Headrick’s lifetime of recognition in golf pales to addiction deliverance from God
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – The large living room wall in the home of Jimmy Headrick is not quite big enough to cover all the awards, special recognitions, honors and golfing victories the Slidell man has had in his 68 years.
But his latest victory, a personal one that “saved my life when I turned to Jesus Christ to overcome addiction problems,” is something he is happy to trade for all the others.
The record of accomplishments for Headrick as a PGA Golf Professional for more than 40 years will probably never be matched, from success as a college golfer to many years as a head pro at many of the top regional golf courses. Additionally, he had a passion for junior golf programs from the start of his career that helped untold young people, and with their golfing dreams.
Even as Headrick dealt with hundreds of people over the years in his job as a head golf professional at some of the top regional courses, and directed top national junior golf programs, virtually no one was aware of the demons he was fighting personally after alcohol, then Xanax, took control of his life.
The reasons behind it are also something few people know anything about. Headrick’s personal battles with depression, anxiety and then what was diagnosed as complex-PTSD came from enduring an unfathomable number of personal tragedies in his life, starting at the age of 17 when he was the driver in an accident that left a teenage girl dead, and then later in life when his 1-year-old son died, his best friend died, and he lost both parents at a very young age—all of that occurring in a two year time period.
“I was too prideful to ever reach out for help. I would think, ‘I’m Jimmy Headrick. Look at all I’ve done. I can handle this.’ But the truth is I couldn’t help myself and I was hurting people in my family with my actions. I got to the point I couldn’t start my day without drinking first thing in the morning,” he said.
All that changed one year ago when a man he didn’t know started up a conversation on a street in his neighborhood.
“I didn’t know the guy, but after we talked for a few minutes, he looked at me and said, ‘you’re not doing well, are you? Are you OK?’ And for the first time ever I said, ‘I’m not OK.’ That encounter changed my future and probably saved my life,” Headrick said.
The man told him about a program at Journey Fellowship Church called Celebrate Recovery, headed by a former addict named Pastor Al Chartier. Headrick said he went there for the first time in December 2021, “when I was drunk,” still not realizing it would be the start to a new life.
“His words resonated with me, especially II Corinthians 5:17—about being a new man in Christ—and within two weeks I quit everything cold turkey,” he said. “It might not have been the best way to do it, but I survived it and have been sober ever since.”
Still as busy as ever with golf, Headrick is now sharing the good news and is not ashamed to tell others about what happened to him.
“If speaking about this publicly can lead one person to Jesus, or help just one person overcome addiction, I am happy to do it. If He helped me, He can help anyone,” Headrick added.
From his early life at Brookwood Country Club in Mississippi, where he caddied for his father, Headrick fell in love with the game of golf.
“I knew by the time I was 12 that I wanted to do something with golf,” he said.
And man has he done it.
After excelling in high school and signing with Delta State to play golf in college, he was part of a historic finish there when the small school defeated both Ole Miss and Mississippi State in one season for the first time ever.
He finished college and immediately became an assistant PGA pro at two renowned New Orleans courses, Audubon Golf Club and then Lakewood Country Club, followed by becoming the youngest head golf professional in Louisiana at the age of 25 when he was hired to direct historic Colonial Country Club.
A year later he was hired as head pro for Beau Chene in Mandeville, followed by taking the head pro job at the new Eastover Country Club course in New Orleans, while also guiding the UNO golf team as their head coach.
But like so many others, Headrick’s professional and personal life was severely impacted in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast. Eastover, which Headrick led for 18 years and had grown it to become one of the most prestigious courses around, was completely destroyed by the flood waters. Suddenly, he was back to square one in his career if he wanted to remain in this area.
“I had to reinvent myself,” he said. “I always had a lot of interest in junior golf, and then I was asked to become the executive director of The First Tee program in New Orleans, which used golf to reach at-risk youth, as well as providing scholarships.
Like everything else he put his hands to, Headrick quickly put the program on track and reached over 500 kids in two years, building the chapter to a sound financial position with over $200,000 in the bank.
As golf courses began to come back, he was hired as the Director of Player Development at Lakewood Country Club in 2009, re-establishing The Mackel tournament, and again playing a major role in junior golf around the state as he established the only national junior golf championship in Louisiana. His summer golf camp program for courses around the state reached over 350 kids and was seen on national TV shows such as The Golf Channel and others.
In 2015, he was hired as the staff instructor at Diamondhead in Mississippi, besides continuing to lead the U.S. Kids Golf “Gulf Coast” Tour as its director.
For all his work overall in golf, particularly with junior golf programs, his awards do, indeed, fill more than an entire living room wall.
This month he was honored with his fourth Distinguished Service Award, this time with the Louisiana PGA, which follows other similar awards with the Louisiana Golf Association, the New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame and the Kelly Gibson Foundation. He has been named Director of the Year with the U.S. Kids Golf Tour, been selected as one of the 50 best teachers in America three times with the US Kids Golf and selected to the Gulf States PGA Hall of Fame.
There are many other honors and awards, but during more than 40 years of incredible success in the game of golf, Headrick was hiding his personal issues with depression, anxiety and PTSD that started when he was just a teenager, driving a car that had a teen girl in the front seat, with a friend in the back seat. As he attempted to pass a bus on a two-lane road, the bus unexpectedly started to make a left turn, clearly not aware that Headrick was passing. The bus crashed into the front left side of his car, killing the young girl.
“I didn’t even know this girl,” Headrick said. “My friend was sitting in the back seat and this girl was a friend of his. All of a sudden, I am the driver in a car that had someone killed.”
Headrick said the aftermath of the accident was terrible.
“Her mother kept calling me and saying I was a murderer. It went on for a long time,” he said, even though he was never ticketed or charged in the crash.
The emotional and psychological guilt and pressure of the incident led to increased drinking, but he still tried to move on with his life and got married in 1980 at the age of 26, eventually having four children. But in 1987, his 1-year-old son Colin died in a choking incident with a babysitter, and in the next two-year time frame, he also lost a best friend in a plane crash, his father died at the age of 50 and his mother died at the age of 51.
“I was really leaning on drinking and self-medicating however I could,” he said. “I was a functioning alcoholic and a convenient Christian. If being a Christian around other people worked, then I wore it, but then I would drink with friends anytime it fit.”
With so much tragedy that Headrick was living with, it led to his divorce, then things took yet another bad turn in 2010 when he was crossing a street in New Orleans, and a police car hit him. He suffered such severe injuries to his head, back and rear that he had a hip replacement and back surgery.
He had remarried in 1996, and life went on as he continued to work at Diamondhead Golf Course in Mississippi, while continuing to direct the U.S. Kids Golf Tour and coach the Holy Cross High School team. But alcohol and the Xanax began to consume his life for the past decade, something he couldn’t break on his own and was afraid to confide to others.
“Addiction will get you in the end,” he said. “It certainly did for me. My marriage was falling apart and I’m sure I would have lost everything had it not been for that chance encounter with the neighbor, not to mention my wife Carol sticking with me.
“I’ll forever be indebted to Carol for staying with me through all the hard times. She helped with my duties with U.S. Kids Golf and has been a wonderful wife and mother. Both of our children have graduated from college with honors, and I could never have gotten through all of this without her,” he said.
“All those years I lived a prideful life, since Jesus Christ was never someone I turned to. But now it’s clear the Lord has something planned for me and I never want to go back,” he added. “I feel new again and I’m not afraid to tell anyone.”
Headrick especially wants to thank Pastor Al Chartier at Journey Fellowship, stating, “if not for him and the grace of God, we would not be having this talk.”