Former tour player Steve Wheatcroft laid bare his struggles with alcohol and depression in a first-person essay he linked to on social media this past Sunday.
In it, Wheatcroft, who spent seven season each on the PGA and Korn Ferry tours, detailed how retiring from golf in 2019 eventually led to a loss of identity, alcohol abuse and a hatred of himself.
The tipping point, he wrote, was when working in 2022 as a financial advisor a potential client informed him they would not be immediately moving forward with on a lucrative deal. Wheatcroft, now 46, said he poured himself a vodka with a splash of orange juice at 7:15 a.m.
“That drink is where part of me died. That drink is where I gave up on life, that drink introduced me to a new best friend,” he wrote. “I lived drunk. Never sloppy, and you’d never have known. But I knew. I basically had a buzz for two years. I hated myself and I didn’t even know who I was. How do you hate someone you don’t even know?”
Wheatcroft titled his post “Until I couldn’t” and said he hopes to help others, encouraging anyone struggling with addiction or mental illness to talk to someone.
Wheatcroft joined “Golf Central” on Thursday to further discuss all that he endured, his recovery and his goal in making a difference in others’ lives.