CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Kevin Kisner’s trademark phrase – this ain’t no hobby – refers to his prowess on the course and pursuit of cashing checks. But it could just as well reflect his ability as a world-class talker in the media tent. Kisner doesn’t provide canned answers and he was on his game on Wednesday when members of the media covering the Presidents Cup peppered him with questions.
Asked about how he learned that he was one of Davis Love III’s six captain’s picks to the U.S. squad, Kisner said, “I actually reached out to Davis and asked him if I need to practice or not during the Tour Championship because I was probably going to hang them up for a while. So, he told me to stay sharp. We talked about every day that week, and then Sunday he kept calling me and then not saying anything, and I thought that was pretty odd. Finally he called me, and he was like, ‘All right, I can’t stand it anymore. You’re on the team.’ ”
He kept calling you and saying nothing?
“Yeah, we were just chatting about random stuff. He’s like, all right, I’ll talk to you later. I’m like what is going on with this? About 3:30 that afternoon, he let me know.”
Do you think he was messing with you?
“I don’t know if he was waiting on the Tour Championship to be over, or I don’t know what his thing was. I think probably that. Then he just couldn’t stand it anymore.”
On partnering with Phil Mickelson at the 2017 Presidents Cup:
“The first couple holes we played alternate shot, I left a few like 30-foot birdie putts short in the gimme range, and he came up to me and said, ‘Stop doing that. You can hit them as hard as you want to, I guarantee you I’ll make every one of them coming back. Phil being Phil in the most Phil way.”
On being harassed about being the oldest member of the U.S. team by three years.
“They are relentless on that,” he said. “I think that’s the only thing they have on me because I’m firing at them nonstop. So it’s grandpa or pops all the time and how short I hit it. Everybody here is a frickin’ bomber. So they all laugh at that.”
On how he gets under the skin of his opponent in match play:
“It’s really annoying when a guy is way behind you and then tapping in in front of you. It gets old quickly,” he said. “In a match play format, I love being back there and hitting shots that they are not expecting. That’s what kills your mentality in match play. Hopefully I can do that a lot.”
On his game plan for the Presidents Cup:
“I’m going to dink it down the fairway and hopefully make a lot of putts to piss people off,” he said.
On World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and his best bud Sam Burns:
“I played against Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns the first two days here. If you just combine them, you could probably have one helluva player although they look like stepbrothers out there to me,” Kisner said. “They both look like the same person. They both get up there and hit it 350 down the middle of the little cut and then hit iron right at it and then make a putt. It seems like a pretty simple game. I told the captains, if you don’t play those guys every match, you’re crazy.” [Scheffler and Burns are paired together in Thursday’s four-ball session.]
On his allegiance to his alma mater, Georgia, and its football team:
“In ’17 I asked to sit out in the afternoon because Georgia played Tennessee. (Captain Steve) Strick(er) is like seriously? I’m like, ‘Yeah, man, that’s my squad.’ ”
On whom he’d like to play in Sunday singles:
“You’ve got to beat Adam Scott. He’s so damn good looking,” Kisner said. “You’ve got to beat him up and then tell everybody how much better looking you are than he is.”
Don’t ever change, Kis, don’t ever change.
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