Hokie ready for British 3 months after horror
Weaver still gets choked up when he recalls Virginia Tech massacre
 Warren Little / Getty Images Drew Weaver is the first American since 1979 to win the British Amateur title. |
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CARNOUSTIE, Scotland - Drew Weaver was standing around in his socks, waiting to get his spikes repaired at the hotel that looms over Carnoustie’s 18th hole, when Zach Johnson came strolling by.
“How was your day?” the Masters champion asked.
“It was great,” Weaver replied, breaking into a wide-eyed grin.
The smile only got bigger when Weaver’s dad stepped forward with the next day’s practice arrangements: Two more major champions, Davis Love III and Justin Leonard, had signed up to play with 20-year-old Drew in their last tuneup for the British Open.
“That’s awesome,” the youngster said, a tinge of disbelief in his voice.
Strange how life works out.
Three months ago, Weaver was strolling away from a managerial accounting class at Virginia Tech when he noticed a horde of police officers gathered at the building next door. One of them darted toward Weaver with a look of panic, telling him to run away as quickly as possible.
At first, Weaver reacted with the expected nonchalance of a college student with the world at his feet. He headed the other way with his roommate, but there was no real sense of urgency in their steps. Then came that awful sound from inside Norris Hall.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Weaver fled across a field and took cover at the university library, wondering what in the world was going on. Then came the awful news: 32 people had been gunned down by a deranged student, who then took his own life.
It would go down as the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Weaver had a class scheduled in the very same building, at the very same time, the very next day.
Flash ahead to Thursday. Weaver will tee off in one of golf’s premiere events, a college junior-to-be who earned his treasured spot in the field just 3½ weeks ago by becoming the first American since 1979 to win the British Amateur title.
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More than one could ever imagine, unless you happened to be a college student who saw a madman turned his campus into a killing ground. Weaver is playing the Open with a bag carried by his father and adorned in those distinctive Hokie colors, maroon and burnt orange — a poignant reminder that life does indeed go on, even if it’s never going to be quite the same.
“It was one of those experiences,” Weaver said, “that will stick with me forever.”
He still gets choked up, his eyes filling with potential tears, every time he talks about that awful day. But his father notices a new resolve in his only child, a previously untapped reservoir of strength that might just carry this youngster to even greater heights than were already expected.
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“He basically asked us permission to make a B,” his father, John Weaver, recalled, shaking his head at the thought of someone so young being so driven to succeed. “He was like, ’Oh, I can’t believe this, blah, blah, blah.’ I had to say, ’But son, it’s OK. It’s a B. That’s still good.”’
The father wondered how the shooting would affect Drew, even though he didn’t know any of the victims. Would his motivation waver? Would bitterness set in? Would be start searching for some deeper meaning to life?
“I still think it’s deep inside of him,” John Weaver said. “But I don’t think it’s eating him up. In a way, it’s kind of a neat thing. I think he’s turning it into a positive energy. He’s lucky. He has some golf ability ... and he’s used some of this to fuel his drive.”
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