As perhaps you’ve heard, NBC Golf has been looking for a new voice atop its telecasts.
And as perhaps you’ve heard, Kevin Kisner is one of the favorites for the job.
And yet, with a little more than a month remaining before NBC’s biggest telecast of the year (the U.S. Open), the network has not named a replacement for controversial lead analyst Paul Azinger, who departed from the network in December. A rotating cast of replacements has tried out for the job in the time since then, and of the group, Kisner has been the one nearest to the top of the X-axis of popularity and Y-axis of ability.
The problem, though, is that Kiz already has a day job. He remains a touring pro, playing regularly (if somewhat inconsistently) on the PGA Tour, and though his career appears much closer to the 18th than the first, Kisner isn’t quite ready to give up Tour life in favor of the booth.
In a recent appearance on Golf Digest’s The Loop podcast, Kisner told hosts Alex Meyers, Stephen Hennessey and Chris Powers that he would consider taking the NBC Golf job … but not until he’s ready to.
“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. “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?”
To that end, Kisner certainly isn’t wrong. After a career renaissance in 2021-22, the 40-year-old pro has fallen far off his game in ’23-24. A stretch of six MCs and WDs last year felt like it might be the low point of his career … until a stretch of six more came between January and late March of this year, pushing Kisner outside of the top 500 players in the OWGR.
It wouldn’t take much to allow Kisner to leave satisfied after so many years in the pro game, but it’d take more than he’s gotten of late.
“If I won next week, I’d probably be like, ‘alright, I might be done.'” Kisner said. “I just want to prove to myself that I’m not going out like this.”
As for how a timeline for his future employer looks, well, Kisner doesn’t know.
“I’m gonna grind it out through the whole season until I find some sort of success,” he said. “I mean, all I really want to see is the fruits of my labor. To see some success and enjoy it.”
It is, of course, Kisner’s right to turn down any job opportunity that doesn’t suit his wants and needs, but it’s also fair to point out that the NBC job could be a once-in-a-lifetime opening. Azinger was in the gig for only five years, but his predecessor Johnny Miller spent well over two decades in the seat.
To this point, NBC has been content to keep rolling with a permanent question mark in the lead analyst position, but it’s hard to say how much longer the network’s leash will be. Could next month’s U.S. Open lead to a final answer, could the network be waiting out Kisner until retirement, or could another voice jump the longtime pro in line in the meantime? It’s hard to give a definitive answer. Well, unless you’re Kisner.
“It’s so hard to enjoy it when you’re getting your teeth kicked in out there, and we’ve all been through it,” he said. “I just feel like I’m so close to seeing the other end, so I want to see it through.”
