“I actually reached out to Davis and asked” – Kevin Kisner on how he got into the Presidents Cup team
Kevin Kisner had a forgettable performance at the 2022 Presidents Cup. Kisner landed 0.5 points for the US side in their five-point victory over the Internationals. However, he brought laughter to the dressing room, which seems to have made his captain and his teammates more than happy.
Kisner himself is happy with his role in the champions’ squad given he was someone who wasn’t even supposed to be on the team. Kisner was never a favorite and ended up being a surprise entry into the US team for the 2022 Presidents Cup.
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How Kevin Kisner got into the Presidents Cup squad
Kisner was a last-minute captain’s pick for the US team even though wasn’t supposed to be at the Quail Hollow Club. The 38-year-old golfer is not young and was definitely not in the best of his form. So how did he get captain Davis Love III’s call?
Kisner got a call from the team due to his persistence. US captain Love found himself in a tough spot when Will Zalatoris suffered an injury, ruling him out of the event. Needless to say, Love was short of quality options thanks to players defecting to LIV Golf. In came Kisner as the 12th man in the squad.
The golfer walked into the US team’s dressing room due to his experience. Speaking about his induction into the team, Kisner said that he first reached out to Love and asked if his services were needed. The golfer even revealed that he wouldn’t have minded if he didn’t get the captain’s call.
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Speaking in an interview with Inside Golf, Kevin Kisner revealed that captain Davis Love III called him multiple times before making the decision to include him in the squad. He said:
“I actually reached out to [captain] Davis [Love] and asked him if I need to practice or not during the Tour Championship because I was probably going to hang them up for a while. So he told me to stay sharp. We talked about every day that week, and then Sunday he kept calling me and then not saying anything, and I thought that was pretty odd."
"Finally, he called me, and he was like, 'All right, I can’t stand it anymore. You’re on the team.'"
Explaining the call-up by Love, Kevin Kisner said:
“Yeah, we were just chatting about random stuff. He’s like, 'All right, I’ll talk to you later.' I’m like, What is going on with this?' About 3:30 that afternoon, he let me know… I don’t know if he was waiting on the Tour Championship to be over or I don’t know what his thing was. I think probably that. Then he just couldn’t stand it anymore.”
Kevin Kisner went on to state that he would have taken time off to go hunting and fishing if he wasn’t called into play at the Presidents Cup. He added:
“[I would] hang out, hunt, fish, take some time off. Try to gain some weight. I lose a bunch of weight during the season. Then I come out here and sweat like crazy and lose it all again.”
It should be noted that everyone on the US team, including captain Davis Love, was more than happy about Kevin Kisner joining the side. Speaking at the press conference, Kisner himself stated that he was on the team because he 'brought the fun'.