While Tiger Woods was drawing the attention of golf fans all over the world with his win in the World Golf Championship event at Miami’s Doral Resort, two tour pros from the Augusta area were also scoring significant victories.
Scott Brown, who was born and grew up in Augusta, won the PGA Tour Puerto Rico Open to secure exempt status on the tour through 2015.
Kevin Kisner, who lives across the Savannah River from Augusta in Aiken, S.C., and was a member of UGA’s 2005 NCAA Championship team, took a big step toward returning to the PGA Tour in 2014, winning a Web.com Tour event in Chile.
Brown, playing just his second season on the PGA Tour, was planning on making most of his 2013 starts on the Web.com Tour, but his win in Puerto Rico completely changed his schedule for the year.
After finishing 148th on the PGA Tour money list as a rookie in 2012, Brown had limited status on the tour for 2013, and had made just one start the first two months of the season.
Following back-to-back finishes of 3rd and 7th in the first two Web.com events of 2013 in Panama and Colombia, Brown returned to Puerto Rico, where he finished 5th as a rookie last year.
Brown shot himself into contention with a second round 63 to tie a course record, and was tied for the lead going to the final day. After an eagle and birdie on the two front nine par 5s, Brown was suddenly three shots in front, but missed the green on holes 8, 9 and 11 and bogeyed all three to lose his lead.
A birdie at the 12th, one of the toughest holes on the course, pulled Brown back into a tie at the top, but he parred the next five holes and trailed Fabian Gomez by one heading to the par-5 18th.
Both players came up a little short of the green in two, but Gomez hit his third shot into a bunker behind the green while Brown chipped to about four feet. A clearly nervous Gomez made bogey after a poor sand shot and Brown holed his putt for the victory.
Brown closed with a 70 after earlier scores of 68-63-67, and finished with a tournament record 20-under 268 total. The victory was worth $630,000 and moved Brown into 28th in the FedExCup standings. Brown is exempt through the 2015 season and earned spots in the Players and PGA Championship this year, and the season-opening Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in 2014.
“It’s a dream come true, something you dream about as a kid,” Brown said after his win. “I’ve been playing golf since I was four or five years old, and obviously growing up in Augusta – I was probably 500 yards from the front gate – it means a great deal.”
Brown, who now lives in North Augusta, S.C., led USC-Aiken to three straight NCAA Division II golf championships from 2004-06. He spent most of his first three years as a tour pro primarily on the Tar Heel (now eGolf) Tour, winning five times, including three wins in 2009, when he led the tour in earnings with more than $140,000.
After making a handful of Nationwide (now Web.com) Tour starts in ’09, Brown earned exempt status for 2010 with a strong showing at Q-school. He played respectably as a rookie, placing 70th on the money list with a trio of top 10s, the first coming in Valdosta.
Although Brown was winless in his second Nationwide Tour season, he recorded five top-3 finishes, including a runner-up showing in the Tour Championship to finish 8th on the money list with $282,500.
Brown earned $480,000 last year as a PGA Tour rookie, but that was good for only 148th on the money list to leave him with limited status for this season. He tied for 30th at Pebble Beach in his only PGA Tour start of 2013 and was likely to get fewer than 10 starts the entire season.
After two weeks of the 2013 Web.com Tour season, Brown was among the leading money winners thanks to his strong opening efforts, but will be strictly a PGA Tour player through 2015.
Brown carded seven birdies in an opening round 68, and followed with a sizzling 63, highlighted by a hole-out of some 170 yards for eagle on a par 4. Playing in the final group in the third round, Brown opened with birdies on the first two holes, and added four more birdies on the back nine to remain in the final group for Sunday’s round.
Unlike Brown, who had back-to-back top 10s the previous two weeks on the Web.com Tour, Kisner’s 2013 season got off to a slow start with consecutive missed cuts.
“I don’t know why I won because I played so bad the last two weeks,” Kisner said. “It wasn’t terrible, but my game wasn’t there and I wasn’t confident.
“The course just fit my eye really well. I knew when I played my first nine holes in the practice round that I’d have a chance here.”
Kisner was a distant eight strokes off the lead after carding scores of 71-67 the first two rounds. His third round 61 broke the course record by three shots and was highlighted by a 29 on his final nine.
The 61 lifted Kisner into a three-way tie for the lead going to the final day. He broke away from the pack with five birdies in an 8-hole stretch midway through the round before going 1-over the final five holes, taking bogey on an easy par-5 he eagled the day before.
Much of Kisner’s career has mirrored that of Brown. Both played their final college events in 2006 and made their pro debuts that year on the Tar Heel Tour. Both players qualified for the Nationwide Tour stop that year in Chattanooga and missed the cut, even though Brown was 4-under for 36 holes and Kisner was 6-under.
Both were also part of championship squads in college, with Georgia winning the Division I title in 2005. Among Kisner’s teammates were current PGA Tour member Chris Kirk, Web.com member Richard Scott and Brendon Todd, who began the season like Brown with status on both tours.
Kisner also spent his first few years as a pro on the Tar Heel Tour, winning in both 2007 and ’08, and placing 3rd in earnings the latter year with six top-4 finishes. Kisner notched a pair of early top-20 finishes in the two Georgia events on the Nationwide Tour in ’09, but spent most of the year back on the Tar Heel Tour before falling just one shot short of a PGA Tour card in the finals of qualifying for 2010.
The former Georgia Bulldog started fast and finished faster in his rookie season on the Nationwide Tour, which was highlighted by a victory in Pittsburgh. He finished 11th on the money list to qualify for the PGA Tour, and was 181st in earnings as a rookie, earning a second shot when he tied for 11th at Q school.
Kisner improved slightly last year, moving up 14 spots to 167, and notching his first PGA Tour top 10 in the Canadian Open. He wound up back at Q school for the third time in four years, and for the second time missed his PGA Tour card by just one stroke.
By Mike Blum