Mike has passed test after test, culminating with the putt he holed on the 18th green on Sunday of the Masters in April to get into a playoff with Len Mattiace, which he won. Two million Canadians watched from the edges of their seats. I was lucky enough to watch from the edges of the fairways at the Augusta National Golf Club, and then wrote my book. Mike gave generously of his time to me during a series of interviews, as he always has. He believes that the road he’s taken can show golfers and non-golfers alike that they can achieve their dreams. It’s a matter of accepting the inevitable problems that arise on anybody’s path, and then finding the solutions to them. As he likes to say, it’s important to emphasize the solutions, not the problems.

There’s always been something special about Mike. I first wrote about him in 1993 after following him while he won the Tournament Players Championship on the Canadian Tour. That was his first win as a professional, and I remember thinking that he had what it takes to succeed at the highest levels of the game.

I mentioned Mike’s vast potential in that first column. It was obvious that he was going to do whatever it took to develop his game. Mike had believed in himself since he was a youngster practising until dark on summer evenings at the Huron Oaks Golf Club in Brights Grove, Ontario, where he learned the game. Motivated by his belief, and animated by his resolve and vision, he looked to the long term and wasn’t discouraged by short-term setbacks. As he writes in his foreword to the book, he felt he would win the biggest tournaments in the game. He believed he would win the Masters in particular.

I’ve followed Mike throughout his career — his wins, his setbacks, and everything in between. There was the time he hit a shot into the water on the last hole at a 1996 PGA Tour event in Vancouver. Had the shot come off, Mike would have got into a playoff. There was the time that he was tied for the lead after three rounds of the 1999 PGA Championship with Tiger Woods, but shot 80 the last round to fall back into a tie for tenth place. I spoke with Mike behind the last green after he finished, and it was clear that, while his play that day bothered him, he would learn from it and move ahead. Mike won the Air Canada Championship three weeks later. That was his first PGA Tour win.

The best part of my work is getting the chance to know some players, on and off the course. I’ve enjoyed talking with Mike about golf and other subjects. Years ago I started taking copious notes about him, and chatting with him whenever and wherever I could. I’ve had the chance to play with him and to see what golf means to him, and the sheer joy he gets out of improving and hitting all kinds of shots; he’s a creative golfer.

What a treat it was to watch Mike hit so many fine shots and hole so many crucial putts during the Masters, and to see the defending champion Tiger Woods slip the green jacket over his shoulders at the prize ceremony. I enjoyed spending time with Mike as I chronicled the road he’s taken to becoming Canada’s first player to win a men’s professional major champ-ionship. We spoke for hours one night in his hotel room a few weeks after he won the Masters, when he was returning to the PGA Tour for his first tournament since then. Every shot was so vivid; I felt as if I were again back at the Augusta National Golf Club during that magical week.

Mike’s a major player, and a man meant to win majors, since those long days and nights when he practised at Huron Oaks. He chose his road long ago, and has travelled it with vision and determination. I’ve been privileged to travel along for much of the journey, and to write of his trip in my new book, Mike Weir: The Road to the Masters.