Despite Kevin Kisner's Match Play Record, Ryder Cup Hasn't Wanted Him

Kisner won the 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play title and has reached the semifinals three of the last four years.

Nearly every year at this time, the question is asked: Is Kevin Kisner the best match-play golfer who has never been on a U.S. Ryder Cup team?

The answer is in the record. Kisner has been in the semifinals of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play three of the last four years. He faces Corey Connors on Sunday morning at Austin Country Club.

His record in this event is 21-6-1 and he was the winner in 2019, one of his four victories on the PGA Tour. He received some loud mentions last fall when he won the Wyndham Championship but he was left off the 2021 Ryder Cup team that beat Europe at Whistling Straits. And he wasn’t particularly happy.

“I don’t know, man. They don’t like me I, guess,” Kisner told the Subpar podcast on golf.com. “I’ve had the same phone call for about four [Ryder Cups] in a row from about every captain. ‘Man, you were on the team and then you didn’t play well in the playoffs.’ OK, bud.”

Kisner is 38 years old now and is just as well known for the tobacco products in his cheek as for his golf. He’s among the bottom half of the PGA Tour in driving distance but in the top 10 for his desire to kick somebody’s — anybody’s — butt.

“They all look the same to me,” Kisner said. “I asked Brooks Koepka in the locker room after the first match (Saturday) if we were playing each other, and he's like, ‘No, I'm playing DJ (Dustin Johnson) in 30 minutes.’

"I don't ever look, man. They tell me when we tee off, and we'll go from there."

Kisner especially likes the immediacy of match play, which narrows his focus. “Well, I liken it to trying to win a golf tournament in every match,” he says. “I really love being in contention on Sunday in a stroke-play event. If I'm teeing off in 30th it's hard for me to get really into it.

“Out here it feels like Sunday every day, which is a lot of fun.”

Kisner has team experience, going 2-0-1 in the 2017 Presidents Cup at Liberty National in New Jersey. The 2022 matches will be in September at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. And for Kisner, the venue is everything.

“I say it all the time, if we're playing at Bethpage, you can leave me at home," he says.

How about Quail Hollow? Kisner is emphatic.

"I can play there."