"I got sober because of you": Chris Kirk describes the 'unreal' feeling of helping people quit alcohol

On Sunday, Chris Kirk finished first in the Honda Classic Tournament of the PGA Tour. He finished 72 holes tying at 14-under with fellow player Eric Cole, wherein his birdie on the first hole allowed him to beat Cole and win the title.

This win at the Honda Classic marks his first victory since 2015, after which his career was subject to undoings due to his alcoholism and depression. At the time, he was struggling with anxiety and was depressed from the pressures of performance. In 2019, he pressed pause on the game owing to his mental hurdles.

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Kirk scores two milestones with his Honda Classic Title

The Honda Classic - Final Round (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

At the PGA National Resort, Kirk told reporters that he felt that he owed everything he had in his life to his sobriety. The four-time PGA Tour winner aptly stated:

“I wouldn’t be doing this for a living anymore. I probably wouldn’t have the family that I have currently anymore. I came really close to losing everything that I cared about."

He continued on to say:

“For that to have happened and worked out for me, obviously, there were some decisions that I made, but mostly the grace of God and a lot of other people that really helped me along the way. It’s something that’s constantly on my mind, so it’s pretty easy for me to see that winning the Honda Classic is kind of a bonus when literally every good thing I have in my life, I owe to that.”

The American pro had opened up about the history of alcoholism that ran in his family, as a result of which he made the decision to quit beer in 2017 and swapped it with wine, vodka, and bourbon. However, this decision seemingly proved destructive to Kirk's health as he developed a greater dependency on the same:

“But now on the back end a little bit, it’s been amazing. Like I said, it’s not something that I really saw happening, but to be able to connect with people and … for somebody to say, ‘I got sober because of you, and my life has changed because of you,’ you can’t really describe how unreal that is with words.”

In addition to a whopping $1.5 million dollars that he earned alongside the win on Sunday, Kirk has also boosted his position in the Official World Golf Ranking to No. 32. As a result, he has now become eligible to take part in this year's Masters Championship.