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THE 147TH OPEN

July 21, 2018

Kevin Kisner

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

STUART MOFFATT: I'm delighted to welcome Kevin Kisner back into the interview room. Kevin is tied for the lead at 9 under par.

Kevin, a bogey-free round today, a 68. You must be very happy going into the final round tomorrow.

KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, today was the most solid tee to green I've played all week. Really feeling more comfortable with the long game. Did not hole the amount of putts I had the first two days, but the conditions got tough coming down the stretch and made a couple of nice par putts coming in and put myself right in perfect position to have a chance to win.

STUART MOFFATT: You've been very consistent throughout this week so far. Is Carnoustie a course you're really taking to?

KEVIN KISNER: I played great in the practise rounds. I love the golf course. I love the aspect of getting the ball in the fairway and not having to pound driver on every hole. I love the green surfaces. They're flatter. If you're in the fairway, you're going to get a lot of looks at birdie, and it's not too penal around the greens. The ball runs off, but you're still in collection areas where you can get the ball up and down without too difficult of a shot.

Q. Are you thinking about what it might be like to lift that Claret Jug on Sunday?
KEVIN KISNER: I hope I can figure that out by 18 tomorrow night.

Q. Kevin --
KEVIN KISNER: College football. Oh, I thought you were going. Sorry. Go ahead.

Q. Kevin, you're sharing a house with a different co-leader now. Do you talk about golf in the evening? Or will it be anything but in conversation?
KEVIN KISNER: Tonight being so late, I doubt we'll ever get to that. Everybody is probably going to be getting treatment and eating and trying to find a bed. I'm sure there will be some conversations. There always are. Everybody has a few horror stories or good laughs over something that happened out there. That will probably be the end of it.

Q. Will you be more nervous watching Georgia play Alabama in the SEC Championship this year or tomorrow?
KEVIN KISNER: Georgia.

Q. Now to a real question about golf.
KEVIN KISNER: No, we can keep going football all day.

Q. I know you want to. You said two days ago, if you putted like that for four days, you obviously would hoist the Claret Jug, but you were a little concerned about tee to green. How much more confidence do you have now with the way that you hit it today?
KEVIN KISNER: You know, I felt like I'm confident on what I was trying to accomplish, which is the same goals that John and I have been working on for years. But I have a great understanding about my tendencies and what I need to do to hit the shots I need to under certain situations, and today I was doing it. So that's a big sign for me for tomorrow. I was hitting it really solid, which I think is going to be a huge help tomorrow with that wind blowing.

Q. Was this the toughest day you've had so far?
KEVIN KISNER: Well, as far as score and how much stress I had on the golf course, no. I thought yesterday was probably a little more stressful, but today the conditions were definitely -- the golf course is getting firmer again with the wind picking up, and the ball was chasing out. I probably hit a 400-yard 3 wood on the last hole. So tomorrow I think it's going to be the toughest we've had all week for sure.

Q. What was maybe the one shot that -- I guess not necessarily most proud of, but really came off the way you wanted it to.
KEVIN KISNER: I hit a beautiful hybrid -- I hit a beautiful tee ball on 6, which is not an easy tee ball, in off the left, and then hit a beautiful hybrid up there to about 70 feet, which is two great shots. I kind of knew I was rolling from there on out.

Q. How much have you looked at tomorrow's forecast?
KEVIN KISNER: We've been discussing it all week in the house because we -- you know, when you watch any TV, that's all they talk about is how Sunday's coming. I've seen 15, 18 miles an hour. It was probably blowing 12 to 15 out there today. So at least at the end. I haven't played it in that much wind. So I think it's going to be a true test, and we'll get to see really who's hitting it the best and playing the best tomorrow.

Q. I think it's from the west. How does that change what this golf course offers?
KEVIN KISNER: Well, we've kind of been west, south, southeast all week. Earlier in the week, it was kind of west, I believe. As long as 18 is downwind, I don't really care. It's going to be brutal into the wind. I played with Zach today, and he said the last time they were here, they hit 3 woods all four days on 16 and driver, 4 iron on 18. So I can't imagine that direction and how difficult that finish would be.

Q. Kevin, as someone who knows how to putt really well, have you been surprised at all how Jordan earlier in the season has putted it? And this week, since you're staying with him, do you notice something different about the way he's just going about everything?
KEVIN KISNER: Well, I'll answer your question, but I don't really like to talk about other guys. Jordan is just like the rest of us. You're going to go through peaks and valleys in golf. He's, what, 25 years old. He's got a long time of missing putts and a lot more misses coming.

We all know how great a putter is. He's going to hit the peak at certain times, and hopefully just not tomorrow.

