Around the wider world of golf: WOW! There's a lot to tell this week. Rory McIlroy won the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai as well as the Race to Dubai on the ET; Cristie Kerr won the CME Group Tour Championship, Inbee Park won the Vare (scoring ) Trophy, and Lydia Ko picked up the POY Award and Race to the Globe on the LPGA; Peter Senior won the Australian Masters (at age 56) on the Australasian Tour; Yusaku Miyazato won the Dunlap Phoenix on the Japan Golf Tour; Natipong Srithong won the Resorts World Manila Masters on the Asian Tour; Haimeng Chao won the Nine Dragons Open on the PGA TOUR China; Rodolfo Cazaubon won the Lexus Peru Open on the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica; and Bo-Mee Lee won the Daio Paper Elleair Ladies Open for her 7th JLPGA win of the season (bangkokbobby has details).
"Could be epic."
That's what Kevin Kisner told GC's Todd Lewis about the upcoming celebration after his breakthrough win at the RSM Classic. (Formerly the McGladrey Classic, in case you didn't know. It's still the same company; they just changed their name.) After all, Kevin now lives at Sea Island so everybody was right there, just waiting for him to get his first win.
Just as Kevin has been doing all year.
As you know if you follow my blog, I've picked Kevin as a favorite in several tournaments this past year. He's just been playing so well! When he's lost, it hasn't been because he played badly... he just got beat, as often happens in golf. (And in the rest of life as well, but that's a whole 'nother topic.) He came up just short once again a couple of weeks back at the WGC, his fourth runner-up of the year. He lost by two strokes.
Not this week. After getting his first 54-hole lead -- a fairly sizable 3-stroke lead -- he casually set about building on it. In fact, except for checking back a couple of times, I watched the LPGA's finale because Kevin already had a 5-shot lead when the LPGA broadcast started.
I got to see him finish though. Back-to-back 64s gave him a 6-shot victory when it was all done.
I don't know that I believe that old line about "once you get your first win, the floodgates open." I've seen -- as I'm sure you have -- that most of the time, that old saying is wrong. There are just too many variables in terms of courses and weather, and too many good players at the various events, for us to believe anybody is guaranteed an easier road to victory than anybody else.
But Kevin Kisner has proven that coming up short -- and doing so A LOT -- doesn't get him down. He understands the odds and he accepts them. And with a mindset like that, I think he has as good a chance of opening those floodgates as anybody out there. We'll see what happens for him next year.
But in the meantime, Kevin scores his first-ever Limerick Summary. Congrats on finally breaking through, Kev!
His lead went to six up. It’s true—The photo came from the tournament wrap-up page at PGATOUR.com.
Kevin’s runner-up streak is now through.
Back-to-back 64s
Busted down all the doors
To an epic post-game rendezvous!
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