Weir Showing Signs of Old Form After Lengthy Recovery

In August of 2010 an MRI revealed Weir had a partially torn ligament in his right elbow. Weir had hoped to avoid surgery and decided to rest the elbow and seek alternate treatments. Weir’s game and confidence struggled as he played through most of the 2011 season with the injury. In 2011 Mike Weir was unable to find any consistency in his game. Weir played 15 events in 2011, making just 2 cuts. Weir also withdrew from two events. Weir shot 3 rounds over 80, while only breaking 70 once. Finally, in August of 2011, the 2003 Masters champion underwent surgery on the extensor tendon of his right elbow.

After almost 6 months, Weir returned to competition at the 2012 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Weir’s 2012 season was a complete nightmare. Weir played in 14 official PGA TOUR events and missed all 14 cuts.

Having lost full-status on the PGA TOUR, Weir elected to use one of his two career-earnings exemptions in order to play on the PGA TOUR for the 2013 season. Weir earned the special one-time one-year exemption having been among the top 25 in career earnings at the end of the preceding calendar year. Weir also has another year-long exemption left, awarded to players in the top 50 in career earnings.

Weir is able to selected his own schedule and gain entry into regular full-field events. Weir is not exempt into any invitationals or majors with the exception of The Masters. Weir’s 2003 victory earned him a lifetime exemption.

Despite missing his first two cuts of the 2013 season, Mike Weir has shown he is close to playing solid golf again. Weir is a cumulative 7-under-par through his first 5 rounds in 2013. In his first event of 2013, Weir narrowly missed the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii by two-strokes. The next week at The Humana Challenge, Weir missed the cut again by 3-shots. Weir is currently in 3^rd place at the Farmers Insurance Open after opening with a 6-under-par 66 first round at Torrey Pines North Course.