Weir dealing with latest adversity

Globe and Mail golf writer Lorne Rubenstein speaks with Mike Weir, who's missed five of the last seven cuts, is dealing with an arm injury and stories that he's "washed up"

At 40, Mike Weir is trying to find the game that brought him the 2003 Masters and two other PGA Tour events that year. He has slipped from sixth in the Official World Golf Ranking then to 86th, and from fifth on the money list in 2003 to 123rd, with 1/4 of his season remaining. Weir missed the cut at the Open Championship in St. Andrews two weeks ago and at the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto last week, where he was suffering from tendonitis in his right elbow. Lorne Rubenstein spoke with Weir earlier this week.

Q: How is your arm?

A: It's healing. I've been taking treatment for it, including acupuncture, but I still can't hit balls. I hope I'll be able to do that by tomorrow (Friday). My backswing is still painful.

Q: Would you have played last week if it weren't the Canadian Open?

A: I most likely wouldn't have played, especially because my move is to rotate and cup my right wrist on my backswing, It hurt when I tried to do that. But I'm taking this week off to be ready for next week (the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio), and then the PGA (Championship).

Q: What caused the injury?

A: Maybe it was just all the practicing I did on the hard ground in St. Andrews. I'd been off a few weeks before and then I hit a lot of balls. All that pounding could have caused the problem. It was nothing acute, just the cumulative effect of hitting a lot of balls.

Q: How do you assess the last couple of weeks in particular?

A: I felt I hit the ball well during the British Open, and I felt I'd made some progress until the Canadian Open. I'm chalking it up to the fact that I couldn't rotate my right wrist in my backswing and cup it the way I want to. But I also don't really look at things from the point of view of just the last two weeks. I'm disappointed that I didn't play better in St. Andrews and the Canadian Open, but the whole year has been disappointing.

Q: Are you concerned about how things have been going?

A: I need some consistency in my game. I'll just keep grinding away. Nobody is immune to bad stretches. I've had plenty of times like this, when I was playing the Canadian Tour, my first year on the PGA Tour, then 2004, 2005 and 2006. It's just my game. I find it for a while and then it goes, so I ride it out. Everybody has his fundamentals, four or five things that work, little keys. So you keep working until you hit on what the fix is. I'm just in one of those bubbles.

Q: Are you clear about what you need to do?

A: I know exactly what I need to work on. I know the drills I need to do. As long as I can get my arm figured out and healed, then I can do what I need to do.

Q: The problems seem to show up most with your driver.

A: I've struggled with my longer game, that's true. I'll maybe experiment with a softer shaft in my driver, maybe a shorter shaft. You're always looking for something that could help.

Q: Will you continue with Mike Wilson? (Wilson is Weir's swing coach).

A: I'm definitely still committed to working with Mike. He's coming out today (Thursday) to work for a couple of days and he'll travel with me the next two weeks. In the meantime I've been checking old video and doing a lot of putting and a lot of reflection. Sometimes you can build your game from the green back. It can work from your putting to your short game to your mid-irons to your long game.

Q: Where's the level of your motivation and interest now?

A: I'm not happy with the way I've been playing, but I am excited. The game for me has always been about dealing with adversity. I feel like I've had a lot of fire, and a hallmark of my game is that I've been willing to deal with adversity. I'm still that way. This is just a small bump in the road.

Q: Speaking of bumps, did you see the Toronto Sun cover and article during the Canadian Open? (The front cover on the Sun's issue of July 22nd showed Weir clutching his right elbow in pain, accompanied by the headline 'IS MIKE WEIR WASHED UP?')

A: I heard about that Toronto Sun cover. I haven't seen it but somebody brought it to my attention. It's unfortunate. It's just the day and age. It's easy for somebody on the outside to throw out a headline like that and then for somebody to write an article like the one that was in. Some guy who doesn't have a clue about the game decides to take a shot. It's disrespectful. Why not confront me to talk about my game? But stuff like that sells. It's sad.

Q: Does it affect you?

A: My friend George Roberts (one of the founding partners of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.) told me to make sure I have people around me who are positive. He has no use for negative people. He's such a positive guy. So I don't dwell on what the Sun did. Maybe it's the writer's ego, maybe it makes him feel better about himself. But I'm not going to let that get to me. Golf's hard enough. I think golf maybe more than any other sport tests you. It's fickle.

Q: Let's look back at St. George's and the Canadian Open. What did you think of the course?

