“Obviously I hit it hard enough”, he said with a grin about his hole-out from 45 yards.
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The golf was never easier. He hit a 10-foot birdie putt at the fourth, a 15-footer at five, a seven-footer at eight and a 30-footer to close the front nine.
Kevin Chappell’s closing three-putt bogey at No. 18 gave Kisner a six-shot victory, the widest margin this season.
Kevin Kisner came up so close so many times this year that in a way it’s very fitting that Kisner won the final event of the year on the PGA Tour on his home course.
“That would be special”, he said of a chance to end his year with back-to-back wins. “To finish it that way, I couldn’t write it up any better”.
Kisner was also playing the Seaside Course, and he added a second-round 67 to his opening 65, carding four birdies and dropping his only shot at the tricky 12th, just as Chappell had.
He finished with a six-under round at the Seaside Island Golf Club for a tournament record 22-under-par 260 total. He was one behind at The Players Championship, closed with a 69 and matched Rickie Fowler shot-for-shot in the three-hole playoff. Earlier in the year he lost in playoffs at Hilton Head, Sawgrass and the Greenbrier.
Kisner challenged for a win two weeks ago in the WGC-HSBC Champions in China. Henley at five under today, Cejka at even, and Overton at one under ended tied overall at and sixth today. “And it was impressive”.
Graeme McDowell must not have known what to feel when he smacked Kevin Kisner’s aul wan with a stray tee shot. The 18-year-old New Zealander She remains in control of year-end honors, such as player of the year, the scoring title and a $1 million bonus.
“Never crossed my mind”, Kisner said.
“I’m just looking forward to it”, Kisner said of the final round. I mean, I get it up and down for (par) four, but if I make bogey, who knows what happens to do round from there? “I did it on the front nine”.
The best example of that was Kisner’s scrambling par at the seventh hole in the worst of the day’s winds. He chose to hammer it out of there and moved it about 5 feet, then chipped 8 feet by the hole.
All that mattered to Kisner was keeping his distance. McDowell, meanwhile, suffered a setback in his quest for a second successive win when he picked up his ball in the fairway on the first hole.
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“Five strokes was pretty nice”, he said. Russell Knox didn’t play this week and dropped to second in FedEx Cup standings.