Q. Did you see Jordan's haircut yet?
KEVIN KISNER: Here we go again. Yeah, I saw it. It looked like a military grade haircut. He got that this morning. So it was pretty funny. He was yelping places to go in Carnoustie. Kind of looks like yours. Almost.

Q. There's so much talk, obviously, when you come to Carnoustie, about how difficult it is and how hard it is. Is there any relishing of getting to face it in tough conditions tomorrow?
KEVIN KISNER: I just know I wouldn't want to play it if it was soft and the gorse was high with that wind because I'm hitting the ball in the hay when I think I've hit a good shot. I can't imagine if the gorse was chip-out from there, how much more difficult the golf would be. Obviously, if it was that way, you would hold the ball on the fairway more. But I'm really excited to see how hard it can play. I think that's the way the major championship should come down the stretch is be as hard as possible.

Q. Jordan made the point that tomorrow's basically a brand new golf tournament, which I suppose every Sunday is in golf, but do you get a sense of that? And do you get a sense it's more of a grind-out or a sprint, just based on the leaderboard conditions, everything?
KEVIN KISNER: Obviously, there's three of us at 9 and two at the next. Judging by the conditions and what's going to be going on, I would imagine it's going to be more of a grind all day. I don't foresee guys going out and making four or five birdies in the first eight or nine holes, but who knows? They're damn good players. I saw some guys going low this morning and knew there wasn't much wind. I haven't seen the wind yet, but I can't imagine it would play easy with a 15, 20-mile-an-hour breeze.

Q. Kiz, was that at all unsettling to be watching on TV and seeing so many low scores in terms of knowing what you would have to do to keep pace, which is not just a normal round of golf but a good one?
KEVIN KISNER: Well, the good part was they were so far back, the guys that were going low, they weren't really even catching us yet. We saw Rosie, he probably could have shot nothing today. Every time I looked up, he was 15 or 20 feet from the hole.

But I was able to go out and make birdies and keep space away from them, and tomorrow we'll all tee off closer together and all face the same conditions, I feel like.

Q. Just kind of a followup on that, based upon the wind, you know how much of a game plan do you go into the final round with? And how much do you potentially adapt it as you go along because it seems like course management will be very important.
KEVIN KISNER: The good part is we don't have any more rain in the forecast, I don't believe, so the golf course isn't going to soften up, which I thought was the trickiest part on Friday. We're going to know what the ball is going to do on the ground if you hit the right flight. The hardest part is judge the crosswinds on how much it's going to take. It's always a heavier wind coming right off the sea, and it seems to really send it left or right in crosswinds.

Q. You said you haven't played so much in these conditions at this stage of a tournament. Is it something, Kevin, that you'll embrace? It will be maybe unpredictable but something you think you can embrace?
KEVIN KISNER: You're going to have to. If you don't, you're going to get run over really quickly. Obviously, we play in wind all the time on the PGA TOUR. Just haven't played it this week in the way that we normally do in the British Open. So I'll absolutely embrace it, and the only way you can be is pick your spots, try to hit your shots, and deal with the results.

Q. Not to get too personal, but can you tell us who cuts your hair, how much you pay, and how much you tip?
KEVIN KISNER: Her name is Debbie. I have no idea what she charges, but I give her $25 every time. Is that good? We live in Aiken now. We're not in New York or anything. $25 is probably pretty good in Aiken. Jordan didn't tip. He's too cheap. He doesn't even pay for dinner.

Q. When you said yesterday, I think something like, "Everybody told me I was going to love this course", what do you think they meant specifically why?
KEVIN KISNER: Probably the aspect that it wasn't a bomber's paradise, where guys were just going to send drivers and get away with it as much as they do probably in the States. It's more precision off the tee, getting the ball in the fairway, and with the conditions as they are, you don't have to -- as long as you get the ball chasing down the fairway, you're going to hit it as far as you want to. I also think they thought I would like the greens being not as undulating. You give me a lot of looks at 20 feet with not a lot of break, I feel pretty good with myself.

Q. I know you touched on it a little bit before, but do you think the mood in the house will be somewhat different tonight? Do you think it will have a different vibe, a different feel this evening?
KEVIN KISNER: Pretty much the same. Leaderboard last night, just swapped Jordan with Zach. So I don't see a whole lot of -- not too much, you know. Like I said, it's the end of the week. Everybody's got a lot of stuff going on. Everybody's going their separate ways tomorrow. It's already 8:00 at night. There won't be too much.

Tomorrow morning we'll all sit around and laugh on the couch and talk about why that guy's making so many birdies.

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