Kevin Kisner Marks Winning NBC Debut With Firm-But-Fair Advice For Jordan Spieth After Short-Putt Shocker

Kevin Kisner has enjoyed a highly encouraging start to life in the commentary booth, winning plenty of plaudits for his refreshing tone and his unique thoughts - all uttered in his charming Georgia twang - throughout the first three days of the 2024 Sentry tournament.

While some had wondered how close the 39-year-old would venture towards the line of criticizing his fellow pros - or whether the current PGA Tour player would even venture away from a plane of positivity at all - an incident involving Kisner's friend Jordan Spieth painted a pretty clear picture.

With Spieth mounting a challenge near the top of the leaderboard late on 'Moving Day', the Texan left himself nicely placed on the par-5 15th with a close-range birdie putt. To most, it seemed like a regulation tap-in. But Spieth didn't - or couldn't - see it that way and spent an age lining it up. Hyperbole aside, it was almost a minute from Spieth first arriving at the ball to taking his strike.

As the three-time Major winner continued to crouch, stand up, and shuffle backwards and forwards in the search of some enlightenment, Kisner said: “I’m watching this distance — this is always the distance I make him putt when we play matches because you never know what you’re going to get. 

“He’s spent more time on this 3-footer than he does on 25-footers. If I was going to help him, I’d tell him to speed it up a little bit on these and just knock it in. He knows how to make these.”

The reason Kisner revealed he would make Spieth putt them from that length rather than letting him have it likely centres around the fact that the 30-year-old has not ranked any higher than 110th among his PGA Tour peers for putts marked at three feet and closer over the past trio of seasons (2022/23 - 172nd, 2021/22 - 190th, 2020/21 - 110th). Granted, Spieth's success rate ranged from 98.75% to 99.49, but Kisner knew there was a small chance he could still miss.

And so it proved on the Plantation Course at Kapalua, as Spieth proceeded to look up at his target and slam a putt down the right edge of the hole before it whipped around the back and stayed above ground.

As Spieth muttered something about the wind, the grass grain, and the hill all having to be taken into account, Kisner retorted: “That’s 3 feet, Jordan. Just knock it in, bud. Ninety-nine percent on Tour.”

The comment from Kisner was largely very well received by fans online, while Spieth recovered suitably to reach 19-under and stay within two shots of leader Chris Kirk prior to the final day's play.