Kisner hoping Masters conditions remain fast and firm

Apr. 5—AUGUSTA — Kevin Kisner typically plays his best golf on courses that play firm and fast. It's especially true at Augusta National Golf Club.

Last November, when the Masters Tournament was held in the fall because of a delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the course was soft and slow. That didn't bode well for Kisner, who missed his first cut in five trips to the Masters.

"The golf course was completely different than what I'm accustomed to," Kisner said. "Never could get anything going on that Friday. I was in position to play the weekend, but never got it going."

Kisner played the second nine at Augusta National on Monday with three of his fellow Georgia Bulldogs: Harris English, Brian Harman and Hudson Swafford.

"Yeah, we had a good time. That kind of came together on the range," Kisner said. "I hadn't realized a lot of those guys hadn't been here in a number of years. So, it was a good time. They were picking my brain pretty good."

The Aiken pro shot rounds of 71-76 and missed the 36-hole cut by three shots in November. Because of weather delays, he had to finish his second round on Saturday morning.

"It was a weird tournament with how we started, going off 10th tee at 7:30 in the morning in a thunderstorm, then stopping for four hours and then going back out," Kisner said. "Then Friday, knowing you weren't going to finish. It was just a lot different than what I was accustomed to over there."

Kisner should like the forecast for this week. There has been little rain leading into this week, and highs should be in the upper 70s to low 80s. There is a chance of rain later in the week.

"I love it if that thunderstorm stays away," he said. "And if they start mowing down towards the green, that would be a lot easier too. The greens are pure. They're as fast and as firm as I've seen them in a long time."

Kisner has been working on changing his grip so he can get more height on his iron shots.

"It's going to pay off this week if it works," he said. "Just getting a little weaker (grip) and noticed that I'm not launching it high enough with irons when we get in firm conditions."

On two of Augusta National's longest par-4 holes, Kisner hit an 8-iron into No. 10 and 6-iron into No. 11 on Monday.

"That's a far cry from what we were hitting in November," Kisner said. "Hopefully, the weather stays like this. I don't think you could get better weather than what we had today, and it stays like this all week."