Kirk Morrison

Oakland Raiders Linebacker

One of my first times playing, I was in college. I was at a media conference and I was playing with some of the executive board members of the conference.
I was the worst one at the time and I felt like I needed to step my game up. I didn’t want to be the weakest link. I lost about 20 or 30 balls that day. Everything I hit was going every which way. It was a bad experience as far as me hitting the ball, but it definitely inspired me.

I got heavily involved with the game of golf because as a football player during the off-season we have a lot of charity events. So we spend a lot of time on the course for charity and you end up taking a liking to it. You’ll see a big football player who looks like he can’t swing at all and the next thing you know he’s knocking the ball 300 yards on the first drive. You say wow this guy can really hit. I think it’s one of the most fun things I do in the off-season.

It’s something that’s hard to conquer but you want to get better at it. And that’s something that I’ve been trying to do. You just have to keep working at it. There’s always going to be someone better than you. Just when you think you’ve worked enough you can work even more. One of the greatest players in the game is Tiger Woods and he works every single day. And he hasn’t perfected it yet, but he’s definitely on top of the game.

Once I got my own clubs all I wanted to do was go out and use them as much as possible. Golf is very relaxing. Sometimes you just want to go out to the driving range and hit a couple hundred balls. It gets your mind off of whatever you have going on. I can always bring my brother and my friends down and let them hack away. I’ve been practicing so I’m a little bit better than they are.

I actually went to the US Open this past year over at Torrey Pines. I saw Tiger play the last two rounds. I should have gone on Monday to the playoff round, but I had a prior engagement. It was actually my first major ever and it was one for the ages.