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Out of the funny papers, New Jersey! Presenting from reading! Defending! Undisputed podcast champion of the world! Jersey! The dawn. Jerry. Jersey. Jerry here. Friend of Jerry is back and it's better than ever. Thanks to the folks over at Diamond Recovery. Diamond Recovery has all levels of care for anybody that's struggling. They're the presenting sponsor for Friend of Jerry and honestly, the show might not be here without them. That's why I made it my business to become a brand ambassador for Diamond Recovery. You can call or text this number and if you're serious about treatment, they'll even get me on the phone and we can personally chat about you getting sober. If you are a loved one is struggling, then now is the time to call. Don't worry about insurance coverage. Don't worry about who's going to walk your dog. Just make the call to the 24-7 emissions department and your one step closer to changing your life. The phone number is this. It's 877-537-7955. time of the day 24,, give them a call. If you're serious about sobriety and want help, once again, the hotline is 877-537-7955. All right, welcome back, friend of Jerry, episode 45, special guests in the building. We got Chris Kirk. You recognize the face. You just won the Honda

Classic a few weeks ago. Hey Chris, thanks so much for coming on and taking the time out of your

day to join us on here. Absolutely, Jerry. Thanks for having me, man. It's an honor.

For sure. For sure. So I'm watching. I'll be break the story to you. I'm watching me, my

girlfriend. We took like a, we took like a weekend away and I got the Watching the golf and I'm like man, I feel like I know that guy. I feel like he might have followed me in the past before So I'm looking I'm like this motherfucker's in the lead. This guy's about to win it Oh, should I go check Instagram and I'm like oh my god. I knew it. I'll tell my girl. Look look. He follows me So. So I see you follow me and I'm like, this is awesome, you know, this guy won and whatnot. And then I hear the story come out and I'm like, wow, I had no idea. So for me to see that, I'm like, oh man, I gotta get Chris on here, man. How did you become a JJ fan? Just through bar threw our school stuff and saw some things

on Instagram and loved it.

Yeah, I followed you for a while on Instagram

and I love your stuff, it's hilarious.

Well, yeah, hey, thanks so much, man.

Hey, and congratulations on the Honda, man.

That was, you played some excellent golf, dude.

And I've only gotten into golf like the last couple of years.

So I've been following a couple different guys.

I'm excited now to keep following you and keep up with what you do and where you're competing and what not. But what was it like playing in that? Did you did you feel on the last day like you really felt like you could win this thing? Yeah, absolutely. I felt good about what I was doing. Definitely a lot nerves though. You know it had I hadn't won on the BGA Tour since 2015. My life has changed drastically since then, obviously, you know, from some of my story that you've heard. And so it felt, to be honest, it almost felt harder than getting my first Tour win in 2011 a long time ago. because there had been so much time, there was so much, and I just, like I said, there's so much to change, everything is so different, and yeah, I was so nervous, but I also feel great about what I was doing, and feel good about my game. For sure, what's it like, dude, on that like, because I just watched the documentary full swing on Netflix, which was incredible. It really was. What's it really like on that last day on that last couple holes? Is it to the point where you feel your heart beating out of your chest, sweaty palms? What's that feeling like? Yeah, definitely your heart rates up. Your hands are sweaty, shaky a little bit and yeah, it's wild. I always kind of say friends and family, I wish that people could feel what that feels like. But it's interesting because you know, that's where we all want to be, we all want to be in contention. We all want to have a chance to win tournaments, but like physically it actually feels horrible feels Your body is like in almost panic mode basically and then you're trying to like Make a Tim for putt or his six iron cut it back to some pin over the water or something like that. So you know golf is such a precision game in these very you know kind of small movements that we have to make and so when you're that nervous like it's so hard to do it takes forever to kind of figure out little tricks and stuff to try to get your heart rate down and then you kind of learn learn what tendencies are under that kind of pressure, which are usually different than what they normally are. But yeah, it's wild. It definitely takes years to sort of figure out what to do in that situation. For sure, for sure. Now, one thing that I had no idea about is when I was watching full swing, I was watching the documentary and they're like, yeah, these guys, if they don't make the cut, they don't get paid a dime. Now I say to myself, so all the hotel expenses, the plane ride there, everything, if you, you know, family, bringing family out to the events, if you don't make the cut, you don't get paid a single dime at these events on the PJ tour Yeah, that's correct And you just kind of have to look at it as you know the whole entire year But yeah, I mean most most weeks you're gonna spend you know five to ten grand something like that is what it costs basically and and flights, hotels or rental house, I rent houses pretty much every week and I don't really like to stay in hotels. And then, obviously, like, your meals, your pain, your caddy, regardless of whether you make the cut or not, you know, they get a base salary. So, yeah, it's going to be, like I said, in that five-tangering range. That's if you're flying commercial like that, I've finished fly commercial fly for a lot but yeah I mean it's going to be like I said, in that five-tinger range. That's if you're flying commercial like that.

