THE BACK NINE by John Maginnes
A Fighter’s Fighter William McGirt talks victories, injuries and comebacks
WILLIAM MCGIRT BECAME an overnight success in 2016, a dozen years after turning professional. Some things take longer than others. He will smile at that line mostly because winning the 2016 Memorial Tournament and shaking hands with tournament host Jack Nicklaus on the 18th green didn’t change McGirt one bit. Certainly it changed his career, but he’s the same guy now as he was on the mini tours for five years before getting through to the Nationwide Tour in 2010, and then finally the PGA Tour in 2011. In the world of professional golf that is dominated by the heavyweight knockout punchers, McGirt is a fighter’s fighter, relying on guile more than power and speed to get the job done. He is one of the more underrated ball strikers on the PGA Tour and there is still some fight in him yet, even with his recent 42nd birthday. I caught up with McGirt on an off week in late spring — he was doing chores at his mother-in-law’s house — to discuss his career and his life. JM: Let’s start at home. The vast majority of the PGA Tour is in Florida, Texas and Arizona. Why did you stay in the Carolinas? WM: Well it’s home and it’s [my wife] Sarah’s home. I grew up in North Carolina and went to school here [Wofford College]. She is from Spartanburg and this is where her
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“… all of a sudden a few putts started going in and you know how that goes. When a few go in, you can make a bunch.” family is, so it just made sense to stay here. The Greenville area has been great. We are actually down in Bluffton now … it’s quite a bit warmer in the winter down there. We are at Berkeley Hall, which has a practice facility that may be second to none. When people are building a practice facility they come look at that one. JM: You’ve been off the tour for awhile. How is your health? WM: Good, the hip feels good. I was out for 22 months [following left hip surgery in the fall of 2018]. But it feels better now than it has in a long time. I can swing to my left side without pain rather than some sort of reverse pivot and throwing my hands at it. So physically I am good. I still get tight on cool mornings, but that is something that I am going to have to deal with going forward. JM: How hard was it to be out? WM: For the first few months it wasn’t hard at all. The only tournament that I watched was Tiger
win the 2018 Tour Championship, which was cool, and the Ryder Cup in France (which was not). But then I didn’t watch any golf for a long time. In 2019, I took my son to Augusta for the first round of The Masters. He had been a little too young to care much when I played a few years before. Of course he wanted to follow Tiger, along with 30,000 other people, so we are beside 15 tee where you can look down on 10 green. Tiger comes through and two putts from 30 feet or something like that and my son looks at me and says, “I want to go practice.” We climbed the hill back up toward the clubhouse and drove back to Greenville, and I took him to the range. JM: How has the comeback been? How is your game? WM: My game is interesting because I haven’t been putting well. I feel a lot like it did before I won at Memorial. I had been hitting it great but not making anything and all of a sudden a few putts started going in and you know how that goes. When a few go in, you can make a bunch. But then there is the whole medical exemption on the PGA Tour and figuring that out. Trying to decide when to play so that I don’t use it up too fast. You get so many starts but when I reach 375 points, the starts go away so I have to manage that. So I’ll have to figure that out based on how I am playing.
