Boo Weekley, who drove a U-Haul to last week’s PGA Tour Champions event in Iowa, is co-leading this week’s American Family Insurance Championship after Friday’s first round.
Weekley, seeking his first Champions tour win in his 19th start, shot a 4-under 68. He had three birdies in a row early on Nos. 2, 3, and 4 and then closed with a birdie to tie Glen Day after one round at University Ridge Golf Course in Madison, Wisconsin.
During an interview at Wakonda Club in Des Moines last week while fishing at the golf course, Weekly explained how they couldn’t get a rental car out of Michigan after the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
“We got to looking around,” he said in his unique Southern drawl. “And finally, me and my old gal said ‘Let’s just get a U-Haul’ and I started laughing.”
“That ain’t my first U-Haul experience,” he added.
Steve Stricker, the Madison native who is back defending his title, is tied for third with fellow Wisconsinite Jerry Kelly at 3 under. In fact, there’s a six-way tie for third, along with David Duval, Lee Janzen, Duffy Waldorf, and Thomas Bjorn.
Stricker, also the tournament host, felt he struck the ball well enough to have gone 5 or 6 under but couldn’t make enough putts before finishing with a 3-under 69.
“It was a challenge,” Stricker said. “I mean, the wind was gusty, the greens were super fast, the ball was moving around once you putted it, you know, the wind would take it. That was the hard part probably is getting a good feel on the greens. Some of them could really get away from you and one did on me on, especially on 17. I was able to make it coming back. You really had to be careful not just running it by 8, 10 feet on some of these downwind putts.”
Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this article.
