FAIRMONT — Two days after William McGirt was born on June 21, 1979, Bev Marks, his aunt, walked into the hospital room in Lumberton with a Black Warrior pencil.
“She brought that pencil in and she put his hands together in a golf grip,” said Curtis McGirt, William’s father. “She said, ‘I believe the boy is gonna be a golfer.’”
Marks, who is now Bev Capps, was also the first to hand William a golf club as he learned the game in Fairmont at Flag Tree Golf Course — now Fairmont Golf Club.
In the mid-1980s, Capps recalls looking at her toddler nephew and asking him a simple question: “Do you want to be a golfer?”
“As soon as he could talk, I’d ask him that,” she said. “When I did, he’d say, ‘Uh huh.’”
Little William would not only became a golfer, as a 36-year-old he is considered the 44th best on a planet with 7.4 billion people.
“He didn’t have much choice around our crowd,” Capps said. “It’s just been a family sport.”
That crowd was led by Bill Marks, the patriarch of Robeson County’s family of accomplished golfers that included Ann Marks, his wife, two daughters, Anne McGirt (William’s mother) and Bev, and two sons, James “Boo” Marks and Joe Marks.
“I guess (Bill) is the one who started it all and it spread out through the family,” Capps said. “There was somebody at the golf course every day. Everyone in the family had a hand it in, teaching William all facets of the game.”
Capps said Ann Marks, her 88-year-old mother and William’s grandmother, played an instrumental role in William’s development, “reigning him in” to teach him the rules of the game and etiquette on the course.
William is now enjoying his sixth season on the PGA Tour, coming off his first win last weekend at The Memorial tournament in Ohio. It’s the culmination of a journey that started in Robeson County with a bunch of family members.
“He realized his dream, but it’s been everybody in the family’s dream,” Capps said of the victory. “If my father was still living, he’d be proud. It’s like we’re living vicariously through William. This is just like, ‘Wow, he did it.’”
The club in the country
Although his official PGA Tour profile lists William as a Lumberton native, he was raised in Fairmont by parents Curtis and Anne McGirt.
Anne’s house growing up was on hole No. 2 at Flag Tree Golf Course.
She met her future husband while practicing in front of her house one afternoon. Little did she know, Curtis was ahead of her as she struck the ball in his direction.
“I debated on whether or not to get the ball, or go back in the house,” Anne said with a laugh. “I decided to go get it, and the rest is history. We started dating not long after that. Most of our dates were on the golf course.”
Curtis said the two would meet at the course when he got off work “to play as many holes as we could before dark.”
“It was always golf-oriented,” he said. “Not that either one of us were considered good, but we enjoyed it.”
Their first-born son would tee it up right behind them. Growing up around a family of golfers, William was on the course any chance he got.
Once William started playing, he became Capps’ “little shadow.” She said he was a quick study, imitating the swings of some of the PGA Tour’s legendary golfers at the time, including Arnold Palmer — her personal favorite.
“I used to get a kick out of asking him who the best golfer on the planet was because he’d always say, ‘Arnold Palmer’ and I’d say, ‘Who’s next best?’ and he’d answer, ‘Boo-Boo,’” Capps said with a laugh.
A college golfer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Capps held her own within the family when it came to navigating a golf course, earning several runner-up finishes in the women’s division of the Robeson County Golf Championships. Bill was also an accomplished player, having won the county golf championship as a senior. James “Boo” also won a county title, as did William.
“I could play, but I could never grind like William,” she said. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a child take to golf like he did. He loved golf from the get-go.
“As soon as he could walk he was out there, holding the ropes around the green up for everyone to go under. He jumped in with any of us that played — all of us.”
The process started with teaching William how to grip a club, progressing to the point where he’d hit from the 150-yard marker on certain holes.
“I can remember moving back to 200 yards thinking I was in business,” William said. “I would tag along with grandpa, grandma and Aunt Bev mostly. … I didn’t grow up at the country club, I grew up at the club in the country.”
