Weekley prefers a measured approach off the course as well. "He's not an alligator rassler," explained his wife, Karyn. "He's caught a few gators, maybe, but he's never rassled 'em."
She was answering a question about the tall tales the media spreads about Boo, but she could just as easily have been speaking metaphorically.
Weekley made the point himself on Saturday by shooting a four-under 68, a score that thrilled the Boo-birds and boosted him onto the leader board in a tie for seventh.
"It just takes me a couple of days to get adjusted," he said, standing outside the clubhouse with two shopping bags of Masters souvenirs at his feet. "I don't care much for the cities. I like a little slower pace, and this place is pretty slow." He grinned. "Especially when you get out in traffic."
Asked if he had placed any side bets with his buddies Heath Slocum and Bubba Watson, the two other Milton High alums in the field, Boo shook his head. "I'm not really a betting person. I work too hard for my money to give it away."
Genuine? Absolutely. Two-faced? That too. Boo played most of the week with a scruffy mustache and goatee, but he showed up for his third round with a clean shave. "My wife kind of told me it started looking hideous," he told reporters. "She's like, It's time to trim it up or take it off. So I took it off."
It was a more boyish-looking Boo, therefore, come Sunday afternoon. Weekley drew defending champion Zach Johnson as his final-round partner, resulting in the odd sequence of 18 straight greenside ovations for Johnson followed by scattered boos and laughter for Weekley. ("We're friends," Weekley said, sharing his happiness with the pairing. "We both played the minitours on the way up. We know where we came from.")
With strong, gusty winds raking the course, Weekley went out in 37 and hung on doggedly until the 15th, where his well-flighted third shot spun back off the green and failed to do an Immelman — i.e., rolled down the bank and into the pond.
Double bogey there and a bogey from the back fringe at 16 doomed Weekley's quest for a top 10 finish, but he saved his best for last, smacking a downwind nine-iron 170 yards on the final hole and canning his 18-footer for birdie. Weekley had, in fact, made Masters history: First player to be sent off the 72nd hole to sustained Booing.
"It's just golf," a grinning Weekley said afterward, shrugging off his final-round 77 and 20th-place finish. "As long as I get done without breakin' somethin' or hurtin' somebody, that's my goal."
Besides, he had another good tournament to look forward to: the Verizon Heritage on Hilton Head Island, S.C., where Weekley just happened to be the defending champion.
"It's been fun," he told the reporters behind the 18th green. "Now I'm gonna go get in my vehicle and drive over there."
With Boo, one has to conclude, what you see is what you get. But you have to remember that he decides what you see.