A: The two days I played it, it played pretty short. Especially on Thursday, the fairways were firm and the greens were soft. If you hit the fairway, it ran down there and then you'd be hitting to soft greens. That took away the defense. If the greens were firmer I think the winning score would have been eight or nine-under, not 14. It would have been a good challenge. Still, the winning score wasn't 25-under.

Q: How do you think the course worked from a logistics perspective?

A: It was a good venue. All the guys liked it. They did a great job with the driving range at Islington. The turf there felt like we were on a normal range. The drive (about eight minutes from the Islington Golf Club, where a range was built for the players, to St. George's) was no big deal. It was just like when we're at Pebble Beach for the AT&T and hit balls at the polo ground and then shuttle to Spyglass to play. I'd like to see the Canadian Open back at St. George's.

Q: You and your design partner Ian Andrew have proposed some work at Laval sur-le lac (near Montreal), which could lead to the course hosting a Canadian Open. How do things stand there?

A: Ian and I would love to do the work. The golf club wants to hear from Golf Canada about whether that will happen and Golf Canada wants to hear from RBC about whether they'll still be sponsoring the tournament [after 2012, when its contract expires]. The club wants to be sure it will get the tournament, maybe in 2016. It's all behind the scenes stuff that we don't have any control over.

Q: You referred to Golf Canada. Do you ever have trouble saying that as opposed to the RCGA?

A: I do catch myself there. I wondered why the tee boxes at St. George's had RCGA on them and not Golf Canada. Is it two groups? I wondered about that.

Q: What did you think about the field at the Canadian Open?

A: You always hear about "weak" fields at some tournaments. But I don't think the term is applicable. I remember reading something that Jack Nicklaus said in 1990. He said the depth of the fields were way better than when he was playing. His point was also that the top four or five players in his era were better, but that the depth of field wasn't. He was saying that in 1990. I started on tour in 1998 and 10 years later the depth of field is ridiculously strong. Back then if you finished five shots out of the lead you were in the top five. Now you're 20th. The scores are that much more bunched.

Q: We've seen some very low scores this year, lower even than 59. What's going on?

A: Kids today are well-rounded players. Their mental game is more in order, and they're physically better. They're shooting some incredible scores and they're not afraid to go low. They have that mentality.

Q: What's your mind set these days?

A: It depends on the course as to how I should go about playing a tournament. But you have to have the pedal down from the start at certain tournaments. I've been guilty sometimes of staying with my old approach, where I'll look at the course and say, okay, I'll make my pars and take advantage of the par-fives. I have to remind myself not to do that. Now you have to knock on the door right away.

Q: Does the modern power game make it more difficult for you to compete?

A: I was a little longer than average in my first year on tour. Now I'm on the shorter side. That's the way it is. Golfers are better athletes today. But even compared with four or five years ago, the PGA Tour is setting up courses with more variety. They used to set up courses for bombers. There was that year at Doral when Tiger and Phil were one-two and Tiger won. One of them was second last in driving accuracy and the other was last. There was hardly any rough. The idea was to smash it as far as you want. But the courses are set up better now. St. George's was a good example. Dean [Wilson] isn't the longest hitter and he finished second.

Q: You and Dean are close friends. Were you watching the last round?

A: No. My wife Bricia and I did a seven-hour hike then. But I spoke with Dean later. It was good to see Dean play so well.

Q: The last major, the PGA is coming up in a couple of week at Whistling Straits. You played the 2004 PGA there. Do you like the course?

A: I thought it was a good course but I found it strange that the tees, fairways and greens were fescue, which was okay because it's a links, but the apron in front, from about 20 yards to 40 yards out, was bent grass. When the wind blew you wanted to run the ball in, but it would hit the bent and stop. But if you hit a low one that landed on the green, and I'm a low-ball hitter, it would hit the fescue and run over. I've heard they've fixed this. But I think the apron soured me on the course a bit.

Q: Do you still enjoy links golf more than other types of courses?

A: I love links golf. Maybe next year I'll go over before the British and play some links before the Open. I used to do that but haven't for a few years.

Q: At your level, is it still possible to see golf as a game?

A: I probably love the game now more than ever. I appreciate it more, how hard it is, and the effort it takes to compete at a high level. Sometimes I think of what it's taken to get from the Canadian Tour to now. I loved the challenge and I still do. The challenge is to get back to where I was a while ago. I still feel I can be one of the best players in the world.