Dad, golfer and TV analyst: The best things add up in Kevin Kisner’s world

If it’s Friday afternoon, he’s driving his daughter to her soccer game.

If it’s Monday morning, he’s taking the kids to school.

Dad things?

“Yeah, those are the best things,” Kevin Kisner said.

Family, a PGA Tour-caliber golf game that’s showing signs of life after two down years, being named lead analyst for NBC’s golf telecasts and, remember, a place on Tiger Woods’ team in the fledgling made-for-TV golf league that debuts in January. Those add up to a lot of best things in Kisner’s world these days.

Catching up with Kiz never disappoints and especially now, in the weeks after NBC confirmed what had seemed inevitable for a year — that the Aiken-based pro would join Dan Hicks to provide analysis for the network’s biggest golf events.

Sagging ratings suggested that golf’s telecasts had grown stale and need a jolt of innovation, and Kisner left no doubt he could provide that in his first “tryout” tournament in January. He could — and did — offer a current player’s perspective.

With Jordan Spieth facing a short birdie putt in the third round of The Sentry at Kapalua, the golfer sized up the shot from all angles.

Kisner: “I’m watching this distance — this is always the distance I make him putt when we play matches because you never know what you’re going to get. He’s spent more time on this 3-footer than he does on 25-footers. If I was going to help him, I’d tell him to speed it up a little bit on these and just knock it in. He knows how to make these.”

Spieth missed.

Kisner: “That’s 3 feet, Jordan. Just knock it in, bud. Ninety-nine percent on Tour.”

Social media went wild. At last, an analyst who did not sugarcoat the foibles of the world’s best golfers. The first seeds that he would become the permanent lead analyst had been sown.

A new Johnny Miller?

“What I want is, whether it’s Scottie Scheffler or the 12-handicap watching from his couch, for them to say, ‘He’s right,’ ” Kisner said. “If it’s Scottie’s shot, I want him to say, ‘That’s exactly what I did.’

“I’m a pretty straight-up guy, but I’m not going to be disrespectful. I won’t cross the line. I can offer the perspective of a player and I’ll tell it like it is. I’ll tell you if a guy hits a bad shot or makes a bad decision.”

Kisner’s deal calls for him to work 10 tournaments — all the big ones — for NBC with one caveat: His golf game comes first.

“I’m a golfer first,” said Kisner, who sparkled at South Aiken High and the University of Georgia before turning pro. He owns four PGA Tour tournament titles and has earned more than $29 million.

But his past two years have been dismal on the course. After a spot on the U.S. Presidents Cup team in 2022, he made eight cuts in 18 starts in 2023 and played the weekend only six times in 23 tournaments this year.

In his late 30s, his search for more distance off the tee to better compete with the young bombers led to his struggles.

“I went for distance and fell into a rabbit hole,” Kisner, the analyst, said. “I listened to too many others and totally lost direction in what I wanted to do.”

Frustration followed. The struggles with the driver led to challenges with other parts of his game and even his deft putting touch took a holiday.

But he repeated, “I’m a golfer first,” and he’s using a career earnings exemption to maintain status on the 2025 Tour. He will be eligible for all but the Signature events and the majors, unless he qualifies.

“The physical part came back pretty quickly,” he said, still wearing his analyst’s cap. “It’s been tougher psychologically. I hit so many bad shots. I’ve got so much scar tissue to break through, but I played better toward the end of the season. I made some putts. I want keep that going.”

Kisner will start his on-course season in the American Express in Palm Springs in mid-January. Next will be the WM Phoenix Open in February and, he said, “At this point, my schedule will look pretty much like this year’s.”

His NBC duties will begin with the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players in March. Later, he will be at the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, the FedEx Playoffs and the Ryder Cup.

His journey to NBC began late in the 2023 season. Long-time friend Tommy Roy, the lead golf producer for NBC Sports, approached Kisner to check his interest.

That conversation led to Kisner’s debut at The Sentry. He did The Players and the playoffs. In addition, he worked with the Golf Channel.

“I guess they liked what I did,” Kisner says. “The whole team came down to Aiken and we talked. They were great to negotiate with.”

Although he did some Golf Channel duties last year, his 2025 deal is strictly weekends on NBC. He plans to arrive at tournaments on Fridays to talk to players, check out the course and, in short, prepare for the final two rounds.

Meanwhile ... there’s the new TGL presented by SoFi. It’s a golf league that combined advanced technology with teams of some top PGA Tour players for two-hour weekly televised competitions that begins in January.

Kiz is a member of the Jupiter Links squad along with Max Homa, Tom Kim and Tiger Woods, the captain.

“Not much walking involved; Tiger can play every week,” Kisner said and laughed. “We just go there and play.”

The matches will be played on either Monday or Tuesday in order not to conflict with PGA Tour events.

That’s another good thing going on in his realm, and his role with NBC will make him among the higher-profile people in golf.

“But that’s all subject to change if I play well,” Kisner said.

And that’s his mission. He’s a golfer first.

This story was originally published December 18, 2024 at 8:57 AM with the headline "Dad, golfer and TV analyst: The best things add up in Kevin Kisner’s world."