Kevin Kisner heads to Masters a confident longshot in search of Sunday roars
He heard the roars. Of course he did. Every kid with the least bit of interest in golf knows about the thunder that rolls through the pines on Sunday afternoons in April at Augusta National Golf Club.
He heard the roars created by Faldo and Norman. Then Tiger. And now, Kevin Kisner, playing practically in his backyard, strives to manufacture a few roars of his own.
Kisner, a son of Aiken and the newly crowned champion of the World Golf Championship Dell Technologies Match Play, joins a who’s who in the game for the 83rd annual Masters that begins Thursday. And who can blame him for holding fast to that dream from his youth?
This will be his fourth Masters, and nothing from his previous appearances at this rite of spring suggests he should be more than an afterthought. After all, the golf course caters to the bombers off the tee, and Kisner is anything but.
Indeed, he points to the added length to Augusta National’s No. 5 and said, “another bogey.” That follows the par-3 fourth, on which he said he has laid up off the tee on occasion “because that’s the best way to make ‘3’ ” with certain wind conditions and pin placements.
Yet, he defines “competitor.” The record book shows some so-called short hitters have discovered that precision on occasion can overcome brawn at Augusta National. Accuracy off the tee and dead-eye putting, Kisner’s strengths, work wonders. Besides, no one rises to No. 25 in the world golf rankings without a lot of game.
“I just want a chance; I want to experience the Sunday back nine,” Kisner said. “Last year I played my best Masters (tie for 28th), and I remember being on No. 11 and hearing the roars start” with the leaders beginning their rounds. “I was closer; normally, I have been done when they are teeing off.
“If I could win only one more tournament, this would be the one. Absolutely!”
‘What did you shoot?’
To get from there, growing up in Aiken and playing at Woodside Plantation, to here, at least in the Masters’ pre-tournament conversation, has been mostly a steady climb for Kisner, 35. He played all sports, and a coach at South Aiken High nudged him toward golf.
“Donnie Holland coached both basketball and golf, and he didn’t see me (at 5-foot-10, 165 pounds) in the NBA,” Kisner said and laughed. “He told me I could make passes for him in basketball or go hit golf balls.”
He wisely chose golf, starring in high school and on the junior circuit, making All-America in helping the University of Georgia earn a national championship and winning his third professional start. But he struggled some, too — losing PGA Tour status and, at one point, his golf swing.
“The thing about Kevin is, he’s always had the tenacity, the determination, the drive to succeed,” said Charlie Roundtree III, a junior golf advocate who first met Kisner in the state junior program and remains a fast friend. “I remember in the U.S. Juniors at Pumpkin Ridge, he made a playoff for the final spot in match play, and he went out and earned it.
“Look at him today and see the same thing. There’s no ‘give-up’ in him.”
That trait stood out in the Dell Match Play. After losing his first match in group play, Kisner needed to win twice to retain any hopes of advancing. After six holes on the second day, he fell three down to Tony Finau, and if there were ever a time to mail it in, this was it.
Instead, three days later, he hoisted the championship trophy.
“I think (success) goes in believing in yourself and working on the right things,” Kisner said recently at Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken. “I know at 35 that I’m not going to magically find another 20 yards (off the tee). I’ve got to continue to do the things I do well very well, and I’ve got to build on things I don’t do well. I know I’m not a great bunker player, so I’m always working on that.
“There’s a thing about the game of golf, and it’s called ‘What did you shoot?’ and that’s all that matters.”
He answers that question very well.
Consistency a great strength
Kisner faced a struggle at the darndest time. He had won a Web.com tourney early in 2013 that virtually assured he would advance to the PGA Tour again the next year, but suddenly his swing disappeared.
“I was awful, shanking the ball in competition, and I was supposed to be on the PGA Tour in six months,” he said.
Through long-time friend, fellow PGA Tour pro and practice partner Scott Brown, Kisner hooked up with teaching pro John Tillery.
“He couldn’t hit an 8-iron that first day,” Tilley said and reeled off a list of technical problems. “Basically, we just had to straighten out his mechanics. We did a lot of work on his swing.”
A week later, Kisner played in the final pairing in a Web.com tournament. By 2015, he played in the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship and is annually in the national team discussions.
He’s had some near-misses on the big stage, losing in a playoff in the Players, sharing second in the Open Championship, and playing in Sunday’s final group in the PGA Championship. Overall, he has played in 16 majors with two top-10s, five top-20s and four missed cuts. Plus, he has a win and two seconds in World Golf Championship events.
“I found out in the 2015 Players (Rickie Fowler won the playoff over Kisner and Sergio Garcia) that I could play at this level,” Kisner said. “John (Tillery) kept telling me ‘to go compete’ and I did.”
He still does. He calls consistency one of his strengths, and “that’s a big deal. You never know what will happen.”
He makes that 20-mile trip from Aiken to Augusta this week still a longshot. But he’s a confident longshot. And if that dream of youth comes true and he creates some Sunday roars, what sweet music that would be.