Drew Weaver's secret to celebration

When Drew Weaver and his wife Elizabeth have reason to celebrate, they turn to Stephanie.

Stephanie is not a relative, a pet, or their favorite restaurant. No, Stephanie is wine from Hestan Vineyards – located in California with a tasting salon around the corner from The French Laundry, long considered one of the best restaurants in the world – and with a price-tag from $45-$190, this black-bottled, 18-karat gold-labeled vino is pulled out on special occasions.

“We feel like it’s our little secret,” says Weaver. “When something great happens, a bottle of Stephanie is coming out.”

The 31-year-old, after a few years of wondering when the next celebration would come, has had plenty of reasons to raise a glass since last summer.

Weaver, a past winner on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and who currently sits 16th on the season-long race to The 25 on the Web.com Tour, has had a collection of downs over the last few seasons. That’s what makes the ups so special, he says.

After finishing 145th on the Web.com Tour’s money list in 2017, Weaver was left in purgatory as it relates to his professional golf status, but last summer he re-connected with the General Manager at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, who was formerly the GM at Point Grey Golf and Country Club, the home course of his Mackenzie Tour victory.

A sponsor exemption at the Osprey Valley Open led to a tie for third, and status for the balance of 2019. He finished 27th on the money list and had a job secured for 2019.

But he wanted more.

The former Walker Cup team member – he played in 2009 alongside TOUR winners Rickie Fowler and Brian Harmon after winning the 2007 British Amateur – was ready to do something he hadn’t yet done in his career: make it through all of Q-School.

“Thankfully I was afforded that opportunity at Osprey Valley and that was make or break for me,” he admits. “I wouldn’t have had any other playing opportunities at a high level if I didn’t take advantage of that, so that was a big mental hurdle and I just flipped a switch.

“I got to a place where I knew the moment was pretty big and I prepared as well as I could and I convinced myself that I was going to do well.”

Weaver says Second Stage of Q-School is one of the hardest tournaments in the world because of what’s on the line. He had been through the gauntlet before and missed short putts coming down the stretch, costing him a job. Last year, he says, he was in the same position. But there was self-belief. There was confidence. There was an opportunity to be taken advantage of, and he did.

He says it was great to have success in the summer on the Mackenzie Tour, but to get through to Final Stage, and secure Web.com Tour starts for 2019, was affirmation that everything he had been doing, and all the work he had been putting in, was right.

It was his time.

“I finally just said, ‘look, this is what you’ve been working for, you’re going to do it. It’s going to happen right now,’” he recalls.

“I was able to flip that perspective. If this doesn’t go well, sure, I’ve got (the Mackenzie Tour) I can go do, or maybe I need to get a job in the real world. But whatever it may be, I finally said, ‘now’s the time. I’m going to make this happen.’ And I did.”

As he reflects back on his first decade as a professional golfer, he says whenever he finds success his first emotion is not a sense of pride, but gratitude. He’s grateful, he says, for the people who have always stood by him and “injected” him with positivity.

He’s kept a small circle, but Weaver wants them to know he couldn’t do what he does without them.

And that small circle will sometimes celebrate with a bottle of wine.

A hobby has turned into a passion, and Weaver, who says he would visit the vineyards of California “once a quarter” if he could (“My liver might not be able to take it,” he admits), can’t get enough.

Weaver credits his father for introducing him to the culture of wine, and both of his parents along with the parents of his wife, Elizabeth, are very much into it.

“It’s different than a lot of other interests and hobbies because you can pick exactly what you want, but there’s something to learn every single time I drink a wine I’ve never had before,” he says.

As a new-world wine guy, Weaver’s tastes mostly gravitate towards the wines of California, Oregon, and even British Columbia. But he loves to absorb knowledge from people who are old-world wine lovers, and will always enjoy a glass from France, Spain, or Italy.

It’s the constant learning he enjoys. It’s not unlike golf in that regard, and the parallels are evident.

“It’s a never-ending awesome adventure,” he says, “just trying to figure out everything there is to know.”

Weaver admits he’s had some “choppy” results so far this year, but with a long stretch of golf coming up, he says he’s excited to get things rolling again.

Maybe he’ll find the winner’s circle.

Maybe he’ll earn a PGA TOUR card, if he stays in The 25.

And you can bet a bottle of Stephanie will get opened (probably more than one) if that happens.

Weaver has never given up on his professional golf journey, despite thoughts of doubt that have crept in through his career. But there have always been reasons to celebrate, and he hopes to have even more.

Cheers to that.