Confident Kisner out front in quest to join major pals
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — The sample size is not large, but Kevin Kisner has not exactly devoured British Open courses.
Entering this week’s 147th Open at Carnoustie, Kisner had a missed cut in 2015 at St. Andrews, a 76th place finish in 2016 at Royal Troon and a tie for 54th last year at Royal Birkdale.
So to see his name atop the Open leaderboard after Thursday’s opening-round 5-under 66 was a bit of a surprise.
To everyone except the cocksure Kisner, that is.
“If you don’t believe in yourself out here, you’re going to get run over pretty quickly,’’ the 34-yearold Kisner said. “So I’m pretty sure everybody has a lot of self-belief, or we wouldn’t be doing it.’’
Entering Friday’s second round, Kisner leads three players who are at 4-under — Tony Finau and two little-known South Africans, Zander Lombard and Erik van Rooyen. Three players — Ryan Moore, Brendan Steele and Brandon Stone — are 3-under. And, among a long list of players at 2-under are stars Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and 2015 Open champion Zach Johnson.
Tiger Woods, who was 2-under through four holes, finished with an even-par 71 and is right in the thick of contention despite letting a potential low round slip away.
“I played better than what the score indicates because I had two 8-irons into both par 5s and I end up with par on both of those,’’ Woods said. “If I just clean up those two holes and play them the way I’m supposed to play them with 8-iron in my hand, I think I’d probably have the best round in the afternoon wave. So it certainly could have been a little bit better.’’
So, too, could the day of defending champion Jordan Spieth, who shot a 1-over 72 despite getting himself to 3-under through 11 holes before playing the last four holes in 4-over with a double bogey on 16.
“It felt like a missed opportunity,’’ Spieth said. “I felt like I was really going well. It was very stress-free. I was putting the ball where I needed to, having maybe no more than [a few] feet for par on every hole. It was just a clean round of golf.
“But the misses towards the end were the exact misses that I’ve been having and I’m working away from. My swing just didn’t quite hold up to the end of my round. So I know what I need to work on. I think I’m certainly in a recoverable situation. It’s not a bad place to be. You know, a solid round [Friday] to stay in the top 25, top 20 will be kind of the goal to feel like I can do something on the weekend.’’
Kisner, who hopes to do something on the weekend to capture his first career major, has been leaning on two bits of mojo this week.
First, his home course in Aiken, S.C., Palmetto Golf Club — a gem of a course that was designed by Augusta National’s architect Alister MacKenzie — runs hard and fast with a lot of undulation, just as a links course like Carnoustie does.
“Palmetto is a great golf course for British Opens,’’ Kisner said. “It’s firm, fast, and undulating around the greens. That’s why I feel so comfortable here around the greens because I see the same type of shots at home often.’’
Second, Kisner is sharing a rental house in Carnoustie with Spieth, Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker and a few others.
Asked about all of his roommates who have a number of major championship among them, Kisner who’s won twice on the PGA Tour, said, “I have zero [majors], so I don’t know how many they have.’’
The house group has a deal among each other that if one of them wins the Open, he pays for the private jet back to the U.S.
“There’s a lot of great players [there],’’ he said. “It’s not intimidating at all. They’re all great people. We’re all out there playing soccer at night and hanging out. Everybody is just really chill, and it’s a lot of fun to be around those guys. It’s really cool just to hear what they have to say.’’
They might be asking Kisner some questions about how he handled the Carnoustie greens Thursday, needing only 22 putts for his round.
“If I have 22 putts the next three days, I bet I’ll have a pretty good shot [to win],’’ Kisner said.
If he does, then he’ll gladly pay for the jet and share wine from the Claret Jug with his buddies on the way home — the way both Johnson and Spieth did after their victories.
“I spent a lot of time with Jordan and the Claret Jug,’’ Kisner said. “I flew home with him after he won. It would be cool to return the favor and let him look at it a little bit.’’