Canadian Weir would also have some fans here. He did.

Six young adult men wore Canada hockey jerseys and hockey helmets, and followed Weir for all 18 holes. They yelled “Mikey!” at him any time he hit a good or semi-good shot.

I think they wanted attention. Never once did I notice Weir give them a reaction. But these players are focused.

Someone else, by the way, wore a T-shirt that said “Brock Lesnar Fears Mike Weir.”

I think not.

Then there was Weekley. A good-old-boy from the Florida Panhandle, Weekley is a fan favorite. He has bit of a stomach, he says what he thinks, and he has his own clothing line (Boo Weekley Camo Clothing Collection). His cap looks more suited for the duck blind than the gold course.

Oh, he’s also popular because he goes by the name ”Boo” though his name is Thomas Brent Weekley. A Thomas Brent, this guy ain’t.

This is someone, who when asked about the food in Scotland while he was at the British Open, said “It’s different eating here than it is at the house. Ain’t got no sweet tea, and ain’t got no fried chicken.”

Asked once about his Milton, Fla., hometown, Boo said “All I know is we got a couple of gas stations, a dirt track and a river… and a prison.”

He is the only guy on the PGA Tour who gets booed regularly. If I heard one “Booooo!” Thursday, I heard 333.

The three players will be paired again Friday afternoon, representing Iowa, Canada, and the Kingdom of Boo.

Boo will be in Chaska, MN at Hazeltine National Golf Club for the PGA Championship.  Check back for regular updates!

This week Boo is playing in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.  Continue to check Booweekley.com for updates as Boo works his way toward Sunday.

While business booms, Weekley takes time to help kids in need

D.C. Reeves, Pensacola News Journal

As the sun crept above the water, shimmering across Pensacola Beach early Thursday, Edgar Santos and David Naranjo peered with awe over the boat’s edge .

They were mesmerized by a scene completely unfamiliar. It was the first time in their young lives to see a coastline, the first time they ever viewed a body of water with breathtaking beauty like the Gulf of Mexico.

For Santos and Naranjo, 14-year-olds whose only experience was the mean streets of Allentown, Pa., this was another world.
 
Through the youth organization Camp Compass, the two teens had worked tirelessly to realize this dream.
 
They braved through extra hours of tutoring. They put in overtime to learn English, their second language. They’ve steered clear of the inner city’s dangerous influences.
 
For those efforts, they earned an all-day, deep-sea fishing trip with Boo Weekley, the Milton High graduate and PGA Tour star who attaches to kids like a magnet with his down-home demeanor.

Before the coastline disappeared from sight, Santos’ fishing pole bent and his line yanked.

Santos was determined. Weekley was thrilled.

“Snapper-rooskie!” Weekley exclaimed in his famous southern twang as he helped Santos reel in a red snapper. “First fish ever. How about that.”
 
Weekley, whose love of the outdoors surpasses his passion for golf, can’t get enough of those moments.

That’s why Weekley puts on his annual golf tournament, the Camp Compass Scramble, this weekend at the Country Club of Brewton in Brewton, Ala., to help support the charitable organization. Sponsors, friends and area supporters quickly filled the available spots in the charity tournament.

Mossy Oak Camouflage, one of Weekley’s main sponsors, connected him with Camp Compass.

The organization is based in Allentown, a once-thriving industrial town located 60 miles north of Philadelphia, but a place far removed from sugar-white beaches and a sea so clear you can see fish.

“I love the water. To be able to come out here and bring these kids … these kids have never seen water,” Weekley said. “One of the kids with us, Edgar, had never caught a fish in his life.

“We take it for granted where we’re from. Down here, you can catch a fish on accident. You might catch one with your shoe just walking through a mud puddle. This kid had never caught a fish, and he almost cried out there.”

Weekley’s soft spot for kids has shaped how he does business. And as a player with rockstar status on tour, the business of Boo is booming more than ever.

“It was awesome,” Naranjo said. “It was my first time in a boat like that, and it was exciting because we were with Boo. He was helping us, and we just fooled around and made jokes. He’s a very cool person.”

Even a heavy-duty, deep-sea fishing trip — a 65-foot charter boat with 27 passengers — is a chance for Weekley to breathe. Nowadays, tournaments, endorsements, appearances, free trips — the golf and business of golf surrounds his every move.

On the course, Weekley is No. 65 on the money list in 2009 with $961,868 in earnings despite missing a month with a shoulder injury. He has five top-15 finishes since the Masters in April.

Off the course, Weekley has become one of the most marketable players in the world, pulling in close to $3 million a year in endorsements. His main sponsors are Cleveland Golf, Back Office Associates, Mastercard, Bass Pro Shops, Firethorn Golf, along with Mossy Oak.

“Let’s face it, you would never think a guy like Boo would want to help kids in the city,” said John Annoni, who founded Camp Compass in 1994. “His world and the inner city are so far to the left and right of each other, but that’s what makes it so incredible.

“For him to step up, if they’re working hard enough, and to give them the chance to experience hunting and fishing, it’s amazing.”

Weekley has been raising money for Camp Compass for several years, but in the last 10 months, his earnings power has increased dramatically.

Already a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, Weekley’s unforgettable, club-rodeo performance at the 2008 Ryder Cup propelled him to an international golfing star.

“The (2008) Ryder Cup sent Boo over the edge in popularity, but in his eyes, he’s not (popular),” said Toggy Pace, Weekley’s longtime friend and business manager. “He doesn’t understand how popular he is, in no way shape or form.”

