'Jekyll and Hyde' golfer made millions from sport but blew it on secret heroin addiction

dailystar.co.uk:

READ MORE: Serial streaker with "19th hole" written above bum chased "by cast of Benny Hill" at Open"That’s drugs. They take you to some strange, dark places," said Willy.In a frank interview, Willy shared the stark details of his addiction with fellow professional player Mark Baldwin for The Firepit Collective.Using opioid pills and heroin, Willy somehow managed to hide his secret from the public - and even his own family - for 20 years.The star got his first set of clubs aged five and played his first tournament when he was nine, fast becoming one of Alabama's most talented young golfers.As a 13-year-old, he would hang out with older golfers on the courts.

When he saw them using drugs they said were helping them, and he wanted to try the same.“First we are buying and selling these highly powered narcotics in the bathroom at school for a huge markup, and also doing quite a heavy dose of them per day,” Willy said. “At the time, I’m becoming the second-highest ranked golf recruit for my graduating class of 2004.

How I juggled all this shit, I’ll never know.”Willy gained status on the Korn Ferry Tour (then Nationwide Tour) in 2011. The following season, heroin began to dominate his life.“I must have made a couple of hundred grand but I’d lost it all by 2012 just because of the drugs," he said.“I’d usually snort it.

I shot heroin a few times. Every time I shot up, it scared the shit out of me."I was lucky nothing terrible happened. Shooting heroin was fatal for people I knew.”Wilcox was unable to make his PGA Tour debut after being suspended for marijuana use. "I still can't believe it wasn't the other stuff," he said."Opioids.