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Norman,
OK -- Bo may know football and baseball. Deion, too. But they both failed in their attempts to translate their efforts on the playing fields into a career as outdoorsmen.
That’s where Kentucky’s Kevin Wirth has them beat. As has been well-documented, he previously was a Kentucky Derby jockey. This year, he won the BASS Elite Series tournament on Old Hickory. Now he’s looking to make a name in a third sport – golf.
The BASS ZONE caught up with Wirth on the Saturday of the season-ending tournament on Oneida and he was already onto the next challenge.
“I’ll be hitting 500 golf balls on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,” he said.
Why
the rush?
“I’m getting prepared to go to
the World Golf Championship out in
Myrtle Beach. You play four days and
then if you win your flight you get
to go on and play a fifth day.”
He had special company in the form
of his octogenarian father, with
whom he teamed up to take on all
comers. The format involved playing
five courses in five days, in
flights according to age and
handicap. Kevin was in the 49 and
under with a 7-9 handicap group. His
father was in the 75 and older with
a 16 handicap group.
His father is diminutive in statute
– “He’s 5’2”, weighs about
110 pounds,” Kevin said at Oneida
– but he’s a formidable
competitor. “I’m just going
there to chill out. He wants to
win.”
They both won their flights. Kevin
finished third in the championship
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“They combined our scores and we came in third,” Wirth said. “I still don’t understand how we won our flights and only came in third.”
“Once I got there, the competitive juices got flowing,” he continued. “But the fun part was playing with three different guys each day on five different courses. We were like long lost buddies. They were all really good guys.”
But his quest to satisfy his golf addiction doesn’t end there. Wirth has a long-term goal of qualifying for the Senior Tour.
“If I ever have the time, I’m going to do it,” he said. “But I need a lot of time. At (Myrtle Beach) I spent four, five, six hours on the range after a round working on little things.”
He said his short game is strong and he has “a lot of length driving. It’s really astronomical for a guy my size. I can reach most par fives in two unless they’re in the 600 yard range.”
And despite the amount of time fellow pros like Mike Wurm may spend on the golf course, Wirth is confident that he’s the best golfer on tour.
What about other sports?
“I play a mean game of ping pong and a mean game of pool,” he said. “And I bowl pretty doggone good, too.”
And then he laid down the gauntlet: “There’s not much VanDam can beat me at except fishing.”
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