IVINS, Utah — Mike Weir will go down as one of the most successful left-handed players in the history of golf. He’s got 14 pro victories, a green jacket and a Presidents Cup captaincy all on his resume.
But truth be told, when he was growing up in a suburb of Sarnia, Ontario, which sits on the very southern tip of Lake Huron, Weir wasn’t originally sold on his southpaw style when it came to the game.
So a 13-year-old Weir penned a letter to the great Jack Nicklaus asking for advice on whether he should try to convert to a right-handed swing.
When asked during the leadup to this week’s inaugural Black Desert Championship, which is bringing the PGA Tour back to the state of Utah that Weir now calls home for the first time in 60 years, the 2003 Masters champion said he took Nicklaus’ return message to heart.
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“I have no idea what would have happened. I was a natural left-hander,” Weir said. “I wrote Jack when I was a kid and he said stick with your natural swing. 1983 when I wrote that letter, there was Bob Charles who had won the British Open. But Russ Cochran was on Tour and a guy named Ernie Gonzalez, but they were kind of middle-of-the-pack guys, good players. But the best players in the world were all right-handed, and I wrote Jack this letter, and he said, no, stick to your natural swing, so I did.”
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Weir cemented his legacy in the game by becoming the first lefty to ever win at Augusta, although Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson have since combined for five wins since the Canadian turned the trick. Weir has eight PGA Tour wins, tied for the most all-time.
But it might have all been different if not for the advice from the Golden Bear.
“If I switched to right-handed then —my dad was willing to do that, but when I got the letter back from Jack, it was, okay, we’re staying with it,” he said.
Would he have had the same success if he’d have switched?
“Who knows,” Weir said. “Probably not on Tour, I wouldn’t think.”