Beyond the Ropes: Kirk’s key hobby

Some players splurge on a car when they win their first PGA TOUR event. Others might take an exotic trip or pay off a mortgage or hire an architect to design their dream home. Not Chris Kirk, though. He bought a satin black 1886 Steinway baby grand piano when he won the Viking Classic back in 2011. Kirk’s wife, Tahnee, found the vintage piano one day when she was shopping with her mother in Brunswick, Georgia. She knew Chris, who had been teaching himself to play on an electronic keyboard, was interested in buying the real thing. So, Tahnee and her mom went inside the piano store. It was the first one she saw, and the piano was nothing short of stunning. “It obviously wasn’t cheap,â€� Kirk recalls. “So just kind of jokingly, I was like, ‘well, if I win a tournament soon, I’ll go buy it.’ And it was within a week or two after that I won in Jackson and went and got it. So, it was pretty crazy how it all happened. “It’s definitely a centerpiece at our house now and hopefully something that will be in my family for another 125 years, or however long since it was made.â€� The piano has been painstakingly restored. The frame, sound board and pedals are all original while the strings and gleaming ivory keys are new. “It plays as good as it looks,â€� Kirk says. “You can see the old patents and dates and stuff, all on the metal frame. … It’s got a period correct Steinway logo on the face above the keys. All the screws and bolts and everything is all original. “It’s pretty cool.â€� Around the time Kirk turned pro in 2007, he had started learning to play a keyboard. He taught himself by watching tutorials on YouTube — rewinding the video time after time until he got the music just right. “I’m not any good,â€� Kirk says. “I would love to be a better player one day. I have a handful of songs that I can sit down and play. It’s enough to entertain me anyways.â€� The Journey classic, “Don’t Stop Believing,â€� is always a crowd-pleaser. Not that Kirk is one to play in front of his friends very often, though. “I mean, maybe every now and then if somebody gets the right amount of beer in me,â€� Kirk says with a grin. “Usually not, no.â€� Another one of the dozen or so songs the four-time PGA TOUR champ can play is “This Year’s Love.â€� He and Tahnee danced to the David Gray classic at their wedding. “I’ve played that one a lot, I think to the point where my wife is tired of the song that was our first dance,â€� Kirk says. Kirk comes from a musical – and very creative — family. His older brother Mason played guitar while he and his younger brother Connor were drummers. Kirk was never in a band but he did perform a drum riff he wrote in a talent show once. “We always were playing music and around it a lot,â€� Kirk recalls. “I don’t have a drum set at my house (anymore). I’ve been threatening my wife, telling her that I’m going to get one again, but she is resisting a little bit. So, we’ll see.â€� Kirk’s brothers are accomplished artists, as well. Connor, whose now lives in Japan, studied print making at the Savannah College of Art and Design. And Mason, who once worked in graphic design and is now a rep for Bobby Jones Apparel, went to the Art Institute of Atlanta. So what about Kirk? Does he have any artistic abilities? To hear him tell it, not so much. He says he was only “remotely competentâ€� at making pottery. “I took art class every semester of high school and was terrible at all that,â€� he says. “I love the part of your brain that is needed to do those types of things. I’ve never been good at any of it, music or the art stuff. But I just love it. “I think it’s very good for you. And so I’ll definitely be encouraging (my kids) to try anything and everything when it comes to music and art.â€� Kirk and Tahnee have three children, the youngest of whom was born in August. But Sawyer, who is 5, and Foster, who turns 4 next month, enjoy watching their dad play the piano. “Every now and then they want to actually listen to me play something,â€� Kirk says. “Most of the time, they want to climb up there and bang on the keys a little bit. They know they are not allowed to hit them very hard. “And then my youngest son, Foster, he will stick his finger out and wait for me to take it and play. Obviously, you can’t play much of a song with one finger, but ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’ or something like that.â€� After all, musicians have to start somewhere. Right?

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