University of Georgia Athletics
‘One Heck Of A Tournament’
May 18, 2020 | Men's Golf, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
It's kind of hard to imagine now, given that he's ranked No. 35 in the World Golf Rankings and has three PGA Tour victories to his name, most notably the 2019 World Golf Championships match play title, but 15 years ago, in the spring of 2005, Kevin Kisner nearly played his way out of the Georgia lineup.
"I was playing so poorly that spring, I was like the weak link of the five," Kisner, the team captain that season, said last week.
It was a Georgia starting five as good as any the Bulldogs have ever sent out on the golf course: senior David Denham, juniors Kisner and Richard Scott, and sophomores Brendon Todd and Chris Kirk.
"It was a great group of guys, we all got along well, we all pushed each other really well and it was always competition, all the time — constant competition, whether it was a chipping game or putting or if we were playing just for qualifying," Denham said. "We all wanted to go out and beat each other."
Todd is currently ranked No. 54 in the world, one spot behind another former Bulldog, Bubba Watson. After some rough patches, Todd has earned three PGA Tour wins, including two this season before play was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. Kirk has also shined on the PGA Tour with four wins and at one point a run of eight straight appearances in the FedExCup Playoffs.
"That team proved out to be pretty darn good," Georgia coach Chris Haack said.
In the spring of 2005, Georgia headed to the NCAA Championships with a lot of talent, with five guys that were all capable of being the low man on any given day — at least normally. But these weren't normal times for Kisner, who was struggling mightily with his game.
After a terrible spring and a disastrous SEC Championships that included a round of 90 (in tough, windy conditions), Kisner, one of the top players in the country when on form, came close to getting benched by Haack before the NCAA regional.
"It got down close to where I almost made a change and took him out of the lineup because he'd been struggling so much," Haack said.
"I kind of let the college way of life get in the way," Kisner said. "I didn't work as hard as I should and I didn't follow through on what I needed to do to play well — I just got lazy and basically it started showing up in my golf game. You get what you work for, right? I started working my butt off again and things got better."
Just in the nick of time, Kisner got his swing back together and helped power the Bulldogs to a spectacular run at the NCAA Championships at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mill, Md. Kisner opened the NCAAs with a first-round 65 and the Bulldogs were off and running toward a dominating, wire-to-wire victory, The final margin was 11 strokes over the rest of the field, including runner-up Georgia Tech.
"I think it kind of lit the fire in everybody else when they saw me get off to a good start," Kisner said, "and kind of motivated everyone else to actually believe that we could win the national championship."
"It was almost one of those things where he played so poorly at SECs that you didn't want to talk about it," Denham said. "And as soon as he shoots 65 it's like, all right, here we go. It was like we were off to the races."
It was a wire-to-wire win for the ages and a team for the ages.
"Golf's a crazy game but if you've got some confidence and get all five guys on the same page, and build that confidence, the sky's kind of the limit," Scott said.
All five Bulldogs finished among the top 21 in the individual standings, led by Todd's finish in a tie for seventh at 3-over on the par-70 course. Kirk and Kisner tied for 13th, two strokes behind Todd; Scott (6-over) tied for 16th and Denham tied for 21st at 8-over.
Kisner's 65 paced the Bulldogs in the first round, but he wasn't the only one to break par: Todd shot a 68 and Kirk posted 69. In the second round, Scott's 69 led the group. The third round featured nonstop rain on the very difficult course and the scores reflected the conditions. Denham led the group with a 72, Todd, Kirk and Scott shot 75 and Kisner a 76. Those scores weren't pretty on their own but they looked good in relation to the field and that allowed Georgia to take a nine-shot lead into the final round.
"I didn't have a very good night of sleep the night before (the final round), and not because of anything that I didn't think we could handle," Haack said. "It's just the one team you're trying to keep from coming back on you is Georgia Tech.
"All I could think about was, if I lose this lead to Georgia Tech, I'll never live this down."
As it turned out, there was no need to worry. The Bulldogs delivered a final-round gem, with all five shooting even-par 70 to win by 11. Haack said he'd never seen that before, all five guys shooting even-par in the final round of the biggest event of the year.
"That was one of the most bizarre things to happen," he said. "All five guys were really, really steady the whole way and never even let it get close. That's what made that back-nine walk much more enjoyable."
Associate head coach Jim Douglas described it as "probably the most fun round of golf that I've ever been around, to this day, because it was complete control."
Todd was the last Bulldog to finish, so the win was assured by the time he stepped up to the 18th tee.
"I remember the last hole really clearly, just hitting a solid driver and a solid 7-iron right into the middle of the green and having 25 feet up the hill and two-putting for a 70," he said. "And I remember me and Doug (Douglas) carrying the pin off the green."
Denham was the first Bulldog to finish so he got to watch all of his teammates close out their 70s and feel the excitement build.
"It was pretty cool watching everybody come in behind me," he said.
As their final-round scores reflected, this was a team win. Everyone was talented, everyone contributed, everyone got to share in the moment. Because only the top four scores count toward a team's total, one of Georgia's 70s had to be dropped. As it turned out, it was Scott's.
"The first thing Haacker said to me was, 'We all took a vote and since you're Canadian, we're going to drop your 70.' I thought that was pretty funny," Scott said.
This group of guys didn't just play well together on the course, they were around each other all the time. Todd and Kirk lived together throughout college and Kisner and Scott lived together, with Denham in the apartment below. During the NCAAs, they would pile into a room together with Douglas to watch "Deadliest Catch."
"Traveling around with Haacker and Doug, ... it was a group of seven people that really had a blast together and gave each other a hard time and enjoyed all those moments," Todd said.
And left the course with a national championship, something they can savor for the rest of their lives.
"Those five guys were five pretty steady and solid ball-striking guys," Haack said. "They played one heck of a tournament up there at Caves Valley."
Staff Writer
It's kind of hard to imagine now, given that he's ranked No. 35 in the World Golf Rankings and has three PGA Tour victories to his name, most notably the 2019 World Golf Championships match play title, but 15 years ago, in the spring of 2005, Kevin Kisner nearly played his way out of the Georgia lineup.
"I was playing so poorly that spring, I was like the weak link of the five," Kisner, the team captain that season, said last week.
It was a Georgia starting five as good as any the Bulldogs have ever sent out on the golf course: senior David Denham, juniors Kisner and Richard Scott, and sophomores Brendon Todd and Chris Kirk.
"It was a great group of guys, we all got along well, we all pushed each other really well and it was always competition, all the time — constant competition, whether it was a chipping game or putting or if we were playing just for qualifying," Denham said. "We all wanted to go out and beat each other."
Todd is currently ranked No. 54 in the world, one spot behind another former Bulldog, Bubba Watson. After some rough patches, Todd has earned three PGA Tour wins, including two this season before play was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. Kirk has also shined on the PGA Tour with four wins and at one point a run of eight straight appearances in the FedExCup Playoffs.
"That team proved out to be pretty darn good," Georgia coach Chris Haack said.
In the spring of 2005, Georgia headed to the NCAA Championships with a lot of talent, with five guys that were all capable of being the low man on any given day — at least normally. But these weren't normal times for Kisner, who was struggling mightily with his game.
After a terrible spring and a disastrous SEC Championships that included a round of 90 (in tough, windy conditions), Kisner, one of the top players in the country when on form, came close to getting benched by Haack before the NCAA regional.
"It got down close to where I almost made a change and took him out of the lineup because he'd been struggling so much," Haack said.
"I kind of let the college way of life get in the way," Kisner said. "I didn't work as hard as I should and I didn't follow through on what I needed to do to play well — I just got lazy and basically it started showing up in my golf game. You get what you work for, right? I started working my butt off again and things got better."
