That was a good motivation for me and one of the reasons I came out this year to play well.”Two wins at the start of the year, to add to a couple of others in recent years achieved against the world’s best players at the US Tour Championship and the AmEx World Championship, were his reward for the extra effort.If Weir is a hero in his homeland, he is also a talisman for that minority who play the “wrong way round”. The only other left-hander to win a major was Bob Charles at the Open in 1963. Phil Mickelson might have wanted to be the next lefty to win, but Weir does not notice the distinction. “When I am out there I don’t think of myself as left-handed,” he said. “I am a golfer.”Weir writes and plays racket sports with his right hand, but throws with his left.

Mattiace is naturally left-handed but has always played right-handed while Mickelson, who finished third here for the third successive year, is right-handed but plays left. Weir wrote to Jack Nicklaus at the age of 13 to ask if he should switch to being right-handed and has the reply, which came in the negative, framed in his home.Weir, 32, played with his friend Wayne Gretzky in the AT&T Pro-am at Pebble Beach earlier in the year. After Weir had played with Woods in the final round of the 1999 USPGA Championship at Medinah, and shot 80 as Tiger won, Gretzky phoned to offer help and advice.Weir also learnt from the Tiger masterclass. “It was a very difficult day for me but I did observe how Tiger managed his game that day,” he said. “I remember when it came to the clutch putt on the 17th how he stayed with his game. I took a lot of positives out of that day which I still use.”A lot of hard work has gone in since that PGA,” added Weir. “I have won five times in three years since then and it set me up for this week I’ve tightened up my swing and worked hard on my putting.

That was the difference today, I made everything inside eight feet.”If resilience is his strength, it came out in all those second putts he holed during a final 68 in which he did not drop a stroke. Mattiace, who won twice on Tour last year but was overwhelmed by finishing second here, had swept past Weir but the Canadian holed what he considered a vital 15-footer at the 13th to stay within two.Another birdie at the 15th brought him level at seven under and then he bravely parred in. At the last his first putt came up six feet short, but that too went down. “I wouldn’t wish that putt on anyone,” he said.Weir was able to walk virtually straight to the 10th tee for the first play-off since 1990.