In the player dining area at Waialae Country Club prior to the start of the Sony Open in Hawaii last week, Davis Love III saw Chris Kirk in a corner on his phone.
“He had his kids on FaceTime,” Love said. “The kids were giggling and it was almost too loud.
“I went over and leaned in and said ‘Hey, kids go to bed.’ As I walked out, I thought about how everything was going great for him. And that was before the golf started.”
Kirk, who finished second in the 2014 FedEx Cup playoffs and was a member of the 2015 United States Presidents Cup team, was on the verge of losing his full status on the PGA Tour. He needed at least a third-place finish in his final start on his major medical exemption, otherwise, the four-time winner would be forced to play his way back onto the tour he once took for granted.
If you’re not familiar with Kirk’s story, his life and career tumbled into the abyss as he struggled with alcohol and depression issues. He left the PGA Tour in the spring of 2019 to deal with his personal problems. Kirk told his...
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