For those players on the PGA Tour who have the benefit of an extended offseason – meaning their status for next year was secured when the FedEx Cup playoffs ended in late summer – their calendars are no longer governed by a tournament schedule.
Brian Harman, for example, played just twice in the fall, preferring to spend his time on his farm, getting work done on his boat and tending to repairs around his house. He thought more about golf than he actually played golf.
Ludvig Åberg spent the first two weeks after September knee surgery hanging around New York City with his girlfriend, being a tourist and slow-playing his return to practicing.
Then there’s Chris Kirk, who has set a goal this offseason: break 80 on the golf course – playing left-handed.
Kirk, it should be noted, is a natural right-hander who just completed his 14th season on the PGA Tour. He will be the defending champion in January at the Sentry on Maui, where he won his sixth career title to kick off 2024 after showing up there to do prep work for the Sony Open the following week.
The left-handed challenge, well, that goes back a few years, but it has captured Kirk’s imagination recently.
“I shot 80, but I birdied the last hole to shoot 80, so it wasn’t like really even that close,” Kirk said. “But I haven’t played a whole lot. I haven’t played nearly as much as I thought I would. I haven’t played as much as I did last offseason.”
For a guy who has won more than $32 million in his PGA Tour career, golf is his business – until he stands on the other side of the ball.
It’s also a way for him to spend time with his friends and his family – he has three sons ages 7-12 – and to separate himself from his job when he’s on the golf course for fun.
“Early on in my career, me and some buddies would go out and just kind of goof off and do it. Then the last few years has been more, because it’s way more fun for me to play with my kids when I play left-handed. They like it better,” Kirk said.
“I think that when they watch me play right-handed, and [it] maybe seems unattainable to them or something. And if I go out with a few of my kids and I’m playing right-handed, as a professional I always feel like even if it’s a casual round with my kids, it still feels somewhat like work a little bit. Like, OK, I feel like I need to get something out of it to feel like I’m accomplishing something.”
“When I’m playing left-handed, like I don’t care, it’s just purely quality time with my children. The work and professional element has been removed. So, it becomes like pure recreation with my kids, and it’s fantastic.” – Chris Kirk
There’s a lesson here about perspective. About looking at something from a different angle.
That’s what Kirk has discovered.
“When I’m playing left-handed, like I don’t care, it’s just purely quality time with my children,” Kirk said. “The work and professional element has been removed. So, it becomes like pure recreation with my kids, and it’s fantastic.”
There is an element of crossover between Kirk’s day job and his fun golf. He plays Callaway equipment, and he got the company to set him up with left-handed clubs.
His club specs are different, but he has been reminded of what the game is like for the vast majority of players. His driver speed from the right side is 115 miles per hour, and it dips to around 103 from the left side.
Kirk also plays with game-improvement irons as a left-hander.
“A little bit more forgiving irons,” he said. “I need ’em.
“I can sympathize with a lot of golfers out there that like if I hit a 6- or 7-iron and I happen to just absolutely flush it, it’s over the green because I’m not expecting that, that’s for sure.”
Kirk can’t ignore his competitive streak, so he keeps score every time he plays left-handed. He doesn’t play the back tees – Kirk moves up one set of tees from the tips – and what Kirk makes look so easy with his long, languid swing doesn’t come as easily as a left-hander.
“Hitting really solid iron shots is hard, and fairway woods off the ground, that’s really, really hard. I drive it, like, pretty good; that’s what makes it fun for me is that I can hit it 250-plus and hit a decent amount of fairways,” Kirk said.
“Hitting a 3-wood off the ground’s pretty tough. And then the short game stuff, I mean, my short game’s not like fantastic, but I think that it’s a way simpler motion than like hitting a 5-iron.
“I’m like a beginner golfer in some ways, but … like I already know all the answers. I just can’t physically do it.”