Bill made William’s first set of clubs — but not intentionally.
“Daddy always seemed to have broken clubs laying around,” Capps said with a laugh. “I don’t think he broke them with the intent to make clubs for William.”
Using electrical tape for a makeshift grip, William had a driver, 7-iron and putter starting out. Soon afterward, at around the age of 5, he started to win tournaments.
On June 4, 1988, 8-year-old William competed in — and won — the 14-and-under division of the first Robeson County Junior Optimist Golf Championship at Pinecrest Country Club. As the youngest competitor in the field, he carded a 94 to win by seven strokes. At the time it was two strokes shy of tying his career-best round.
“I don’t remember any (early tournaments) where he didn’t win,” Capps said.
He became a standout baseball player at Fairmont High School, excelling in both sports throughout his prep career — although the school didn’t have a golf program until his senior campaign — before deciding golf was his best route, accepting a scholarship to attend Wofford College.
“I just think that he always had that drive and he set that goal in high school,” Capps said. “He saw golf was his ticket and he’s very driven — like he’s got blinders on. It was like he was in a different world when he was golfing.”
Loyal little brother
Keith McGirt remembers the first time he beat his older brother, William, on the golf course.
“It was by two strokes,” Keith said. “He didn’t play good that day.”
It was a different story the next time they played.
“That next week he went out and shot 28 on the back (nine holes),” Keith said with a laugh. “He didn’t like losing to me, but that was a part of the sibling rivalry.
“I never go out there with that expectation (to beat him), but with my personality, I’m gonna try. That came from my grandfather (Bill). He was not the best golfer in the world, but he wasn’t afraid of anybody. We definitely got some of the competitiveness from him.”
William is almost five years older than Keith, but despite the drive to beat his older brother on the course, Keith’s support of William’s golf endeavors didn’t waver.
“If there’s ever been a loyal brother, it’s Keith,” Curtis said.
Anne adds: “That pedestal is pretty tall, always has been.”
Keith played his college golf at Wingate College, earning MVP honors his senior season. He continues to compete in the county’s biggest tournaments and caddied for William several years at amateur events and tournaments on the mini-tour circuit.
“You knew he was good, but you didn’t know how good,” Keith said. “He competed against some big-time Division I schools, winning three tournaments (at Wofford) and closing out by winning the (2001 Southern Conference) tournament. I knew then that he had it in him.”
The brothers also helped their father run the Eastern Junior Golf Association, making Curtis swell with pride after a key moment in 2002.
“I had a really bad cold that wouldn’t go away and it turned into bacterial pneumonia,” Curtis said. “I was in the hospital for 27 days. We were so new (as an organization) that we couldn’t afford to cancel tournaments. Well, they (Keith and William) knew what to do. They loaded up and went to Shelby by themselves and saved that golf tour. Had it not been for that, we would have been out of business.”
Keith was also there to help during an event during which William’s caddie walked off the course on the second day of the Nationwide Tour Championship.
“That’s the most nervous Keith’s ever been because he knew William was trying to get his Tour card,” Anne said. “William needed a caddie, and Keith was there for him.”
Keith also caddied for William at the 2003 U.S. Amateur Championship at Oakmont, the site of this week’s U.S. Open — which will be William’s first appearance in golf’s national championship. Keith plans on being there every step of the way as his brother navigates the daunting country club near Pittsburgh.
“It was such a great experience for me and I wasn’t even hitting a golf ball,” Keith said. “I was thankful to go to some of these places with him. I just wanted to do everything I could to help him be successful. I’ll never be able to repay him for those experiences.”
The memory that sticks with Curtis, however, is William’s first PGA Tour event at the 2007 Wyndham Classic in Greensboro. Keith was on the bag that weekend as well.
“I still get chills thinking about seeing them side by side on the first tee,” Curtis said. “That was a fun time.”
Knowing the hard work his brother put in over the course of his college career and time on the mini-tours, Keith reveled in the moment this past weekend as William claimed his first PGA Tour title.