I've pretty much fly commercial fly fly fly private a lot. But yeah, I mean, it costs it costs a lot over the course of the year to to play and you know, you just got to figure that you're you're good weeks. You're going to have way the bad ones and you know, we're playing for so much money now that you have a solid week and you're doing stuff.

It covers you, right?

For like kind of like the... We're playing for so much money now that you have a solid week

and you're doing stuff. It covers you, right? For like kind of like the, like if you won the Honda, like you won the Honda, that pretty much will cover your year, right? Let's say of all the events that you missed the cut at, you're saying? Yeah, way more than, I mean, I was 1.5 million for win there. So yeah, I mean I won't spend nearly that much.

Now I got two questions for you, Chris. Now, what is the, now I have some caddy work in the past. Nothing professional, but I did have some caddy work. What does a caddy make on that day? This, the industry standard of a win is 10%. So yeah, I mean, he's making 150. Yeah, my buddy Michael that has played, he's played on the many tours. He's 31, I think. He played on the many tours for the last like nine years, grinding it out, trying to try and to make it, trying to play. And he's just catty for me a little off and on the last couple years. And he like two months ago decided, all right, I'm done. I'm not trying to play professional golf anymore. I'm going to caddy for you for a little while longer than he like, you know, I mean, he got it. He had an interview a few weeks ago, like for like an insurance job, you know, and then he, but like, I mean, how the hell are you gonna take an insurance job and when you could potentially make 150 grand in a week out there. Yeah, exactly. I'm thinking about it. Yeah, he's good. I'm thinking about getting back into the caddy business now. I mean, listen, if you got a spot open at one of these lower end events, I'd be willing to do some caddy work for you. You don't want to go straight into like the masters or you don't think I'm built for that yet. No, you think we need to go low in, start off with a little low and I'll take I'll take 8%. But Chris and for the people watching, man, the reason I really wanted you on here is because you know that clip that went viral that the PGA Instagram account Twitter account that they posted, you know, and you talked briefly about you know your struggles with addiction and How grateful you are right now and today and your sobriety to overcome all that and you know how much your life has changed Can you bring bring us back on where all that started? Where does your story start with the alcohol abuse and addiction and stuff like that? Yeah, sure. I'll try to give a brief summary. But I'd say my sobriety date is April 29, 2019, but obviously a lot of things started away before that. Around probably 2016-17, I mean I've always, you know, from college on I always loved to drink. I drank a lot. It just was, I just enjoyed it and loved it and did it every chance that I got basically. But I think after around 2016-17, my third son was born and my family basically stopped traveling. My two older boys were in school at that time. Now they're all three in school. But two older boys were in school. We had a little baby and so now,'m like, when I had this great family, I had my great career, but then all of a sudden now I'm sitting in a hotel room by myself for 20-something weeks a year. And I just was kind of like, this wasn't part of the plan. I was at home having to take care of three little kids, I'm on the road and you know, it just kind of became, I felt like the more I drank, I definitely was starting to deteriorate some physically and so that that kind of added to things like really getting the feeling of like I'm not going to be able to keep up out here much longer like I can't hang with these guys. You know, I think the pressure just sort of all got to me and too much time alone and I just got to where I just you know every day I'd get done playing and go back and sit in the hotel room and drink, you know, and this was a bad cycle for sure and you know was drinking a lot of home as well and just, you know, all the time. But it kind of got to a point where I had a few episodes that were, you know, went off the deep end a little bit and was like, this was around probably October, November of 2018, where I was like, I got to stop this. And so it's all like a few people close to me some of my family members My coach my agent, you know some guys like that. They're like hey, I'm not gonna drink for a little while, you know, and then So I would use it for from that October of November through April the next year. I would usually make it Somewhere around like three weeks seem to be the number for me. I would widen up live for three weeks and I would be completely miserable. And then I would be like, all right, I've had it and I would, you know, have a bender. And then I felt so bad about it because I was trying to stop, trying to do better. And then I would go another three weeks and I I would do it again. And then I go another three weeks, and I would do it again. And then finally, in April, I was just like, all right. I mean, obviously, we've had ultimatums, we've had all sorts of ridiculous stuff and situations that were just, I was putting myself in just such horrible situations, putting my wife in such a horrible situation that I find is like, okay, I've got to stop. And so April, that was when I was just like, okay, I don't know if I'm going to come back to playing professional golf. I may be done with a PJ tour. I may be done with with Gough in general, but I got to stop right now.

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