Why This Multiple PGA Tour Winner Has Turned Left-Handed

Away from the searing heat of competition, professional golfers often hunt for different methods to extract enjoyment from a game they make their living from. In the most recent example, right-handed PGA Tour member Chris Kirk has discovered a new way to relax while staying out on the course - playing left handed.

The five-time winner on the PGA Tour revealed his unusual tactic in an Instagram post this week, stating he was “on the grind lefty” more than a month after teeing it up - with his left shoulder facing the target - at the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, Illinois.

Kirk finished T-29th in his most recent start, which saw six Ryder Cup stars from both Team USA and Team Europe block out the top of the leaderboard, with Norway’s Viktor Hovland reigning supreme.

A few weeks later, the University of Georgia graduate announced he had managed to shoot 82 with a glove on his right hand in practice and that his goal is “to break 80 in the next two weeks before real golf starts back.”

In the Instagram video, the 38-year-old - whose most recent victory arrived in February 2023 courtesy of a playoff win over Eric Cole at the Honda Classic - can be seen belting a wonderful-sounding drive down the tree-lined fairway with his custom lefty set from Callaway.

Once he returns to playing right-handed in the coming weeks, Kirk will be hoping to build on a decent 2022/23 season on the PGA Tour. Kirk made 66% of cuts last term from 27 events, and along with his four top-10s, the Atlanta-born player recorded eight top-25s which earned him over $4 million in prize money.

While practising the opposite-handed technique is not something many golfers spend a considerable amount of time on, for obvious reasons, most will at least tinker with hitting their regular clubs the wrong way round in case of awkward lies.

On the 72nd hole of the 2023 Valspar Championship, co-leader Adam Schenk was forced into flipping his right-handed club upside down and whipping the ball out of the pine straw and into the rough on the opposite side of the fairway after finding his ball resting near a tree stump.

While Schenk’s bravery was not rewarded with a first PGA Tour victory, 1993 PGA Championship winner Paul Azinger was impressed with the skill of his fellow American while on commentary, saying: “He’s got a little hand-eye skills going on here.”

Should Kirk find himself in a similar situation any time soon, his recent practice suggests the ambidextrous player should be just fine.