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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONS

November 7, 2015

Kevin Kisner

Shanghai, China

ROYCE THOMPSON: Kevin Kisner, leader in the clubhouse, 16-under par. I know it was tough getting it in with the weather delays and obviously your back is a little sore. If you could, just some thoughts on getting in and all finished at 16-under.

KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, I just wanted to finish so I didn't have to get up early. Played good today. Weather was difficult. But hung in there and made some birdies coming in to give myself a chance to be leading going into tomorrow.

Q. Can you paint us a nice picture of what it was like coming down the 18th? Could you tell what was what?
KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, you could still see well enough. Only time -- you'd lose a ball halfway in flight but it was still good enough to play, I felt like.

Q. And what about in the discussion on the tee, Knox decided he wanted to stop?
KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, I didn't know that until after we hit it and he walked off and said he wasn't going to play. He told us it was our -- whatever we wanted to do going to 18. We had the choice.

Q. Without doing too much wrong, there was a point where all of a sudden, you're two shots behind. Was there anything at all frustrating today and how key was the chip-in on 15?
KEVIN KISNER: It was getting frustrating. I hit a lot of good shots, came up short on false fronts and ran off the greens. I just kept telling myself, it's only Saturday, you've still got a lot of time and two shots is nothing.

As you saw on 15, I chipped in and he 3-putted so that was a two-shot swing right there. There's so many guys within a couple shots of the lead. It's going to be a dogfight tomorrow no matter what.

Q. As you're enjoying your nice, long walk out there, I'm just curious what it's like when you keep hearing this one kind of explosion of cheer in front of you after another. Was it pretty hard to figure out it was the Li character?
KEVIN KISNER: It's a different tone than we have on the U.S., the cheer. I haven't met him yet but I have a friend of ours from the Web.com Tour that told me he's a great kid. I don't know anything about him. But he seemed to be playing great. I'm sure he's excited to play in his home country and looking forward to it.

Tomorrow it will all be equal and we'll see what happens.

Q. This year you got great experience that got you into a playoff. Would that be a motivation for you to do better in this tournament, or would you feel disappointed with three chances in a playoff but losing in the end?
KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, I will always use that as motivation to win. It just shows you how hard it is to win I think. I just want to keep putting myself there and my chance is going to come for sure.

Q. Can you just give us an idea how your back was feeling today and how you've been managing since yesterday?
KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, it's improved all day. Today was pretty good all day. I don't know if the cold weather is going to do anything to it tomorrow but I should be good to go. It's improved every day and I'm feeling better.

Q. In the three chances you had going into playoffs this year, you weren't leading going into the final round. Can you just talk about how you might approach this a little differently, if at all, from having to chase versus leading?
KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, my theory on the TOUR and trying to win is your lead is never safe because some guy is going to make birdies. Look at Jordan today, his name popped up, I don't even know where he started and he was on the leaderboard.

Just keep making birdies is it what I'm going to try to do. I'll look up on about 15 and 16 and see if I need to change my game plan.

Q. When was the last time that you led in an event, that you can remember?
KEVIN KISNER: I have no idea. You should be able to find it on stats. You're good at that.

Q. Just curious, having gone through a playoff with Jim and then THE PLAYERS Championship, etc., you go into tomorrow with Dustin right there and Jordan Spieth having done what he did today. Having gone through your experiences this year, does that make it easier, less of a big deal?
KEVIN KISNER: I think so, yeah. Experience always helps. Going against quote, unquote, the best players in the game in a few of those playoffs, it's always going to help me in building confidence.

I know those guys are world-class players. They are going to go out and make a bunch of birdies, so I've got to do the same thing.

ROYCE THOMPSON: Thank you and good luck this week fast you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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