Mike Weir established himself as
a force on the PGA Tour and starred at The Presidents Cup. Now he can add the
Lionel Conacher Award as Canadian male athlete of the year to his list of accomplishments
for 2000.
Weir beat out Olympic champions Simon
Whitfield and Daniel Igali, Chris Pronger of the St. Louis Blues and Steve Nash
of the Dallas Mavericks in voting conducted by The Canadian Press and Broadcast
News.
Weir is the first golfer to win the
Lionel Conacher Award since Sandy Somerville in 1932. Somerville won the U.S.
Amateur that year, a first for a foreign golfer.
Consistency was Weir's trademark in
2000. He finished sixth on the PGA Tour money list with $2,547,829 and 21st on
the world rankings.
"I did have a good feeling going into
this year," Weir said. "Last year, winning my first time (at the Air Canada
Championship), made me really feel like I belonged on the TOUR and felt like I
wasn't just out there making a check. I was out there to try to win golf tournaments."
Weir probably would have been a back-to-back
winner, but there was no award last year as CP-BN honored Wayne Gretzky as athlete
of the century.
