John Biever/SI

Boo Weekley shot a one-over 72 Friday.

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — Boo Weekley stuffed his lip with chewing tobacco and surveyed the situation. After two straight bogeys he stood on the tee of the 461-yard, par-4 17th hole. He was two under par for the tournament and one over for the day. With water left, right and long, he pulled out a long-iron and creased his ball down the middle of the fairway. Another solid iron left him 20 feet behind the hole; two putts and he was in with a par.

Weekley has the kind of pure, economical action that amateurs and even pros marvel at. Hitting third in his threesome on 18, the brutally difficult 499-yard, par-4 hole that played into the wind Friday, he laced a low, penetrating drive that traveled some 30 yards past his playing partners. He hit a utility club to 20 feet, right of and past the pin; two putts for another par. He was at 140, four strokes behind the leader, Sergio Garcia, midway through the 136th British Open.

"We didn't have our A-game today," Weekley said. "We struggled off the tee today a lot. Out here you got to drive the ball pretty straight and keep it in play and keep it kind of out of the wind, because if you get it in the air the wind is going to take control of it, and we didn't do that a couple times."

He wore a camouflage long underwear top under his baby-blue Fidra golf shirt, which didn't match, but Weekley has long said he plays golf to support his hunting habit. Hunting? Interviewing Weekley is like shooting fish in a barrel. It started at Loch Lomond last week, when Weekley asked playing partner Paul Lawrie how he'd qualified for the British Open.

"Yeah, I kind of stuck my foot in my mouth there, didn't I? But, I didn't know," Weekley told a small gathering of press after his round Friday. "You don't know, you don't know. I mean, you know? I hate that I said what I said, you know, especially when he was saying what he said, what, a couple days before that, (he) didn't get no respect (for winning the '99 Open), and then I say something like that, you know, it's like wham, here ya go, slap in the head."

And so it went. Weekley, who grew up in the Florida panhandle town of Milton, is named for a cartoon character, Boo-Boo Bear, the little sidekick to Yogi Bear. The original Boo-Boo was a happy simpleton, but Weekley has brought more than a little country bumpkin to the role. The winner of the Verizon Heritage at Hilton Head earlier this year seems not the least bit worried about being typecast, and the world's media, desperate for good copy, were all too delighted to serve him setup lines.

Hey, Boo, looks like you smuggled a few cans of dip into the country.

"I didn't smuggle a few, I brought a bunch, I think about 20-something, and my caddie brought about 30-something."