Like many PGA Tour pros, Chris Kirk will be getting some much-needed rest and relaxation following this week’s Tour Championship. Unlike most Tour pros, he will be playing a very different game when he returns to the golf course.
That’s because, for the second straight offseason, the right-handed Kirk plans to play primarily on the left side. Excuse me?
“It brings back a little bit of the childlike nature of the game,” Kirk said in January after winning the Sentry Championship in January. “And my expectations are so low that it’s a lot easier to be happy with what I’m doing than being right-handed, to be honest.”
That may be true, but in the offseason he raises expectations even higher.
“Many of my fellow members at Athens Country Club have agreed to implement a left-handed handicap so that I can compete in some club events as a left-handed amateur,” Kirk said Wednesday in East Lake. “I’m not sure how that really works with the rules.”
Kirk says he recently shot 84 left-handed and his career low from that side is 82. He estimates he’s around a 12 handicap as a left-hander, but has set a goal to officially hit single digits on that side by the end of 2024. Pretty awesome. Here’s a look at his left-handed swing from last offseason.
“My left-handed golf game is just so much fun,” Kirk continued. “But of course I have a huge advantage over the average beginner golfer. I basically already know all the answers to the test. It’s just a matter of time before I know how to do it.”
Imagine if you’ve mastered golf so well that you need a new challenge? That must be nice. Anyway, good luck, Chris. Both this week and against the weekend hacks at your club this off-season.
