Weekley earns first Tour title at Heritage

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. -- Augusta National, get ready for Boo Weekley.

Perhaps no one fits the mold of the staid, in-control PGA Tour pro less than Weekley, the 33-year-old country boy from the Florida Panhandle. He punctuates answers with "reckon" and "ain't," and one time, in Texas, got so angry with his play, he put a hole in his golf bag with a club.

Now, after his first PGA Tour victory at the Verizon Heritage on Monday, Weekley's got a spot in next year's Masters.

"I don't think the plaid's going to fit me," said Weekley, picking at his tartan winner's coat. "I'd like to have a green one to go along with."

Weekley got that chance -- and made up for his heartbreaking loss at the Honda Classic last month -- with a pair of dramatic, par-saving chips on the 17th and 18th holes to defeat Ernie Els.

"Right now, it feels good," he said. "It ain't all sunk in yet."

Along with $972,000 and a PGA Tour exemption through 2008, Weekley becomes the first PGA Tour winner to qualify for next year's Masters after Augusta National chairman Billy Payne restored a privilege taken away in 1999.

Weekley had gained the sympathy of golfers everywhere last month when he missed a 3-footer on the 72nd hole of the Honda Classic that would've given him the outright win. Instead, the 33-year-old Weekley fell into a four-man playoff eventually won by Mark Wilson.

Weekley got it done this time.

He nearly squandered a three-shot lead at Harbour Town Golf Links before his heart-stopping finish.

Weekley made bogey on the 16th, then muffed a chip behind the 17th green. He followed the blunder with a 40-foot, par-saving chip to keep a one-stroke lead.

But then Weekley had his troubles on Harbour Town's lighthouse hole, No. 18. He chipped across the green and into the fluffy rough down a short slope. Once again, Weekley's short game saved him, this time rolling it from 36 feet away.

Weekley finished with a 68 and was one in front of Els (70) and two ahead of Stephen Leaney (68). Masters champion Zach Johnson continued his inspired play a week after slipping on the green jacket with a 71 to finish sixth.

Windy conditions on Sunday forced the tournament to finish Monday for the first time since Jose Coceres defeated Billy Mayfair in a 2001 playoff.