Kevin Kisner: Can he win that elusive second trophy at Colonial?

With a share of 4th place at 54 holes, can Kevin Kisner overcome the scar tissue and get his second PGA TOUR win at the Dean and DeLuca Invitational?

Kevin Kisner is facing a challenge. On the PGA TOUR, the logic is simple: if you keep knocking, the wins will come. But what if the door keeps getting slammed in your face?

That’s exactly the fate that has befallen Kevin Kisner, a 33-year-old South Carolina native who’s accumulated a staggering amount of scar tissue in the last two years alone. At No. 45 in the Official World Golf Ranking, he’s a pseudo-star, but without the trophies to go along with those world ranking points, it’s all hollow.

From the moment we found out who he was — for most of us, that was at the 2015 RBC Heritage, where he dropped a sudden death playoff to Jim Furyk — Kisner has made the near miss into an art form. Less than a month after his week at Hilton Head, he lost another playoff at THE PLAYERS Championship, this time to Rickie Fowler. He also posted two other runner-up finishes in 2015, and after suffering through a down year last year, he returned to his old ways for 2017, falling one stroke shy of a playoff at the Arnold Palmer Invitational two months ago.

While he has taken one event, hoisting the trophy at the 2015 RSM Classic, Kisner is still known as a master of the second-place finish. For that reason, this week at Colonial could be a big one for him. If he’s going to shed his reputation, now’s a great opportunity, but another squandered chance could sap his confidence.

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At the moment, he’s tied for 4th place through 54 holes at the Dean and DeLuca Invitational, and going into Sunday’s final round trailing leader Webb Simpson by 3 shots.

We’ve got a clustered leaderboard on our hands, so it’s likely that Kisner will come up short again. That said, he’s shown plenty of game this week. Will he find himself in the winner’s circle come Sunday afternoon?

Kisner, by the numbers

If he does, it will be because of his ball striking. Always one of the PGA TOUR’s better players with an iron in his hands, Kisner has gained nearly four strokes on the field with his approach shots this week, ranking eighth in strokes gained: approach-the-green. Combine that with his great driving accuracy — he hit 22 of 28 fairways on Thursday and Friday — and you’re looking at an ideal skill set for Colonial.

It’s no surprise, then, that Kisner loves this golf course. Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard asked the star where he would rank Colonial among the PGA TOUR rotation, and he was effusive in his praise.

"Top 5, if not the best. I love Hilton Head just because it’s a home game pretty much, but this is just like what I grew up on. Tight, small greens. You got to fit it in windows, not a lot of long irons into holes, which we’ve become accustomed to on the PGA Tour."

With that kind of understanding of the course, it’s no surprise that Kisner found the top 10 at Colonial in both 2015 and 2016. He’s on a fast track towards accomplishing that feat again, but this time, with a share of the lead at the midway point, anything less than a win would be disappointing. For the sake of his sanity, let’s hope he gets it done.

Next: Who is in the U.S. Open field?

What do you think: will Kevin Kisner get the job done at Colonial? Let us know in the comments, and keep it here at Pro Golf Now for more PGA TOUR updates.

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