Three players with Georgia ties finished in the top 10 of the Tour Championship at East Lake, with three other former Georgia collegians in the field ending up outside the top 20.
Two of the latter trio, however, could live with their results, as their first appearances in the season-ending event ensured them invitations to golf’s biggest events in the 2015-16 season.
Former Georgia Bulldog Bubba Watson, who admits to not having much love for East Lake’s classic but somewhat constricted layout, tied for fifth for the second time in three years in the Tour Championship, shooting 68-67 the final two days to finish at 4-under 276. Watson placed fifth in the final FedExCup standings to take home $1 million in bonus money to go along with his tournament paycheck of $302,500.
St. Simons Island resident Zach Johnson tied for eighth at 3-under after opening with a 66. Johnson was 6-under for the tournament midway through the second round, but went 5-over in a 5-hole stretch beginning with a double bogey at the par-5 ninth, more than offsetting three birdies on his final four holes later that day. Johnson was sixth in the final FedExCup standings.
Fellow St. Simons resident Matt Kuchar tied for 10th at 2-under, improving one shot each day after an opening 71. The former Georgia Tech golfer finished strong with four birdies on the back nine Sunday for a 68. He wound up 19th in the final standings.
Two ex-Bulldogs made their first starts in the Tour Championship, taking different routes to East Lake. Harris English, the third St. Simons resident in the field, finished strong with a final round 67 for a 5-over 285 total, rallying after a 76 Friday that included seven bogeys on his last 10 holes. Kevin Kisner, a member of Georgia’s 2005 national championship team, did not have a good week, finishing last among the 28 players who completed 72 holes, but that did not minimize his breakthrough season of 2015.
English missed qualifying for the Tour Championship by the narrowest of margins the previous two seasons, placing 32nd and 31st in the final FedExCup standings. He appeared headed for another near miss after beginning the Playoffs 42nd on the points list and working his way up to 32nd with one tournament left before the Tour Championship.
For most of the week in Chicago, English hovered right around the 30th spot in the standings, but appeared he was going to again fall just short as he played the final hole in the BMW Championship. English faced a birdie putt of almost 20 feet from the fringe, and needed to make the putt to move past playing partner Justin Thomas to claim the 30th and final spot in the Tour Championship.
English, who made three bogeys earlier on the back nine to drop out of the top 30, holed his birdie attempt while Thomas settled for par after hitting his second shot on the par 5 in the water. Even with the closing birdie, Thomas appeared to be in line to finish 30th, but Kevin Na saved par at the final hole with a 10-foot putt to deny Thomas a few extra points that would have inched him ahead of English in the final standings.
When the final point totals were calculated, English barely edged out Thomas and Daniel Summerhays for 30th, netting him a hard-earned spot in the Tour Championship field after two frustrating near-misses.
“That was huge,” English said of his birdie on the 72nd hole of the BMW Championship. As thrilled as he was to make it to East Lake for the first time, he noted that the Tour Championship “is not just another tournament. This gets me in (the WGC events in) China and Doral and the majors.”
The first of next year’s majors is the Masters, with English missing out on an invitation to Augusta this year after making his debut in 2014.
“I qualified for my first one two years ago, and I’ve been itching to get back,” he said after the opening round of the Tour Championship. “Augusta is a tournament you always want to play.”
English put himself in good position early in the year when he tied for third in Hawaii and lost in a playoff in San Diego, just missing what would have been his third PGA Tour win in the last three seasons. But a tie for 10th in Tampa turned out to be his last top 10 of the season, and he gradually slipped down the FedExCup rankings despite missing only two cuts in 2015.
Because he just missed making it into the Tour Championship last year, English did not earn invitations to the Masters, U.S. Open or three of the four WGC events. He did not play especially well in the biggest tournaments he qualified for, missing the cut in the Players and finishing well back in both the British Open and PGA Championship.
Until the closing 67, his week at East Lake was less than a rousing success, but just making it to Atlanta was reward enough.
English admitted he was “more relaxed” for the tournament than he had been during the Playoffs events leading to East Lake. “I’m not treating it like a major.”
