The story begins like so many golfing-origin tales do, with a father, a son and a cut-down 7-iron.
Fred Wedel loved the game, and he passed that, along with his name, to one eager boy. Dad, take me with you, he begged when he was only 3. Get me a club that fits. Teach me.
Both Frederick Wedels, big and small, made the driving range their special place. They soon enough took it to the course, where, almost inevitably, these golfing-origin tales start mixing character building with swing building.
Sitting on a riser in the media room of the U.S. Amateur on Friday, the younger Wedel, now 19 and a semifinalist in a national championship, testified to greatest lesson his father taught him. The one that was most instrumental in getting him from the wilds of childhood to a Saturday morning tee time at the Atlanta Athletic Club, two steps from the Amateur title.
“I used to have temper tantrums on the golf course,” he remembered. “But whenever I did, my dad would be like, hey, quit acting up, this is a gentleman’s game. And he would take me home off the golf course.”
In an antiseptic setting, free of unthinkable cruelties, Wedel the senior would have been sitting in the back of the room nodding. He would have been out there on the course Friday as his boy wore out his 36-year-old opponent, Nathan Smith, 4 and 3. He’d be tired — his boy walks the course like he’s escaping a burning building, intentionally trying to set a pace that exhausts his opponents. But he’d be there.
Truth is, the elder Wedel hasn’t seen his boy play since he was 10. A staph infection took hold of the back of his head nearly a decade ago, settled near his spinal cord, paralyzing him from the neck down. He spent the better part of two years in the hospital fighting the infection. Now 74, he lives with his sister in Sacramento, Calif.
The sickness shattered a household. No 10-year-old is equipped to understand.
“I really didn’t handle it well,” Wedel said. “I just kept having hopes that maybe one day he’d walk again, we’ll figure it out. Eventually I realized he wasn’t going to walk again. It threw me into a dark place for a while.”
His mother, who lives in southern California, reportedly was on her way to Atlanta for the weekend. His father should be here, too, this week to see what that cut-down 7-iron has spawned. His son is doing wonderful things.
This rail of a young man — he said he has a 33-inch waist, but seems several visits to Golden Corral shy of that — is standing straight and tall to the most pressure-filled golf he has experienced. He was on nobody’s short list coming into this tournament. When asked what was the last big thing he won, Wedel, a junior at Pepperdine, mentioned the district championship his senior year of high school.
He might well have quit golf after his father took ill. Angry and acting out, kicked out of one school, he played in a few tournaments but nearly abandoned the practice range. He didn’t want an instructor because that was his father’s place. Took him years to get his head back into the game.
He could have been turned away by golf’s greatest obstacle — lack of money. This is no silver-spoon player storming through the ranks of the top amateurs. Instead of hitting the summer playing circuit last year, he worked at a course in Texas earning money for his next season. Got another gig at Bel-Air in L.A. this year to supplement his playing fund.
“It’s tough for me at times; I’ve got a lot of things to worry about,” he said. “I wish I could go all over the country in summer and play all these great events, but I got to plan my way around it. I’ve got to keep grinding and playing well in what events I do get to play in.”
Suddenly, over the course of this one tournament, his place in golf is all changing. Look at him now, among the last four standing at the U.S. Amateur, the tournament that was a coming out for the likes of Nicklaus, Woods, Palmer and Mickelson.
“I see another level of confidence. Just seems like there’s no fear,” said his coach at Pepperdine, Michael Beard.
There certainly is no shortage of brass in the kid. The confidence within was clear as he pondered what to tell his father when he called him Friday. “Gonna take down the next guy tomorrow,” he thought sounded nice.
All around him this week at the Atlanta Athletic Club, Wedel has watched players rise and fall, sharing both with the family that helped them all get here.
If Wedel thinks back hard enough, back to his beginnings, he is reminded that the golf course is no place to take his anger or his regrets.
“Obviously, I do wish my dad could be out there, but it really doesn’t bother me that much,” he said. “Whether he’s out here watching me or sitting at a computer screen watching the scores update, I know he’s still proud of me, and he’s happy with the way things are going.
“It’s a little disappointing, but there’s nothing I can do at this point. So you make the best of the situation.”
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