Weir rarin' to defend his green jacket

Mike Weir has chosen to live in Utah for a lot of reasons, including the opportunity to ski in the winter, be close to good friends and live a comfortable lifestyle in relative anonymity.

In his native Canada, Weir is a national hero nearly on the level of the great hockey player Wayne Gretzky. The fame has developed only in the past five years as the former BYU golfer has come from almost nowhere to become one of the top 10 golfers in the world. Winning arguably the biggest golf tournament in the world last spring increased his popularity even more.

The day after winning the Masters, Weir stopped by Toronto, and wearing his green jacket, dropped the puck at an NHL game where he received a resounding standing ovation.

When he returned to his home in Draper, where he lives year-round with his wife, Bricia, and two daughters, Weir was happy to relax and spend time with his family.

A couple of days after returning, he was surprised to hear the doorbell ring and see a man he'd never seen before, holding five Masters flags for Weir to sign. The man happened to be from Canada, but he decided to stop in Utah on his way home from the Masters to find Weir and have him sign some flags he purchased.

"I guess he went to some neighborhoods, asked if I lived in that neighborhood," Weir recounted last month in a teleconference. "They said, 'no, we think he lives up here.' He kind of drove around . . . asked some construction workers, and they told him that I lived in the neighborhood that I'm at.

"He came right to my front door. His wife was sitting in the passenger's seat of the car, waving at me. And I thought, wow, that's a little strange. You'd think his wife would say, 'don't you think, honey, this is a little odd to be going to the guy's house?' But, no, he thought it was OK. Anyway, I did sign them for him."

Weir doesn't get bothered so much by his Utah neighbors. He may get recognized in the grocery store more than he used to, but on the whole, Weir is able to live a fairly normal life here in Utah. He gets extra attention sometimes, but not enough to make his life uncomfortable.

Last month, at the Utah-BYU basketball game at the Marriott Center, Weir pretty much blended into the crowd. That is, until he was forced to come out during a second-half timeout to try to hit plastic golf balls into the basket for a promotion for a local business.

He got a rousing ovation from the large crowd and produced a lot of smiles with his earnest attempts to chip into the basket from halfcourt (he came oh so close).