No More Putz –
November 7, 2019 – According to Kirk, there is a history of alcoholism in his family. When he and his wife began having children, Kirk says the pressures to provide did a number on his anxiety, leading to an increase in drinking while he was on the road. Though he says he never drank before or during a round, he says he needed something in his system to feel right. “I’ve got to drink the right amount at night so that I feel normal the next day,” Kirk told the PGA Tour’s Helen Ross. “Not too much so that I’m really hung over, but I can’t not have anything or I’m going to feel weird the next day.”
Noticing a weight gain from his drinking, Kirk quit beer and moved to wine, vodka and bourbon. “Switching from beer to hard liquor probably accelerated things for me a little bit as well,” he says. Kirk briefly quit drinking in the fall of 2018, but that abstinence proved fleeting. His drinking was putting a strain on his relationship with his wife. Finally, in a hotel in New Orleans last April, Kirk decided he need to take a sabbatical from golf in order to get his life under control.
