Kisner back in Masters with new swing coach, new equipment

Apr. 3—When Kevin Kisner tees it up later this week at Augusta National Golf Club, he won't go in as a first-timer who is awed by the aura surrounding the year's first major.

The Aiken native is a Masters mainstay as he is making his eighth consecutive start.

"Eight in a row, I never dreamed I would do that," Kisner said recently. "It's always fun to go over there. I like hanging out with the members, a lot of them have been dear friends. I love seeing the town and everyone buzzing for that week."

Kisner, 39, was a late bloomer on the PGA Tour and qualified for his first Masters in 2016. He's now a four-time winner on the PGA Tour and has represented the U.S. twice on the Presidents Cup team.

The past year, though, has not produced the results Kisner wants. He has a new swing coach and new equipment as he heads into one of his favorite stretches of the year.

"It's been pretty poor for six or eight months," Kisner said of his play. "I started working with Gary Cressend (a teaching pro based out of Augusta Country Club) and I'm looking forward to some changes. I'm excited about where we're going."

He "split up" with longtime coach John Tillery in the fall.

"We had a hell of a run together, but I struggled for an extended period of time and felt like I needed to make a change to try to figure out some stuff," Kisner said.

Those changes also include a switch to Wilson irons in his bag.

"That part hasn't been difficult. They can pretty much make clubs however you want them," he said. "Guys at Wilson have been great. I finally have the freedom in the woods. I struggled to get into the Callaway driver for years, and that freedom will help me."

So far in the 2022-23 season, Kisner has played nine events and made five cuts. At the WGC-Match Play Championship two weeks ago, Kisner failed to make it out of group play. It's an event that he had thrived in with a victory and two runner-up finishes.

Kisner warmed up for the Masters by hunting turkeys and playing in the Devereux Milburn Memorial Trophy at Palmetto Golf Club. Now he turns his focus to Augusta National, and he played a practice round Monday morning alongside 2020 Masters champion Dustin Johnson, turkey hunting partner Brian Harman and Gary Woodland.

"They keep adding yardage to all the holes and that makes it really hard to play," Kisner said.

Case in point is the par-5 13th, which is now 35 yards longer and plays 545 yards for the tournament.

"It's an interesting hole," he said. "It looks like it's been there for 200 years."

That doesn't mean Kisner, who isn't one of the longer hitters in the game, still can't get there in two shots. He played it twice over the winter.

"I hit a hybrid the first time and I laid up the second time," Kisner said. "The wind was blowing like 30."

Kisner doesn't appreciate that there is no forward tee option for the 13th now.

"That's the only thing I don't understand about what they do. When they add that back tee, why they don't keep a small forward tee for conditions," he said. "Like 11. It's 520 with a lake on a green that slopes to the lake? Bail out right and it slopes away from the green. Yeah, I'd say that's pretty tough."

Still, Kisner played the hole 2-under-par in 2022 on his way to a tie for 44th. The highlight was his pairing with Tiger Woods in the third round, and the Aiken pro got the better of the 15-time major champion who now plays a limited schedule because of his health. The weather was unusually cold that day.

"I saw him (in February) and he played in that pro-am at Riviera and I talked to him afterward," Kisner said. "He was like man, it was just like that Saturday at Augusta last year how cold it was. He still remembers. That was a brutal day."

Kisner's best finish at the Masters is a tie for 21st, which came in 2019 — the year Woods won at Augusta National for the fifth time. Overall, Kisner has made five of seven cuts at the Masters.

The main bright spot for Kisner was playing in the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow. He was known as the "old man" on the team, and the Americans romped to victory over the international squad.

"I was playing pretty terrible, so it wasn't that much fun from a playing standpoint, but always being on a team is awesome," Kisner said. "The difference between playing in 2017 and 2022 was amazing. I was the old man, these guys are practicing in the dark and going straight to the cold tub. In '17 we were leaving the course at 2 o'clock and having a cocktail at 5:30."

This is a Ryder Cup year, but Kisner knows he has work to do if he wants to earn another team berth.

"I would love to represent our country. But I've got to get my game in shape," he said. "I haven't played worth a darn in eight months."