“It was an unbelievable feeling,” Keith said. “It was just great to see your older brother reach one of his dreams. It’s kind of the exclamation point on all of his hard work.
“I’ve always said that his success on the tour was only a matter of when, not a matter of if. Maybe that’s the little brother having that much faith in big brother. But I truly have believed. I’m excited, but not surprised.”
The journey to the Tour
William opened his professional career at Sunset Beach in a Gateway Tour event at Lions Paw Golf Links in June 2004.
Six years later, in December 2010, he made history, becoming the first Robeson County native to have full status on the PGA Tour, earning his PGA Tour card after tying for second in the PGA Tour Qualifying School Tournament.
He made his 2011 debut on Jan. 13 at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
“It was hours and hours and hours of hard work, dedication and practice,” William said.
While William put in the work, Curtis and Anne each played their role to ensure he could reach his goal of becoming a professional golfer.
“We always tried to do more with and for the children,” Anne said. “That’s the only way we got through junior golf with William. Everything we could drive to, we would. Outside an hour or two, Keith and I would stay home.”
Anne picked up several summer jobs to keep William competing, something Curtis “can’t thank her enough for.”
“When we were (traveling to tournaments), she took it upon herself to get a job at Pembroke State and a Saturday academy. She was the one who brought in the extra income.”
But Anne is quick to point out the vital role Curtis played in William’s success.
“William was lucky because I could not help him (on the course) like his dad could,” Anne said. “That just made it really advantageous for William. It was natural. (Curtis) needed to be the one to take William.”
Once William started traveling on his own in college, Curtis handed down his old Geo Prizm, a car with 80,000 miles on it.
“You’d pull in the parking lot (at Wofford) and see that sitting between beamers and Tahoes,” Anne said.
Curtis added: “He ended up putting a little over 200,000 miles on it, and that was after I gave it to him. He took that little car from Florida to Rhode Island, then gave it to Keith before it gave up one day on U.S. 74. We wore that car out, literally.”
Now William’s a winner on the PGA Tour garnering national attention for his common-man story, and he’s better than ever at his craft, enjoying the best of his six seasons on the Tour.
“I don’t consider it a journey; it’s more like an excursion,” Curtis said. “You peek around the corner and wonder what is going to happen next. We’ve had some really good experiences.”
For Curtis, it’s also gratifying to see William take his time to give back, spending time with children across the nation.
“The thing that sticks with me about William is he was wonderful with kids,” he said. “Most of the extra things he does involves junior golf or kids in some way. And he’s a big proponent of Shriners Hospitals for Children.”
After Ben Martin won the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in 2015, William made it a point to get Martin to the Shriners Hospital in Greenville, S.C.
“There had never been a winner to visit the Shriners Hospital,” Curtis said. “William got (Ben) to meet him at the one in Greenville that Christmas to give the kids gifts. From that point, every time he visits a city with a Shriners Hospital, he arranges a time to visit.
“He said, ‘Dad, I don’t see how any man that’s a parent can walk in that hospital and not come out a changed man.’ He’s been doing that ever since and I’m proud of that.”
Since his breakthrough win last weekend, William said “the support has been overwhelming.” By the time he left the media center at Muirfield Village, he said he had received more than 500 text messages.
“I took Mac to go swimming (on Tuesday), and as we were walking in people started clapping,” William said. “I never dreamed of it being like this.
“I can remember coming up, playing with (my family), dreaming of making it. Looking back since then, I honestly can’t put it into words.”
William’s wife Sarah, and their two children, Mac and Caroline, are heading to Pennsylvania today to join him, and as others start to take notice of his rise on the tour, his family continues to share their stories of the people who rallied around a boy who grew up at “the club in the country” to help him make his dream a reality.
“It’s amazing how many people have their eyes on William,” Capps said. “I’m glad he’s able to live the life he’s living. He’s living the dream. He’s made the family very proud and I think it’s only going to get better.”
