Hanging It Up
Journeyman tour pro with two starts left hints at retirement in hilarious tweet
Despite being absent from the PGA Tour since August of 2017, Willy Wilcox is still a name even the casual golf fan might remember well. The 35-year-old has always had a hilarious presence on Twitter, and folks might specifically recall his No. 1 career highlight: an ace on the 17th hole at the 2016 Players Championship, which yielded one of the great reactions ever:
Unfortunately for Wilcox, this may prove to be his last great moment on the PGA Tour, which makes the getting-electrocuted celebration all the more memorable, and worth it. He's made just 20 PGA Tour starts since, failing to post a single top 10 among them.
Over the last three seasons, Wilcox has spent the bulk of his time on the Korn Ferry Tour, finding plenty of success in 2018 with four finishes of T-8 or better. He added two more top 10s in 2019, but has struggled for the most part since early 2020. On Monday, Wilcox informed his Twitter followers he has two more KFT starts left, and that if he doesn't "epically ball out" in those two starts that he's going to call it a career. Hinting-at-retirement tweets don't get more genuine, and hilarious, then this:
Straight and to the point, very on brand for the Alabama native. This feels like the type of mindset that might just help him ball out and extend his career, though his recent results would lead one to believe this might be the end for ol' Willy W. In his last 21 KFT starts, he's missed 12 cuts, withdrew four times and finished no better than T-34 during that stretch. He's also coming off a first-round 80 at the Live and Work in Maine Open.
But now that he's in full-on "f--- it" mode, who knows. We'll be rooting for him, as will the rest of the golf world. If he doesn't ball out, it sounds like we'll be one step closer to the Willy Wilcox book, so it won't be all bad: