Kisner finding his game at Rocket Mortgage Classic

DETROIT – It’s not like he needed to take out his phone and call up the GPS. But Kevin Kisner did have to turn to playing competitor and tournament host Rickie Fowler Thursday morning after playing his ninth hole at Detroit Golf Club, the par-4 18th, and ask, “How do you get to the first tee?”

Fowler, who is surely in demand here at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, smiled, then nodded, as if to say, “follow me.”

Kisner laughed, but no apologies were necessary. Like virtually every other competitor in the 156-player field, Kisner had never seen Detroit Golf Club before this week, but extenuating circumstances kept him from a full practice look. He played Monday in Rhode Island at the CVS Charity Classic and “I felt like I needed a little more rest this week after two long weeks (U.S. Open and Travelers Championship) in a row.”

He took Tuesday off, played just the back side in his nine-hole practice round Wednesday, then started on the back nine Thursday morning.

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Was Kisner worried as he took his 4-under score to foreign territory, Detroit GC’s front nine? Not at all. The man’s a trained professional, after all, and he had a pair of aces up his sleeve. “A good caddie (Duane Bock) who has seen the golf course and great yardage books that pretty much tell the story before you get there.”

Wouldn’t you know it, Kisner’s introduction to the front nine started birdie-birdie-birdie.

Quality stuff, for sure, but on this warm and sun-splashed day, the PGA TOUR’s first-ever tournament in Motown provided local fans with a parade of low scores and birdies by the buckets. It was a daytime fireworks display led by Nate Lashley, who didn’t find out he was officially in the tournament until Wednesday at noon.

He took advantage, for sure, peppering Detroit GC with five birdies over the final six holes to post the lowest score (9-under 63) in his brief TOUR career (33rd tournament, 96th round). When you one-putt nine of the 13 greens you hit in regulation and require just 23 overall, it’s a very good day, so Lashley, who is currently 132nd in the FedExCup standings, was obviously content.

But this figures to be a shoot-out and no pairing demonstrated that quite like the marquee draw of Kisner, Fowler and Charles Howell III. They combined for three eagles (two for Howell, one for Fowler), 14 birdies, and 17-under and when the red numbers were finalized, Howell’s 65 put him just off of Lashley’s morning pace, Kisner was at 66, and Fowler’s 68 left him thinking he had to step it up Friday.

That Howell and Kisner scored beautifully made for an intriguing study, for their 2018-19 seasons have been eerily similar. Drift back to late November, the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Ga., where Howell won for the first time since 2007 and Kisner was joint seventh. Productive stuff for both and each carried it over into the early months of 2019, Howell with two more top 10s, Kisner with a win at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

But while neither can complain about their FedExCup standing (Howell is 15th, Kisner 17th), each concedes that the results the last three months haven’t been as impressive as they were early on.

“The TOUR has gotten so good, it doesn’t take much out here,” said Howell, trying to explain why he piled up all four of his top 10s in his first nine starts, but hasn’t had any in his last 11.

He looks like he’s still 20, jokes that “I feel 100,” but the kid from Augusta, Ga., recently turned 40 and is in his 20th season, playing his 546th TOUR tournament this week. OK, so he might not stretch back to hickory, but Howell knows what it was like out here with balata balls and fields not quite as deep as they are in this era.

“It’s why you see guys working so hard out here, hiring coaches to help them. It feels like’s it’s a razor’s edge,” said Howell. “If you can get even one percent better or a slight advantage, because everyone’s so dang good out here, it’s important to push yourself and push the limit to find ways to get better.”

Kisner’s only top 10 in a stroke-play event this far this year remains that RSM start in November (he won in match play and was joint fifth with Scott Brown in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event), but insists that’s not a true reflection of his overall play.

“The consistency of my game has probably been as good as anytime in my career,” said Kisner. “I just haven’t been able to put it all together. The momentum hasn’t carried through an entire week.”

Maybe it will this week, especially now that he’s actually played all 18 holes? Kisner smiled.

“No time like the present,” he said.