Pro Golfer’s Shattered Life Depicted In New TV Special

Mark Burk won golf tournaments around the world, dated a supermodel and taught Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman how to swing before he ended up living in some abandoned construction pipes in Palm Springs.

His riches-to-rags story, and his attempt to get back into life’s fairway by restoring his career and good name, will be told in an upcoming, 10- part TV series called “Pipe Dream.” It premieres Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time on the Golf Channel.

According to the channel, Burk, now 53, knew from age 13 that golf was what he wanted to do. He studied under Ben Doyle, Jim Flick, Peter Kostis and Kip Puterbaugh, and played in various professional golf tournaments across the country and internationally, spending a year on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour.

He eventually became a golf instructor himself and a Hollywood consultant, teaching Berry and Jackman how to look the part in “Swordfish.”

But after years of living a charmed life, Burk found himself penniless and homeless in 2008, due to a series of events, including an alleged domestic violence dispute with then girlfriend and supermodel Beverly Johnson.

“Pipe Dream” documents his struggle to survive on the streets, and his efforts to get back on course, as it were.

Viewers will watch as he begins to reassemble his life, find a job, deal with a pending legal battle against Johnson and attempt to make it through the Champions Tour Qualifying School.

Keith Allo, Golf Channel’s vice president for program, doesn’t want to give too much of the story away.

He says the series will follow the “story of a man whose life has been turned upside down and now struggles daily to reclaim his life and his dream. Even through all of Mark’s personal and professional struggles, it’s been his passion and respect for the game of golf that has kept him alive.”

Allo believes “Pipe Dream” will “not only resonate with golf fans but with anyone, who at one time in their life, dared to dream against all odds.”