A familiar face returns to NBC’s PGA Tour postseason coverage
Kevin Kisner is serving as lead analyst for NBC's FedEx Cup Playoff coverage.
Getty Images
The Vegas oddsmakers would have laughed you out of the room if you’d told them back in late January that Kevin Kisner would serve as NBC’s lead analyst for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Not because Kisner was a longshot to get the lead gig. In fact, the exact opposite.
Fresh off a smashing debut in Kapalua, Kisner’s runaway favorite status came with a few easy pros: He was young enough to cling to the very last vestiges of his playing career, well-connected enough to keep the broadcast in the good graces of the playing class, and talented enough to keep viewers entertained.
The only question surrounding his candidacy seemed like a throwaway: Would he be willing to retire from the millions that come with playing pro golf to take the millions that comes with pro golf broadcasting?
As the months progressed, though, that question grew thornier. Could it be the longtime Tour pro wasn’t ready to hand over the reins to his playing career? In the early days, the most obvious hint of trepidation came not from Kisner but from NBC, who chose not to hire a full-time replacement for the lead analyst role in the days and months following Kisner’s debut. But then, a few months after his debut, Kisner gave an interview to Golf Digest’s The Loop podcast that laid down the law.
“I haven’t played well in two years, and I don’t really want to go out like that, to be honest with you,” Kisner said then. “I feel like I can still compete with the guys if I’m playing well, which I haven’t played what I consider well yet. So it’s kind of a test to myself to see, how hard can you work to figure it out?”
Indeed, Kisner wasn’t ready to retire from pro golf until he’d given his playing career one last college try, which left NBC in a strange kind of purgatory. Should they pursue a new lead analyst, or should they wait Kisner out?
The two sides stayed in that purgatory through last week’s Wyndham Championship, the final PGA Tour event of the 2024 regular season, when a new piece of news arrived: Kisner would serve as lead analyst of NBC’s coverage through the FedEx Cup Playoffs, his highest-profile assignment to date.
The part-time promotion gives Kisner another look at how life in the booth looks before an offseason of hard decisions about his PGA Tour future. His three-year PGA Tour winner’s exemption will lapse in December, which makes this year’s FedEx Cup fall crucial to his competitive future. (The FedEx Cup fall fills out the final spots of the top 125 players who receive full-time playing status on the Tour in the following year.) Kisner could opt to grind for his Tour status through the fall and see how it plays out, as he did throughout the summer. He could choose to stick around in the pro game and pick off his remaining exemptions. Or he could opt to return back to NBC, after all.
Of course, there’s no guarantee the network will be waiting around to hire him in the lead analyst role. The last several months have afforded NBC the freedom to try out a host of other big-name voices for the lead analyst gig, and while no tryout has run away with the job, names like Luke Donald, Paul McGinley and Brandel Chamblee have performed well. But NBC’s excitement to re-hire Kisner for the fall indicates all we need to know about the network’s enthusiasm for his ability. After a year filled with turmoil for the network’s golf coverage, a Kisner hire would be a welcome piece of good news.
As ever, the question remains: Does Kisner feel the same?
Latest In News