Just in the nick of time, Kisner got his swing back together and helped power the Bulldogs to a spectacular run at the NCAA Championships at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mill, Md. Kisner opened the NCAAs with a first-round 65 and the Bulldogs were off and running toward a dominating, wire-to-wire victory, The final margin was 11 strokes over the rest of the field, including runner-up Georgia Tech.
"I think it kind of lit the fire in everybody else when they saw me get off to a good start," Kisner said, "and kind of motivated everyone else to actually believe that we could win the national championship."
"It was almost one of those things where he played so poorly at SECs that you didn't want to talk about it," Denham said. "And as soon as he shoots 65 it's like, all right, here we go. It was like we were off to the races."
It was a wire-to-wire win for the ages and a team for the ages.
"Golf's a crazy game but if you've got some confidence and get all five guys on the same page, and build that confidence, the sky's kind of the limit," Scott said.
All five Bulldogs finished among the top 21 in the individual standings, led by Todd's finish in a tie for seventh at 3-over on the par-70 course. Kirk and Kisner tied for 13th, two strokes behind Todd; Scott (6-over) tied for 16th and Denham tied for 21st at 8-over.
Kisner's 65 paced the Bulldogs in the first round, but he wasn't the only one to break par: Todd shot a 68 and Kirk posted 69. In the second round, Scott's 69 led the group. The third round featured nonstop rain on the very difficult course and the scores reflected the conditions. Denham led the group with a 72, Todd, Kirk and Scott shot 75 and Kisner a 76. Those scores weren't pretty on their own but they looked good in relation to the field and that allowed Georgia to take a nine-shot lead into the final round.
"I didn't have a very good night of sleep the night before (the final round), and not because of anything that I didn't think we could handle," Haack said. "It's just the one team you're trying to keep from coming back on you is Georgia Tech.
"All I could think about was, if I lose this lead to Georgia Tech, I'll never live this down."
As it turned out, there was no need to worry. The Bulldogs delivered a final-round gem, with all five shooting even-par 70 to win by 11. Haack said he'd never seen that before, all five guys shooting even-par in the final round of the biggest event of the year.
"That was one of the most bizarre things to happen," he said. "All five guys were really, really steady the whole way and never even let it get close. That's what made that back-nine walk much more enjoyable."
Associate head coach Jim Douglas described it as "probably the most fun round of golf that I've ever been around, to this day, because it was complete control."
Todd was the last Bulldog to finish, so the win was assured by the time he stepped up to the 18th tee.
"I remember the last hole really clearly, just hitting a solid driver and a solid 7-iron right into the middle of the green and having 25 feet up the hill and two-putting for a 70," he said. "And I remember me and Doug (Douglas) carrying the pin off the green."
Denham was the first Bulldog to finish so he got to watch all of his teammates close out their 70s and feel the excitement build.
"It was pretty cool watching everybody come in behind me," he said.
As their final-round scores reflected, this was a team win. Everyone was talented, everyone contributed, everyone got to share in the moment. Because only the top four scores count toward a team's total, one of Georgia's 70s had to be dropped. As it turned out, it was Scott's.
"The first thing Haacker said to me was, 'We all took a vote and since you're Canadian, we're going to drop your 70.' I thought that was pretty funny," Scott said.
This group of guys didn't just play well together on the course, they were around each other all the time. Todd and Kirk lived together throughout college and Kisner and Scott lived together, with Denham in the apartment below. During the NCAAs, they would pile into a room together with Douglas to watch "Deadliest Catch."
"Traveling around with Haacker and Doug, ... it was a group of seven people that really had a blast together and gave each other a hard time and enjoyed all those moments," Todd said.
And left the course with a national championship, something they can savor for the rest of their lives.
"Those five guys were five pretty steady and solid ball-striking guys," Haack said. "They played one heck of a tournament up there at Caves Valley."
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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