Heritage notebook: Kisner can claim first South Carolina win

No South Carolina native or resident has won the Heritage in its 47-year history, and Kevin Kisner of Aiken has the best chance among the contingent from the Palmetto State in this year’s event.

Kisner is tied for second and three strokes behind leader Troy Merritt at 11-under-par 202 entering the final round at Harbour Town Golf Links following a bogey-free 4-under 67 Saturday. He has been near the lead since an opening 68 Thursday.

“I’ll try to stick with the process, the kind of things that I’ve been doing, and hopefully the results will come,” Kisner said. “Whatever happens, happens. If I keep playing like I’m doing, hopefully I’ll have a chance.”

In addition to Kisner, 31, who played at Georgia, others from South Carolina who made the cut this week are Scott Brown of Aiken, Greenville native Lucas Glover, Bill Haas of Greenville, Ben Martin of Greenwood and now Kiawah Island, and William McGirt of Spartanburg.

Kisner is tied for second with Matt Kuchar and Brendon Todd and has the only real opportunity Sunday. Glover is tied for 20th at 6-under 207, Martin is tied for 27th at 208, McGirt and Haas are tied for 37th at 209, and Brown is tied for 61st at 1-under 212.

“We only have one shot at this,” Kisner said. “So hopefully we have a few South Carolina guys that have a chance.”

The South Carolina Golf Association – which also oversees the S.C. Junior Golf Association – started an annual party a couple years ago that is held on the eve of the first round in a hospitality tent on the 18th hole to honor players from the state on tour or in the event.

Kisner was among those who stopped in on Wednesday.

“We have such a great junior golf association here in South Carolina,” Kisner said. “They have 20 guys on the wall that have either played in the tournament or are playing. So we grew up playing with each other. Not all jumped into AJGA and traveled across the country, because we had such good competition here. So we’re familiar with each other and we grew up playing with each other, so we’re all buddies.”

In striking distance

Jordan’s Spieth’s 62 Friday shot him up the leaderboard, and he began Saturday’s third round six shots off the lead in a tie for seventh.

His progress wasn’t as dramatic Saturday. In a bid to record a win or runner-up in five consecutive events, the Masters winner shot a 3-under 68 to move one shot closer to Troy Merritt’s lead, but he now has one more person in front of him as he’s tied for eighth with Bo Van Pelt at 9-under 204.

“I was looking for three [under] on each side. I wanted to shoot 6 under today,” Spieth said. “I felt like that would get me into the last group and I would have a good shot at it [Sunday].”

Spieth made four birdies and a bogey, and holed birdie putts of 19 feet on the 11th hole and 5 feet on the 15th. Those were the only putts he made outside of 3 feet Saturday, as he missed six birdie putts between 8 and 18 feet.

“I had my chances from mid-range, which is typically a comfortable length for me,” Spieth said. “I just didn’t have those putts go in like [Friday] and that was the difference. I think it could have been better.”

With a winner-take-all mentality, Spieth plans to be aggressive in the final round. “I’ve got nothing to lose,” he said. “If it doesn’t work out and I shoot even or whatever, then it was still a great stretch. And if I get out there and hit the shots that I want to hit, then I’ve got a possibility of contending again.”

Donald on move

Luke Donald is trying to record his sixth top-three finish in the RBC Heritage in the past seven years.

It looked highly unlikely after a 73 in the first round, and chances were still bleak when he was 1 over with four holes to play in his second round, and the cut number was at even par.

But his chances are at least realistic now that Donald has played his last 22 holes 12-under par to sit in a tie for 10th at 8-under 205.

He birdied the final four holes of his second round with approaches within 8 feet on holes 15, 16 and 17 and a 12-foot putt on 18. He one-putted nine of his final 10 holes in the second round. ”I always feel I’m good when my back is against the wall. I knew I had to make something happen,” Donald said. “The ball-striking was good and it was nice to clean them up on the greens.”

The resurgence continued Saturday with a second consecutive 66 that included 15 greens in regulation.

Donald makes up for a lack of distance off the tee with a solid iron game and one of the world’s best short games over the past decade. At Harbour Town, he has three seconds and two thirds since 2009, including a runner-up last year.

“It’s a lovely old classic golf course,” Donald said. “Length isn’t such an important factor here: a lot of 3-woods off tees and a positioning golf course. It has very small greens so it’s not easy to hit a lot of greens, so you have to be good around the greens when you do miss them. You know, it’s very much a thinking man’s course and that’s kind of right in my wheelhouse.”

Donald, who was No. 1 in the world as recently as August 2012, has had a tough 2013-14 season. A tie for seventh is his only finish inside the top 40 in nine events. Though his ball-striking statistics are worse than his putting stats this year – none are very good – Donald said putting has been the main culprit as he has fallen to 53rd in the world.

“I’ve been hitting the ball reasonably well most of the year, especially the last few months,” he said. “I haven’t been putting as well as I would have liked. That’s usually a strength of my game, but it’s kind of letting me down a little bit. It let me down in the first round, too. But I seem to be putting better the last two days and hopefully more of that to continue.”

In a quest to improve his game for the majors, Donald hired Chuck Cook as a swing coach before believing in the middle of last year it was a mistake, so he reunited with Pat Goss, his longtime swing coach and former college coach at Northwestern.

An early start

With players teeing off between 7:30-9:30 a.m. on the first and 10th tees Sunday in an effort to beat predicted storms, tournament motor coach shuttles will begin at 6 a.m. from general spectator parking lots and will stop running approximately one hour after play.

Then, an official van service will be provided for $10 per passenger from Harbour Town to the lots at Coastal Discovery Museum on Honey Horn Drive. Spectators can call the dispatch office at 843-681-6602 to check on the shuttle service.

The television broadcast schedule hasn’t changed. Tape-delayed air times are set for 1-2:30 p.m. on Golf Channel and 3-6 p.m. on CBS.

This story was originally published April 18, 2015 at 7:48 PM with the headline "Heritage notebook: Kisner can claim first South Carolina win."