Kevin Kisner’s Buddy Forced His Way into Caddie Duties at Colonial

Kevin Kisner spends most of his time inside a broadcast booth these days, but he’s back inside the ropes this week competing at the Charles Schwab Challenge down in Fort Worth, Texas. It’s his first PGA TOUR appearance since the RSM Classic in November, and he got off to a nice start Thursday with a bogey-free 3-under 67.

While it was nice to watch him play some steady golf throughout the morning, my favorite moment was when I learned how his buddy ended up on Kiz’s bag.

During a recent episode of the Fore Play podcast, Kisner said that he was playing with a friend, Russ, at his home club, Palmetto in Aiken, South Carolina, about a month ago when Russ learned that Kisner had not nailed down a caddie for Colonial.

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“Russ was like, ‘You don’t have a caddie for Colonial yet?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘I’m in.’ Russ, there’s no way you can do it,” Kisner continued. “Like, it’s way harder than people think. Two holes later, he shows me a screenshot of the American Airlines ticket to Dallas-Fort Worth he bought for Monday (of tournament week). And I said, ‘Alright, man, you’re in. Let’s go do it.’”

In his caddie debut on Tuesday, Russ forgot a towel on the first hole and a head cover on the third. Not a great start to the week! But an opening 67 from Kiz probably helped to calm the nerves.

Kisner is no stranger to Colonial. Before this week, he’d made 12 starts, including a win at the 2017 Dean & Deluca Invitational. Who knows, maybe he’ll make another run this weekend.