Even last year, Weekley was blind-sided with a hard lesson in his widespread popularity.

Ready to start his own Web site, booweekley.com, Pace learned that someone in Las Vegas already had bought the name and wanted $2,000.

“I had to say, ‘Boo, we need to go buy your name,’ ” Pace recalled, laughing. “That’s like telling Albert Einstein how to go deer hunting.”

Since the Ryder Cup last September, big-ticket companies like Mastercard and Bass Pro Shops came with endorsement offers to start the 2009 PGA Tour season, adding logos on his shirt collar and golf bag, respectively.

Most recently, Mastercard asked Weekley, Pace, Weekley’s father Tom and Weekley’s caddie Joe Pyland to star in a commercial with the legendary Arnold Palmer.

The commercial, filmed at Palmer’s hometown course in Latrobe, Pa., near Pittsburgh, has aired nationally on golf broadcasts throughout the summer.

“Now, even with his popularity, I would never thought in my wildest dreams that Mastercard would endorse him,” Pace said. “I asked the lady at Mastercard how this came about and she said that, in their eyes, Boo is just like Arnold Palmer.
“He’s a people person, he doesn’t high-hat nobody, he’s friendly, and that’s who they want to have a relationship with.”

Tough Times

It wasn’t long ago when Boo was struggling to survive as a tour pro. Before the charter planes and commercial spots, it was marathon car trips and take out.

“When he was on the mini tours, you used to have to call, beg and plead people to give a $2,500 sponsorship. We would give you the world,” Pace said. “We’d put your company anywhere on him.”

Endorsement money didn’t cross Weekley’s mind when he was toiling around on mini tours. Earning his PGA Tour card and faltering miserably on tour in 2002,

Weekley was on the Nationwide Tour — the tour just below the PGA Tour — from 2003-06, where money was tight, and the travel costs usually ate up a huge chunk of a player’s earnings.

“There would be four of us pros staying in one motel room with two beds,” Weekley recalled. “Whoever shot the worst score that day slept on the floor, the next worst slept in the cot and the next slept in the beds. It was kind of crazy.”

When he wasn’t driving between tour events, Weekley would spend his off days playing in money games— Pace calls it the barbecue circuit — at clubs across the country.

“We traveled around like a weekend warrior. Anything and everything I played in,” Weekley said. “And fortunately, I had enough game to propel me past everyone else. I’m not going to say I’m a big gambler, but I didn’t consider it to be gambling. I was trying to make a living.”

After four years on the Nationwide Tour, Weekley earned his PGA Tour card again in 2007. He won the Verizon Heritage twice in a row (2007-08) and his recent success coupled with his devout following has given him plenty of staying power.

“I never thought I would honestly make it,” said Weekley, who cracked the $6 million mark in career earnings with a tie for 13th at the British Open last month. “I’ve always believed in who I am and what I could do, but growing up, I never pursued it.

“I ended up winning a bunch of times out on the mini tours and all of a sudden, I’m on the (PGA) Tour and I’m wondering ‘Do I really belong?’ I just felt like I didn’t belong. It’s all about figuring out where you fit in. Now I’ve figured out that I belong out here.”

Staying loyal

Weekley’s personality comes across in his business decisions.

Pace said that with offers flying in, Weekley turns down more money-making opportunities than he takes, and he’s always reluctant to leave a current sponsor for a new one, even if the money is better.

“There are a lot of opportunities that come Boo’s way that can make him a lot of money off the golf course,” Pace said.

“That’s what I love about him. It’s not about the money with him. It’s about building relationships with people.”

One of those relationships was with BackOffice Associates, a company that helps large companies transition old data to new software.

It’s not a product that screams Weekley, but before Boo was a big name, BackOffice founder Thomas Kennedy took a chance in 2007.

“Boo’s agent (Jimmy Johnston) actually came to us wondering if we were interested in helping him out as one of his sponsors,” Kennedy said. “I asked, ‘Well, what does he do?’ He starts talking about hunting and fishing and all that. Then, we wondered if Boo would be better suited with someone else.

“But we did it. And it’s worked out really great.”

Now, with companies knocking down his door for sponsorships, Weekley still wears the BackOffice logo on his golf shirt.

Leupold Optics, a company that manufactures rifle scopes, binoculars, and recently started a golf range finder line, began sponsoring Weekley in 2009. The connection was made with help of Mossy Oak, one of Weekley’s biggest sponsors.

“With Leupold, he’s a huge asset simply because of the crossover between golf and hunting,” said Butch Marmon, principal of P&M Global, the sourcing arm for Leupold. “The one thing interesting about Boo that I haven’t run into with the majority of people that I’ve dealt at his level of exposure, is that he won’t represent something unless he believes in it.”

And make no mistake, whenever Weekley gets the chance, days spent barefoot on a boat deck are something that Weekley believes in wholeheartedly.

“My sponsors helped me when I was down and out,” Weekley said. “That’s the way I look at it. So for those inner city kids, they don’t always get chances or second chances. They don’t get to go fishing, don’t get to go hunting. So to be able to give them the opportunity to do what I did growing up my whole life, to me, that’s like a dream come true.”

Following a full day of fishing Thursday, Weekley, Santos and Naranjo hopped off the boat in Little Sabine and posed with four dozen “Snapper-rooskies.”

It was a priceless moment the youths won’t forget.