At 5:36 p.m. Saturday, Kevin Kisner birdied East Lake Golf Club’s No. 18 to finish the (thus far) lowest round of this Tour Championship, what potentially could be the biggest tournament of his life.
So anxious was he to get finished and move on to something important like Georgia Bulldogs football that he had time for only 64 shots this day at East Lake.
As to his innermost thoughts about his 6-under round and the sorta conceivable scenario that he could win the Tour Championship and, yes, even the $10 million FedEx Cup, some imaginary license will be required.
Sparks practically flew from Kisner’s FootJoys as he bypassed the interview seekers and hustled from the scoring area to the clubhouse. There are only two things that can make a fellow move like that: Either his wife was in labor, or the Bulldogs had a kickoff in 84 minutes.
And his wife, Brittany, gave birth to their second child two weeks ago.
At 10 under, Kisner is tied for second at the Tour Championship, two strokes back of Paul Casey. He’ll tee off Sunday with a chance to win for the third time on the PGA Tour. And the way the top FedEx Cup points guys are playing here, it’s not totally unthinkable that he could climb over them all to take that season-long award and the $10 million that comes with it.
To take the FedEx Cup, Kisner must first of all win the Tour Championship on Sunday. Then – take a deep breath here – Jordan Spieth (T-13 after Saturday) needs to finish 11th or worse. Justin Thomas (T-4) needs to finish fifth or worse. Dustin Johnson (T-13) needs to finish in a three-way tie for third or worse. Marc Leishman (T-22) needs to finish third or worse. And Jon Rahm (T7) needs to finish in a three-way tie for second or worse. So, you’re saying there’s a chance? Well, yeah.
Yet the only thing on Kisner’s mind at the close of the business day Saturday was that he had a whirlybird to catch.
Any debate as to which of the many former Georgia golfers on the PGA Tour is the most ardent Bulldogs fan may have been forever settled Saturday. Georgia players make up 10 percent of the Tour Championship field, but it was only Kisner who plotted out something as outlandish as hitching a ride on a helicopter Saturday to navigate the 65 miles to Athens in hopes of catching the bulk of Georgia’s SEC opener against Mississippi State. Just minutes after signing his scorecard, Kisner boarded a waiting chopper at the neighboring Charlie Yates Golf Course and took to the sky.
Only Kisner would forego a little practice range/putting green time at the end of the round to iron out any little issue (and his putting, he says, has been giving him fits).
Only he would ignore the common sense thing to do when playing for a possible $11 million the next day. You know, put your feet up, relax, gather your thoughts, steel yourself for the round to come. Maybe even sleep.
He would be unaccompanied by any other of the golfing Dogs this night.
Brian Harman, well back at the 25th spot in the 30-man tournament, wasn’t going to do it. He chose to relax in Atlanta, watching on TV with his family. “I tried to rationalize (going). I couldn’t make sense of it,” he said. “Especially after we all went to the Notre Dame game a couple weekends ago.”
Before the start of the BMW Championship outside of Chicago, a group of them made the 90-mile trek to South Bend, where Georgia beat Notre Dame.
It’s just so hard to fit in a little golf between all this football.
Russell Henley, the other Bulldog in the Tour Championship field, tied for ninth at 3 under, didn’t even know Kisner was contemplating such a thing. Not that he would have joined him.
Kisner’s playing partner Saturday, as well as many others in the upper reaches of the leaderboard, wished him just the best evening ever.
“I heard about that he was catching a flight to the Georgia game,” said Jason Day, four shots behind Kisner at 6 under. “I told him to have a good one tonight. I’m OK with him staying out as late as he wants and having a few drinks.”
You know, anything that might throw him off his game Sunday.
It was a mad, mad, mad thing Kisner has for the love of college football.
Apparently, it all came together through the miracle of Twitter. On Friday, Kisner tweeted out this plea: ““I need a helicopter to take me to Athens tomorrow after the round to make the game. Who has one in ATL?”
It seems he was serious. As Kisner told a PGA Tour media official who raced with him off the course: “Well, Twitter's a pretty amazing thing. I just tweeted it out last night, and it was pretty cool that people started reaching out to me. There was a lot of people that gave me an opportunity, and it worked out.”
The Bulldogs could only hope Lorenzo Carter exploded at the snap like Kisner burst from the boundaries of East Lake after his round Saturday. Who said golfers aren’t built for speed?
This Sunday may rank very near one of the biggest golfing days of Kisner’s life. The 33-year-old from Aiken, S.C., is just a little more than a month removed from taking the lead into the last round of the PGA Championship and shooting 74 that Sunday to finish in seventh place.
Now, to see how he responds playing at a course that should favor his precision-over-power game.
“He’s a fearless golfer, a great ball-striker,” Henley said of Kisner. “This is a great course for him. It suits anyone who hits it straight. You gotta hit it straight and he definitely does that.”
Now, to see what Kisner does with a golfing version of a homefield advantage.
“It's awesome being able to hear all the ‘Go Dawgs’ out there,” Kisner told the PGA Tour official as he bolted. “There's a lot of people I know and a lot of people that love me and like me out here, so I feel like it's kind of a hometown event.”
If he plays on the underside of par Sunday, all this will be but a happy footnote to a big week. We’ll find out if he got there in time to see Georgia’s flea-flicker touchdown early the game and have a hearty laugh.
If he struggles, let the second-guessing begin.
You probably don’t want your players ‘coptering off on a junket the night before a Super Bowl. We’ll see now just how different golf really is from your full-contact pursuits. At least if it doesn’t go well, he only cost himself.
However Sunday turns for Kisner, Georgia had better make it worth all his trouble. Nothing less than a million-dollar experience will do.
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