Tin Cup, Meet “Chicken Wing”
If you thought “Tin Cup” was cool, wait till you meet “Chicken Wing.”
In a world looking for an “everyman” to root for, this 39-year-old filling station owner from Biloxi, Mississippi is straight out of central casting.
He’s like “Joe the Plumber,” except without all the annoying political connotations.
Nicknamed for a quirky-looking swing he invented to prevent him from dislocating his shoulder (which he’s apparently done ten times already), Steve Wilson is every bit the “everyman” his name would suggest.
He’s only in the Masters’ because he won some amateur tournament, and he’s best known for his gas station’s “po-boy” sammiches.
From Bloomberg:
Wilson, whose bag at Augusta will bear the Mississippi Golf Association logo, figures the final bill for taking part in the Masters may be $15,000.
“He’s not wealthy by any means,” said Mark Mumley, one of Wilson’s golfing buddies. “He doesn’t have a golden spoon.”
Mumley, a 58-year-old retired software executive, helped organize a fundraiser at a Biloxi country club to help cover Wilson’s Masters-related expenses. Wilson, who grew up along the Gulf Coast, ended up refusing the $5,000 Mumley collected.
Wilson donated the money to a local junior golf program because he didn’t like to feel as if he was “begging,” he said. He did accept a friend’s offer of a free place to stay in Augusta during the tournament and will rely on his savings and credit cards to cover expenses.
How cool is that?
Seriously, in a big government bailout culture that makes you want to vomit on a daily basis, thank God for people like this guy.
And while amateurs like Wilson are precluded from sharing in the Masters’ $7.4 million purse, he can earn a spot on the tour if he finishes high enough at Augusta and at the U.S. Open in June.
Go “Chicken Wing!”
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