PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Alcohol, more often than not, remains in disguise.
It doesn’t always reveal itself in the stereotypes you might think – through loud and obnoxious behavior, drunk driving or public drinking.
It can be silent. The person sitting next to you in a train or bus can be an alcoholic and you will never know. Your doctor, accountant or mailman may be one and you will never know.
In the case of Chris Kirk, a 35-year-old PGA Tour player who won four times and earned more than $ 19 million in his career, but never reached fame or notoriety of any kind, he took the form of an alcoholic. I faced silence. Never seen the year and part.
Looks like Cancer you will get a soul. He is calm, sociable, and seemingly content.
My father was an alcoholic and he also appeared to anyone outside our house as one of the happiest friends. Outsiders did not see that alcohol demons affected him and our family before he calmed down and saved his and our family’s lives.
These were things that Kirk had, who married three boys between the ages of 3, 7 and 9.
So, on April 29, 2019, in all locations, in a hotel room in New Orleans – America’s party capital – Kirk experienced his coming Jesus moment. He decided enough that he could no longer control and hide his drinking.
At least two years from that alone – but brave and powerful moment, Kirk entered the players’ championship weekend, following leader Lea Westwood’s two-shot 7-under 65 on Friday, shooting the tournament’s low round.
“There was a time when I was on the 15th hole in a tournament and I couldn’t wait to finish so I could have a drink,” Kirk told The Post on Friday. “It became a medicine for anxiety, fear, some occasional depression and feeling very worthless. I can not live a functional life without it [alcohol]. I couldn’t wait to play golf so that I could get back to it. It was a bad cycle. ”
Kirk, who has calmed down since the deadly New Orleans night, is now on a much better cycle. He no longer sweats the small stuff. And he probably won’t be sweating the big stuff this weekend while he tries to get the biggest win (on the golf course) of his life.
Kirk’s second round was eventful. Highlights included a chip-in for Birdie on the 15th hole (the sixth of his round) and a 147-yard hole-out for the Eagles at No. 1. Those two shots came in a six-hole stretch, during which Kirk 6 was thundering with four birdies and chiles.
They are demons who play with his psyche while he spends all those nights in weak and lonely hotel rooms, just him and a bottle of whatever he was drinking at the time.
“When I was really going to drink a lot, I preferred to be myself, because I knew I couldn’t sit down and have 20 drinks with someone or they would think, ‘What’s wrong with you, man.’ ? ” Said the Cancer.
Kirk said that the more he drank, the worse his golf game would become and then fear arose.
“I’m 32, 33 years old, I’m about to lose my job, what am I going to do?” “How am I going to support my family? How do I pay for my house? It will snowball and snowball. I am thankful for more rational thoughts these days. ”
Now, Kirk said, “I wake up and I feel good about who I am.”
Kirk stepped out of competitive golf for about seven months. He asked his sports psychologist if he would consult him with his personal problems rather than golf. They did not talk about golf once for six months.
Kirk, who returned to golf at the Mayakoba Golf Classic last December, was on a major medical extension given by the PGA Tour.
The Sony Open, in January, was his last event to gain enough FedExCup points to retain his PGA Tour card. Kirk needed at least a two-way tie for third place, and he finished the final hole in a tie for second. Had he not been 18, he would have ended up in a four-way tie for third, not retaining his card and not being in the TPC Sovereigns this week.
“It’s a lot of wild stuff that can happen in this game,” Kirk said. “There were months where I didn’t think I really had any interest in playing golf again, much less competitive golf. ‘
And then there are days like Thursday and Friday. On Kirk’s day, two years ago, he never thought he would see again.
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