After just missing out on the Tour Championship the previous two years, English said a third straight failure to qualify for the Tour Championship “would have been tough. It’s really hard to get in this tournament. I’m very happy I made it, and hopefully it will help me in the future how I was able to do it.”
English was a standout in college at Georgia and was pegged for stardom the minute he turned pro, making it to the PGA Tour in his first attempt after only five tournaments as a pro on the Web.com Tour.
Kisner, a native and resident of Aiken, S.C., part of the Central Savannah River Area that includes Augusta, had an excellent career in Athens, but was the team’s No. 3 player behind fellow PGA Tour members Chris Kirk and Brendon Todd.
After turning pro in 2006, Kisner made it to the Web.com Tour for the first time in 2010, and spent the next five years going back and forth between that tour and the PGA Tour, winning two tournaments and placing 11th and 13th on the money list in his two Web.com seasons, but struggling in his first two attempts at the PGA Tour.
Kisner played well enough in 2014 to retain his exempt status, and began the 2014-15 with his best showing on the tour – a tie for fourth in the McGladrey Classic at Sea Island Golf Club. That turned out to be his only top 20 finish in his first 14 starts of the season before he began a 4-month stretch of exceptional play that made him a regular on weekend network golf broadcasts.
From mid-April through early July, Kisner battled his way into three playoffs, running off a string of birdies down the stretch in each one. He made birdies in the first two playoffs in the Heritage and Players, but lost both when Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler followed with a second playoff birdie. Kisner made it to extra holes for a third time in the Greenbrier, but did not make it past the first hole of a 4-man playoff.
At the Heritage, Kisner shot 7-under 64 in the final round to erase a 3-stroke deficit after 54 holes. He birdied three of the last five holes, including the famous 18th at Harbour Town, but lost to Furyk, who birdied the par-3 17th after both he and Kisner birdied the 18th.
In the Players, Kisner closed with a 69 including birdies at the 16th and 17th at TPC Sawgrass, and birdied the 17th again in the playoff. But he lost when Fowler matched his first birdie at 17 and birdied it again when they returned to the 17th for the fourth extra hole.
After consecutive finishes of fifth in the Colonial, eighth in the Memorial and 12th in the U.S. Open, Kisner found himself in a third playoff in the Greenbrier, firing a final round 64 with five birdies on his last 10 holes to come from four back after 54 holes. A bad break and a worse lie quickly took him out of the playoff, as a birdie was required to make it past the first extra hole.
Kisner finished the regular season 17th in the FedExCup points list and wound up 21st after a disappointing showing at East Lake.
“You always want to win,” Kisner said of his 0-3 playoff record. “My goal was to have a shot to win and I did that, but you’ve got to finish. I played well; it’s not like I lost ‘em.”
Kisner had no ready explanation for his massive jump from outside the top 100 in 2014 to inside the top 20 for most of the Playoffs.
“I’ve just improved a lot the last few years.”
Kisner believed he would be able to accomplish the challenging feat of standing up to the pressure if he managed to get into contention, and did it every time he had the chance this season. As a result he will make his first start in the Masters next April, making the drive of less than half an hour from his home in Aiken.
Kisner will be the latest ex-Bulldog to qualify for the Masters, joining former teammates Kirk and Todd along with English, Russell Henley and Brian Harman, who followed Kisner in Athens.
Although he is not a native Georgian like all of that group other than Todd, Kisner has a closer connection to Augusta, and said he is “looking forward to getting that invitation right around Christmas. That will be the coolest Christmas present.
“Obviously, growing up there, that’s such a huge part of my career; going to the Masters and being a part of the week. Aiken gets invaded with Masters patrons and other people that come to town. So I grew up in the middle of it and I know how big it is, because I grew up there. Just excited to go play.”
Kisner anticipates taking full advantage of his access to Augusta National as a Master invitee, and gave the staff at the course advance warning.
“They’re probably going to get sick of me around there before the tournament. Probably going to tell me I’ve come enough and my preparation ought to be done.”
All the players who competed at East Lake will be in the 2016 Masters field, including Patrick Reed, who led Augusta State to consecutive NCAA titles. Reed finished 18th in the final FedExCup standings, but was 27th in the Tour Championship, just ahead of Kisner.