{"id":437408,"date":"2025-11-16T04:12:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T04:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437408"},"modified":"2025-11-16T04:12:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T04:12:46","slug":"will-wilcox-opens-up-about-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/will-wilcox-opens-up-about-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Wilcox Opens Up About Addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to athletes, it is not unusual for them to have some sort of health struggle.\u00a0 Just this year, the PGA saw a handful, with Tiger Woods undergoing multiple surgeries<\/a>, Billy Horschel going through something similar<\/a>, and Gary Woodland\u2019s health struggle<\/a>s coming to an end.\u00a0 Recently, Will Wilcox opened up about his own health struggles, that being an addiction he battled for the majority of his career.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilcox On The PGA<\/span><\/h2>\n

Wilcox joined the PGA in 2014 and was doing well for himself on the field.\u00a0 In the course of three years, he had 72 starts, making the cut in 38 of them.\u00a0 He never won a PGA event, but that was not for lack of trying.\u00a0 He made the top 10 eight times and was the runner-up once.\u00a0 At one point, Wilcox scored a hole-in-one at the TPC Sawgrass.\u00a0 His performance was great enough that he found himself in the top 100 on the Tour.\u00a0 However, he has been struggling with an addiction the entire time, and that era is fuzzy for Wilcox.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilcox Opens Up<\/span><\/h2>\n

Wilcox\u2019s addiction started at the age of 13 when he was introduced to opioids.\u00a0 This also means that he was caught in the throes of the ongoing opioid crisis as it was beginning.\u00a0 Wilcox described the effects of his addiction<\/a> on his life as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d gone from a top 100 PGA Tour player making millions to living in a van down by the river,\u201d Wilcox says. \u201cI was a drug-addicted loser that nobody wanted to look at or speak to. I was forgotten trash.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilcox went on to say that when he revisits courses, he can\u2019t remember how each one was set up.\u00a0 Even if he made the top 25 on that course, he still struggles to find where the next hole is.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recovery<\/span><\/h2>\n

After losing his Tour Card in 2016, Wilcox lost his career earnings to his addiction, and decided it was time to seek help, and went to rehab.\u00a0 By this point, any enabler had already left his life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll the people that used to be bad influences in my life are all dead or in prison. That\u2019s just how that lifestyle works, especially with fentanyl. But then, when you come out on the other side and people see me, it\u2019s an amazing transformation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since going to rehab, Wilcox has overcome his addiction and has recovered.\u00a0 He says that he not only looks better, but also feels better too.\u00a0 According to Wilcox, he is much more energetic too, \u201clike a million dollars.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From Player To Caddie<\/span><\/h2>\n

Today, Will Wilcox is a caddie for Sungjae Im.\u00a0 It\u2019s not quite what he used to do, but it is honest and important work.\u00a0 He still gets to work in the sport he spent so much time with and likes what he does.\u00a0 It is a shame that his career as a player ended the way it did, but his career as a caddie has been a fresh start.\u00a0 If his time with Im is anything to go by, he has been a stellar caddie.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 John David Mercer-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to athletes, it is not unusual for them to have some sort of health struggle.\u00a0 Just this year, the PGA saw a handful, with Tiger Woods undergoing multiple surgeries, Billy Horschel going through something similar, and Gary Woodland\u2019s health struggles coming to an end.\u00a0 Recently, Will Wilcox opened up about his own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":437409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[8202],"class_list":["post-437408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-will-wilcox"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437410,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437408\/revisions\/437410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}