Tag: Lindsey Weaver

U.S. Women’s Open: No push cart for Lindsey Weaver with fiancé Zach Wright on the bag

Lindsey Weaver has fiancé Zach Wright on the bag this week at the U.S. Women’s Open. She sits in 12th after Round 1.

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HOUSTON – For most of the 2020 season, Lindsey Weaver has used a push cart at LPGA events. But for these last two weeks on tour, she’s had fiancé Zach Wright on the bag. Wright, a Korn Ferry Tour player who played college golf at LSU, wrapped up his competitive season and took on a second job. He’s been saying all week that the 75th U.S. Women’s Open is his first major.

At least week’s Volunteers of America Classic, close to the couple’s Dallas-area home, Weaver posted her best finish of the season with Wright on the bag, a share of eighth.

“When I caddie for him, it’s just like I kind carry the bag,” said Weaver. “I’m mental support and that’s about it. But he’s like, no it’s 8-iron. We make decisions together. When he caddies it’s way more intense than when I caddie for him.”

Weaver, 27, opened with a 1-under 70 over the Jackrabbit Course, good for a share of 12th, despite hitting her second shot out the day out of bounds.

USWO: Leaderboard | Photos | TV info

“Mentally I knew there was a lot of golf left,” said Weaver. “You can’t really get too down or yourself with this golf course or it kind of eats you alive.”

The Arizona grad rebounded with a chip-in for birdie on the par-3 fourth and drained a 30-footer on the 17th.

While Weaver said she wishes she could steal a bit of her fiance’s power (he averages 315 yards on the Korn Ferry Tour), 27-year-old Wright said he’d take Weaver’s putting stroke. Weaver, with the help of a putting arc her father made for her at age 12, has been helping Wright on the greens for a couple years now. Wright has his own arc now.

This marks Weaver’s first U.S. Women’s Open in five years and her third overall. She tied for 19th at the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon and was in contention heading into the weekend. She’s one of seven players from Texas in the field this week.

The couple of pros plan to get married next December.

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Lindsey Weaver contends at Royal Troon without a caddie

Lindsey Weaver used a pull cart instead of a caddie at the Women’s British Open due to coronavirus precations.

Lindsey Weaver is still trying to get all the sand out of her golf bag. While making her way out of a bunker at Royal Troon, her unattended push cart went racing into another bunker and toppled over.

Weaver wasn’t wishing for a caddie in that moment as much as she was a good set of brakes. The push cart dates back to her days on the AJGA.

“I feel like it’s kind of back to the basics,” said Weaver. “This is how junior golf was. This is how college golf was and on the Symetra Tour when I played there for a year. … it’s still just golf. I’m still making the final decision at the end of the day.”

When the LPGA returned to competition after a 166-day break due to the coronavirus, caddies became optional for the remainder of the year. Weaver didn’t have a steady caddie before the break, mostly using locals. Since locals aren’t allowed this year, she decided to go solo.

Women’s British Open: Leaderboard

She’s currently two shots back of clubhouse leader Dani Holmqvist after rounds of 71-72 at the AIG Women’s British Open. As if contending in a major without a caddie wasn’t enough, Weaver is thriving brutal conditions, when an extra set of hands and an extra brain usually comes in quite handy.

Before the LPGA restarted its season in Toledo at the Inverness Club, Weaver stopped by her parents’ house in Columbus and picked up her old push cart. She used it to tie for ninth at the Marathon LPGA Classic

“Between me and my sister this whole like shrine basically is our garage,” said Weaver. “It’s like all these bags and bags and bags of golf clubs. Still has all of our AJGA champion bags. It really dates back quite a while. These are all part of the archives.”

Marathon LPGA Classic
Lindsey Weaver during the 2020 Marathon LPGA Classic at Highlands Meadows Golf Club. (Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports)

It wasn’t all that long that Weaver wasn’t sure if she wanted to keep playing golf competitively. Her mother encouraged her to travel to Pinehurst last year for one more push at Q-Series to improve her status. She finished fifth and hasn’t looked back.

Weaver’s fiance, Zach Wright, competes on the Korn Ferry Tour and they chat daily about their golf. Right now, they’re scheduled to see other in September at the Cambia Portland Classic, when Wright has a week off and Weaver celebrates her 27th birthday. Weaver caddied for Wright on the Korn Ferry Tour in San Antonio last month, and he offered to work for her in Scotland.

“He asked me, he was like, ‘Do you think I should go to Scotland?’ ” said Weaver in Toledo. “Nope. Nope. I don’t think you should go at all. Not at all.”

She’s got it all under control.

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Zach Wright, Lindsey Weaver manage a relationship across Korn Ferry, LPGA tours

It’s not often that a relationship blossoms across two professional tours but Zach Wright and Lindsey Weaver have made it work.

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WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Zach Wright felt like once he got past the par-3 13th on Orange County National’s Crooked Cat course, he could breathe a little easier. In the final round of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School, Wright reeled off four birdies in the five closing holes, diving to 14 under and effectively securing eight guaranteed starts for the 2020 Korn Ferry season.

“I had two par 5s downwind, just had to keep breathing and I knew I’d be OK,” said Wright, who played those last five holes in a combined 10 under for the week.

That’s where his caddie came in. Wright had fiancée Lindsey Weave on the bag at Orange County National, who should know something about the pressure that comes with Q-School. She was a little over a month removed from a top-5 finish at the LPGA Q-Series, an eight-round monster played at Pinehurst Nos. 6 and 9. Weaver secured full status for the upcoming season.

At his own Q-School, Wright found that Weaver was good for reading greens and confirming lines, but also keeping him calm. This is the third time in four years he has played final stage.

“More than anything, she’s kind of there for support and help with emotions,” he said.

It’s not often that a relationship blossoms across two professional tours. The past month is a good example why. Weaver caddied for Wright at a second-stage qualifier in San Diego, then flew directly to Pinehurst for her own Q-School. The couple, who lives in Phoenix, spent the past week in Orlando.

“It was exciting because it all worked out the way it was supposed to,” Weaver said.

Lindsey Weaver during the final round of the LPGA Q-Series. (Photo: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

Wright and Weaver met as kids playing junior golf in Arizona and ended up dating in high school. Weaver feels like they’ve known each other forever, but when they went to different colleges – Wright to LSU and Weaver to Arizona – they saw each other less frequently. When the Wrights moved to Iowa while the Weavers moved to Ohio, logistics became even harder.

“We weren’t in the same state anymore, it was like we were never going to see each other,” Weaver said. “We just reconnected a little over two years ago.”

It was perhaps easier in 2018, when Weaver was on medical leave with an injury for much of her LPGA rookie season. Wright was playing the Mackenzie Tour in Canada, and it was often a relatively short drive from Weaver’s parents’ house in Ohio to see him.

If you want to make it work, Weaver says, it works.

“This past year was really our first year both full schedules trying to make it work,” she said. It ended with a proposal.

Wright had the ring since February but didn’t pop the question until this fall on a trip to Napa. Weaver expects a long engagement. There’s much to plan amid a full schedule of golf.

With full LPGA status, Weaver plans to start her season at the new LPGA event in Boca Raton, Florida, on Jan. 20 before spending two weeks in China and a week in Australia. By mid-March, she’ll be back in Phoenix for the Founders Cup.

“We live like two minutes from that course,” she said.

It’s one week, hopefully, they’ll be together.

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