AVONDALE, La. – For a guy who in recent years has undergone multiple surgical procedures on both his shoulder and his rectum, surely Boo Weekley could handle a little pollen, right?
Well, before the opening round of the Zurich Classic, he wasn’t so sure: “I felt like I don’t know if I’m going to be able to play around this thing,” he said.
The issues, he said, started in Hilton Head, where the pollen was “the worst I’ve ever seen it around there. It looked like somebody had a mustard cloud over the whole golf course.
“If I swing and my shoulder gets too far under my chin and it hits it, it feels like somebody just punched me there.”
Weekley has been taking medication the past two days and reports that he’s feeling better.
Fortunately, his allergies proved a quicker fix than what has plagued the 39-year-old in recent years.
In 2009, just a year removed from his appearance on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Weekley jammed his shoulder at TPC Sawgrass and eventually required surgery. He lost his card in 2011, then underwent another operation to remove cysts in his rectum. To this day he calls it his “hiney injury.”
Having recovered from that pain in the rear, Weekley has since seen signs of good play, starting with a T-8 at the Puerto Rico Open and a Sunday 63 in Tampa that gave him a runner-up finish.
On Friday, Weekley jarred his 108-yard approach shot on the first hole (the 10th) for eagle. Though he made bogeys on Nos. 6 and 8, he birdied his final hole of the day after hitting his tee shot to 7 feet on the par-3 ninth. His opening 65-68 puts him one shot back of leader Lucas Glover.