Why Chris Kirk just wanted to break 80 this fall – and still hasn’t

When Chris Kirk tees it up at this week’s RSM Classic, the FedExCup Fall’s finale at Sea Island, it will mark just his second start since the Tour Championship in September. Call it an offseason, call it whatever you want, but Kirk has taken full advantage of the time off.

His two main fall goals: Break 200 and 80.

For one, he looks a little different since most of us last saw him; he’s added about 15 pounds to his 6-foot-3 frame, currently weighing in around 200 pounds after maxing out at 206 a couple weeks ago. No, it’s not the result of some extra grazing during Georgia football season but rather 10 to 15 hours per week in the gym and a loaded diet.

“Just really trying to get significantly stronger,” said the 39-year-old Kirk, who ranks 99th in driving distance this season on the PGA Tour, averaging just north of 300 yards per poke.

Kirk can move it over 250 yards from the other side, too, which is something he’s also devoted time to in recent months. While he’s yet to break 80 while playing left-handed, Kirk did birdie the last hole at Athens Country Club to shoot 80 on the number.

“So it wasn’t like really even that close,” Kirk admitted.

Kirk began playing lefty after graduating from the University of Georgia and turning professional. He lived in St. Simons Island, Georgia, at the time and would switch-hit as a way of goofing off with his buddies. They could barely shoot 130, and Kirk eventually gave up left-handed golf for over a decade, but he’s recently rediscovered his itch.

“As far as the most difficult thing, I’d say probably like hitting really solid iron shots is hard and fairway woods off the ground, that’s really, really hard,” Kirk said. “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. … 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 it’s like I’m starting over, but like I already know all the answers, you know, so I just can’t physically do it.”

These days, Kirk’s lefty rounds typically come while playing with his two oldest boys, Sawyer and Foster, and from one tee box up from the tips.

And while he quickly forgets most of his shots, he did remember his recent 80, though for another reason.

“Sawyer got up and down on the last hole to shoot like 99 from the actual like tee markers,” Kirk said. “A lot of times they’ll play from either the very front tee markers or they’ll start from somewhere in the fairway. I think it was the first time he had broken 100 from like the actual tee markers … so we were pumped.”