UGA grad plays through tough loss to ’Bama, shares lead

“Are you going to be OK?” they pointedly inquired of Chris Kirk at Tuesday’s practice round and driving range at Waialae Country Club.

Much of it was mock sympathy to be sure, tongue firmly in cheek jabs by fellow PGA Tour pros at the former University of Georgia golfer and ardent Bulldog fan who had seen his team go down to an overtime defeat to Alabama in Monday’s College Football Playoff national championship game.

“A heartbreaking loss,” Kirk termed it. “It was definitely a tough game to watch, that’s for sure.”

But come Thursday and the opening round of the Sony Open in Hawaii, there was no longer any need to ask — feigned or otherwise — about his current condition.

Not after Kirk had played a smooth, bogey-free morning round, touring the largely windless 7,044-yard Waialae Country Club course with a 7-under-par 63 to share the first-round lead with past Sony champ Zach Johnson.

One that he nearly turned into a 62 on the 18th hole, missing an eagle and tapping in for a seventh birdie.

Still, it was the 32-year old Kirk’s best opening round in eight appearances at Waialae, punctuated by a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-4 13th hole. It allowed him to top the 64 he fashioned in 2014 when he finished as the runner-up to eventual champion Jimmy Walker by one stroke.

So, “yes,” Kirk acknowledged, Thursday did take some edge off the pain of Georgia’s CFP loss, one that he watched with his family at a rental property down the road from Waialae, sparing him the celebration by Hawaii fans of Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

“I’m sure there were a lot of Hawaii folks pulling for Alabama and happy to see Tua play so well,” Kirk said. “I haven’t watched Alabama enough this year to even know anything about the kid, but obviously watching that second half I was really, really impressed. It is one thing for Jake Fromm, our quarterback, to be going in there as a true freshman because he’s been playing all year. But for Tua to just step in the second half not expecting to play, probably, and perform like that was really incredible.”

Kirk, a 2007 graduate of Georgia in sports management who often wears a Bulldogs cap, was born in the state and lives in Athens, Ga., where he occasionally drops in to watch the Bulldogs football practices. “I try to go to football practices, sometimes, when I’m home (and) take my kids. Not that I am a part of it all, but being there, in town, it was such a fun year for all Georgia fans and we’re just excited about the years to come.”

But while he had high hopes for the Bulldogs, his own expectations for 2018 after a long layoff were less defined after sitting out since the RSM Classic in mid-November.

“I’ve probably been off long enough now that you never know what’s going to happen,” Kirk said. So, yeah, I really had no expectations (of) whether I was going to play good or bad after having some time off. But this is a golf course that I’ve traditionally done pretty well on, and a place that I really love coming (to). So you always feel like it is possible.”

One thing is likely, no matter how it started, this will not turn out to be a lost week for Kirk.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.