Aug 17, 2024; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Chris Kirk plays his shot from the seventh tee during the third round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship golf tournament at TPC Southwind. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports/ File Photo
At age 39, Chris Kirk has seen plenty in his PGA Tour career, and he is impressed with the current crop of rising players.
Kirk is defending his title at The Sentry in Kapalua, Hawaii, this week as the season gets underway.
"It's different in so many ways it's hard to really sum it up, I guess," Kirk said the differences on tour since he was breaking in. "The level of play and the consistency of players is really high. I feel so fortunate that I've been able to kind of keep up and progress, and I feel like my game is a lot better now than it was 10 years ago when I was also.
"I was in the top 50 in the world at that time, too, and I feel like I'm so much a better player now than I was then, but everybody else is, too."
He praised improvements in terms of golf course agronomy before adding, "Obviously we're playing for a whole lot more money, and I've been amazed, I think that a lot of us were kind of worried about what would the Tour be like when Tiger was not out here every single week.
"I've been, you know, really pleasantly surprised, I guess, that the Tour has flourished, and we have a ton of great young stars, and there's great stories each week. So I just am so happy with where -- I know there are a lot of things that people want to see changed still, and things that could be better, but professional golf is just in such a great place, I think. ...
"You can look at a guy that's hanging around 80th on the FedEx Cup list and nobody really knows a whole lot about him. But you go watch him hit balls or play golf with him, you would be blown away by how good they are."
Kirk is in a good place as well. He ended a seven-plus-year victory drought when he won the Honda Classic in February 2023, and then he opened the 2024 season with his victory at The Sentry.
Kirk finished in the top 35 in three of the four majors last year before tying for 27th at the Tour Championship.
Looking ahead to 2025, he said, "My goals are to really just sort of stick to my routines of what I like to do to prepare each week, and then I have a lot of things that I like to do at home. My time at home is more work on my physical fitness and strength and stuff in the gym, and then get the golf stuff in when I feel like I need to."
--Field Level Media
