Kisner fends off Spieth, field to claim Colonial title

For a second consecutive year, crowd favorite Jordan Spieth mounted a meaningful Sunday charge that gave him a chance to win a title at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational.

But this time, Spieth’s final-round effort was only the second-best surge during crunch time by a title contender. The decisive rally came from Kevin Kisner, who bagged four back-nine birdies at Colonial Country Club — including three in a row at Nos. 10-12 — to rally for the second victory of his PGA Tour career.

Kisner, 33, posted a closing 66 and a 10-under-par tournament total to hold off Spieth, the defending champ, and two other golfers by one stroke. It marked the third consecutive year for Spieth, a Dallas resident and the defending champion, to finish as a runner-up or better at Colonial.

But the title went to Kisner, who jump-started his back-nine surge with a 40-foot birdie putt at No. 10 and capped it with a 5-footer for par on the final hole after pushing his drive into the right rough. Kisner, who played college golf at Georgia, posted a 32 on the back nine, the lowest closing stretch of any Colonial frontrunner.

He cited the 40-foot birdie putt at No. 10 as the stroke that triggered his decisive closing push.

“That was huge. It was one you weren’t expecting,” Kisner said. “It fell in on the last roll. That kind of gets those juices flowing to lead you those last eight holes. That put me in the driver’s seat. You just want to have that feeling when you’re in the hunt.”

Kisner built on it with subsequent back-nine birdie putts of 6 feet (No. 11), 10 feet (No. 12) and 14 feet (No. 15) before taking a three-putt bogey at No. 16, a par-3. That trimmed his lead to one stroke and forced Kisner to bury the winning putt for par at No. 18 after Spieth and Jon Rahm failed to make birdies on the final green that would have forced a playoff.

After missing the green with his approach, Kisner rolled a 54-foot birdie attempt from the back fringe past the hole and made the 5-foot comebacker to secure a Colonial title and a career-best payday of $1,242,000. His lone previous PGA Tour title came at the 2015 RSM Classic, an event played in November.

Kisner (5-foot-10, 165 pounds) clearly relished holding off Spieth, a two-time major champion, in an event where the Dallas resident has thrived as a tour competitor.

“He’s a great kid. I love him. But I love beating him, too,” Kisner said.

For Spieth, the final-round surge was eerily similar to the one that produced last year’s triumph. He closed with a 65 each time. But Sunday’s bogey-free effort could not carry him past Kisner because he began the day five strokes off the lead.

“I’ll have, I think, plenty of chances to give myself those back-to-back opportunities in the future,” said Spieth, who was seeking to become the first Colonial champion to win the event in consecutive years since Ben Hogan in 1952-53. “‘Kiz’ was the deserving winner. I’m really happy for him. I was just too far back starting the day.”

The 54-hole leader, Webb Simpson, saw his streak of eight consecutive under-par rounds at “Hogan’s Alley” disappear when he needed to extend it. Simpson closed with a 71 at the par-70 venue, making just one birdie in the final round. Given a chance to force a playoff with a birdie at No. 18, Simpson drove into the left rough, put his approach in a greenside bunker and took a closing bogey.

“Frustrating to end the way I did,” said Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion. “It’s just one of those days.”

But it marked a career breakthrough for Kisner, whose professional golf career has been marked by more near-misses than victories when placed in the Sunday hunt for a title.

“You start questioning if you’re going to win after a while,” said Kisner, who finished as the runner-up in two other events this season (Arnold Palmer Invitational, Zurich Classic of New Orleans). “Everybody was questioning if I was ever going to win [early in his career]. Then I win, and everybody questions if I was ever going to win again.”

A native of Aiken, S.C., who still lives in his hometown, Kisner said winning at Colonial carries special satisfaction to him because it reminds him of venues that he played in junior golf.

“When I set my schedule, this tournament is highlighted and circled. I love this place,” Kisner said. “Colonial Country Club is one of my favorite places we go to. Fort Worth, Texas, feels just like home … Everybody’s nice. Everybody uses manners. Everybody opens doors and says, ‘Thank you.’ That’s what I love about this place.”

He’s also pretty fond of the plaid jacket he collected Sunday on the 18th green.

This story was originally published May 28, 2017 at 7:49 PM with the headline "Kisner fends off Spieth, field to claim Colonial title."