Two weeks ago, Kevin Kisner and Max Homa made an innocent wager. If Homa were to hole out from the fairway during the Presidents Cup, Kisner promised he’d take his shirt off in celebration.
These types of antics aren’t commonplace most weeks in golf, but during team events, those norms are thrown out the window. The caddies for Alison Lee and Megan Khang proved as much a couple weeks ago as they shed their shirts (and caddie bibs) in celebration of a hole-out at Solheim Cup.
The scene quickly went viral on social media, and served as inspiration for the Homa-Kisner Presidents Cup bet.
During the anchor match of Sunday singles at Royal Montreal, Homa cashed in on his end of the deal.
On his first hole of the day in his match against Mackenzie Hughes, Homa flew a wedge from 102 yards just beyond the pin and ripped it back, straight into the cup for an eagle.
Kisner’s offer may seem tongue-in-cheek, but earlier this week, Kisner doubled down on the wager. On Wednesday, during a pre-event press conference, a reporter asked Kisner about the wager directly directly.
“If Max Homa hoops one, will you follow through on your tweet to take your shirt off?”
“I’m really hoping that later in the week — I hope it’s later in the week because, if I had to take my shirt off today, it would be pretty brutal out there,” Kisner said, referencing chilly early-week weather. “But, yeah, I’m all in for that.”
Well, the moment did indeed come as Homa dunked his approach shot into the 1st on Sunday afternoon.
A few minutes after Homa’s eagle, NBC (who Kisner has worked for on-and-off throughout the season as an analyst) cut to a live interview between Smylie Kaufman and a red-faced Kisner.
“You know motivation is an amazing thing, and I think Max really took it to heart,” Kisner said. “I’ve been with him for two matches, he doesn’t make one, then I go see him off the 1st tee and he hoops it. I think he’s been yelling at every captain he’s seen since — because I haven’t seen him — ‘Where is Kiz?’
“So I’m hiding over here on the back nine.”
It seems Kisner is going to avoid Homa as long as he can, but he could still make all things right by paying up during what is increasingly looking like an American victory party.
