AUSTIN, Texas — Davis Love III doesn’t normally pay attention to golf when he’s not at a tournament. He’s a type-A thing with golf and the grandkids to keep him busy, but on Saturday afternoon, while training at his home in St. Simons Island, Georgia, he took the time to relax. listen to the quarter-finals of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Love was more than a passing interest. As captain of the United States Presidents Cup this year, the terrain and the format require him to be careful. If that wasn’t enough, social media would definitely remind him.
For example, Kevin Kisner’s fifth victory this week on Saturday at the Austin Country Club against Will Zalatoris was much more than a random quarter-final. In one breathless breath, social media declared Kisner a lifetime member of the US Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup teams.
With social media being the exclusive home of hyperbole, the exaggeration is understandable. Kisner won this event in 2019, finished second in 2018 and finds himself in the Final Four. He has become, at least here in the Texas hills, Mr. Match Play, and, yes, Love has noticed.
“Would love to have him on the team for sure,” Love wrote. “We are putting stock into this tournament. As [Scottie] Scheffler last year showed us a lot to knock off some big name guys.
With the Presidents Cup nearly six months away, Love will be waiting to see how most of the season’s championship unfolds. That makes sense, just as it makes sense to acknowledge that Kisner is a match play artist.
It was all there on a windy Saturday that started with Kisner falling 3 to Adam Scott with four holes to play in the Sweet 16.
“It’s not looking good. But I never give up,” Kisner said in a neutral tone that has become his trademark.
Kisner birdied the 15thand hole, drilled for the eagle from a green bunker at No. 16 and won the game with a 7-footer for a birdie at No. 18.
You know the cliche: it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog…sorry, Dawg.
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship Matches and Scores
Kisner doesn’t just win, he wins in style. He shot 50 feet from a bunker at 16and hole in that morning fight just to continue the match and walked in a 40 footer at 11and hole in the afternoon frame on the way to career victory No. 20 at WGC-Match Play.
“It’s kind of crazy how lucky I’ve been on this golf course and this tournament,” said Kisner, who scored more points at Austin CC in the Tour version of March Madness than anyone else. ‘other.
Kisner’s swing coach John Tillery posted a well-known gif on Twitter following morning matches of a badger standing in a stalemate against a much larger lion. It was apropos given Kisner’s history at WGC-Match Play, but on this course, with this format, he’s probably looking more like the lion to his opponents.
In its six-year history at this event, it has beaten Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson, Ian Poulter and Justin Thomas.
“I liken it to trying to win a golf tournament every game,” Kisner said. “I really like being in contention on Sunday in a stroke play event. If I start in 30th, it’s hard for me to really get in there. Here it’s like a Sunday every day, which is very amusing.
He also enjoys the interpersonal component of match play. It’s rare on the PGA Tour for two players to meet on a Sunday in the same group. Competitors are more often separated by tee times and standings, leading to a much more clinical connection. In match play, however, every hole, every stroke takes place right in front of your opponent and the momentum of the match is real.
When asked to play Corey Conners, who beat Abraham Ancer in the quarterfinals, in Sunday’s semifinals, Kisner smiled: “I’ll try to bore him with my putter.”
It’s one of the real mysteries in professional golf that Kisner never played on a Ryder Cup team and only played in one Presidents Cup, in 2017, when he went undefeated (2 -0-2) as one of six rookies on the American team. Of those rookies, only Thomas drove in more runs for Team USA (3 ½).
As social media swirled after Kisner’s quarter-final win, mainstream media joined in the fun.
You are such a good match play player; do you think you should be part of every Ryder Cup team and every Presidents Cup team?
“Well, it depends on where we play. I say it all the time, if we play Bethpage, you can leave me at home,” laughed Kisner.
Let’s Play Quail Hollow [site of this year’s Presidents Cup]?
“I can play there,” he smiles.
Love knows it too. This year’s Captain America will wait to see how the qualifying process goes, but he knows, everyone knows, that every team needs a Kisner.
