Kevin Kisner with caddie Duane Bock celebrates winning the final round of the 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club. (Photo: Stephen Spillman-USA TODAY Sports)
This time, Kevin Kisner went one better.
The scrappy Georgia Bulldog, who spent years on the back roads of professional golf playing anywhere he could, toppled Matt Kuchar, 3 and 2, to win the Match Play on a Sunday that started in bitter cold and closed in radiant sunshine.
In 2018, Kisner lost in the final to Bubba Watson, clearly running out of gas against the big-hitting lefty in the 7-and-6 rout. But in the 2019 final, Kisner, the 48th seed, grabbed the lead with a birdie on the first from 11 feet and never trailed in the match. He closed it out with a 20-foot birdie on the 16th.
“I was thinking out there it might be the hardest (tournament to win) just because you have the physical aspect more than any other week,” Kisner said. “It was grueling, definitely with the winds, the temperature today. Overall it was a long week, but I prevailed and I’m a world golf champion.”
Kuchar, who was trying to win his 10th PGA Tour title, beat Tyrrell Hatton in the Sweet 16, Sergio Garcia in the quarterfinals and Lucas Bjerregaard in the semifinals. But Kuchar, the 23rd seed, didn’t have an answer for Kisner.
“It’s tough to maintain the high level of play the entire tournament,” Kuchar said. “You hope to do it and I feel like I’ve kind of built a game that I could rely on playing some good, steady golf. But I gave too many holes away.
“It’s one of the things I pride myself on is not ever giving holes away. I knew against Kisner I couldn’t do it, and he just plodded along and played good, steady golf, and let me make mistakes. And that was good playing by Kevin.”
Kisner joined Tiger Woods, Hunter Mahan, Paul Casey and Geoff Ogilvy as the only players to reach the finals in back-to-back years.
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