The Georgia Bulldogs alums at the Sony Open in Hawaii — all 10 of them — are having quite a week.
It started with a watch party involving eight of them on Monday at the Kahala Hotel & Resort for the Georgia football team’s victory over Alabama in the national title game.
It’s continued with former Bulldogs Harris English, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Chris Kirk, Kevin Kisner, Keith Mitchell, Greyson Sigg, Sepp Straka, Hudson Swafford and Brendon Todd all making the cut at Waialae Country Club.
“We call it the UGA Tour. Ten guys out here, 10 guys making the cut, one guy (Henley) leading right now,” said Kisner after his round. “Heck of a program to produce that much talent and continue to do it.”
Henley shot a 3-under-par 67 in Saturday’s third round to take the lead at 192. Kisner carded a 5-under 65 and stands in a tie for seventh at 197.
“Yeah, I mean, a lot of good golfers from Georgia,” Henley said. “All the guys are so easy to hang out with and so it’s great. I mean, it’s great to have so many guys from Georgia on tour. Hopefully be more in the coming years.”
Kisner opened with a 68 on Thursday, followed by a second-round 64.
In his third round, Kisner birdied Nos. 2, 5, 9, 11, 12, 14 and 18, and bogeyed 6 and 17.
“It was a solid round. Kept the momentum going from yesterday evening,” Kisner said. “Making some long putts there, keeping the round going, and kind of lost my way there last three or four holes, but was able to birdie the last and get back to where I think I needed to be to have a chance.”
He has hit 86 percent of his fairways and has gained 3.44 strokes against the field in the tournament.
“The first round was probably the best ball-striking round. I hit it really close a lot and didn’t make a lot of putts,” Kisner said. “Putter got hot yesterday afternoon and kind of stayed that way today, so hopefully it gets really hot tomorrow.”
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Overnight rain at Waialae likely helped Kisner and the others who started early.
“They’re super soft,” he said of the greens. “Other than the hole number I don’t even talk about where else to land it. That’s not very often on tour we get to do that.”
Kisner, who is making his 11th tournament appearance, has a good track record at Waialae. His 60 in 2017 is the best third-round score at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Kisner also has top-five finishes in 2016, 2017 and 2020.
“I feel comfortable here. I love the golf course,” he said. “I feel like it fits my game well and I feel like I can go low if I can get off to a good start and keep it rolling.”
As for the football watch party Monday, it was set up at the last minute with the help of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
Only Kirk and Todd couldn’t make it, but no doubt enjoyed the game from another location.
“We all have a text thread that we send various things to, so I send them a message, and Jay and the tour and everybody with the tour helped us get a safe room for all of us to hang out in,” Kisner said. “It was really cool. Send out a text and everybody replied they were coming, so it was a lot of fun.”
The room got pretty loud after Georgia’s Kelee Ringo had a late pick-6 to cap the Bulldogs’ 33-18 victory over the Crimson Tide.
“I think everybody in the hotel heard it. There was quite an epic video taken with people jumping around trying to see the TV,” Kisner said. “We only had one TV with about 15, 20 people. It was pretty fun.”
On his Twitter account, Kisner posted a picture of nine individuals signaling “We’re No. 1!” The caption read: “Dawgs on top!”
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Third Round
Russell Henley 62-63-67—192
Hideki Matsuyama 66-65-63—194
Matt Kuchar 64-65-67—196
Hao-Tong Li 63-65-68—196
Seamus Power 63-68-65—196
Adam Svensson 64-67-65—196
Lucas Glover 67-66-64—197
Kevin Kisner 68-64-65—197
Cameron Davis 66-66-66—198
Russell Knox 67-67-64—198
Christiaan Bezuidenhout 65-69-65—199
Talor Gooch 67-66-66—199
Ben Kohles 68-67-64—199
Jason Kokrak 64-68-67—199
Kevin Na 61-71-67—199
Brandt Snedeker 66-65-68—199
Michael Thompson 63-67-69—199
Keegan Bradley 69-65-66—200
Hayden Buckley 67-66-67—200
Corey Conners 64-67-69—200
Luke Donald 68-65-67—200
Kramer Hickok 66-69-65—200
Satoshi Kodaira 71-64-65—200
Keith Mitchell 67-68-65—200
Ryan Palmer 64-68-68—200
Davis Riley 65-66-69—200
Wesley Bryan 67-65-69—201
Stewart Cink 68-63-70—201
Andrew Putnam 68-67-66—201
Greyson Sigg 67-66-68—201
Dylan Wu 65-66-70—201
Ryan Armour 71-63-68—202
Harris English 66-67-69—202
Billy Horschel 65-67-70—202
Chris Kirk 66-65-71—202
Maverick McNealy 65-67-70—202
Kyle Stanley 66-67-69—202
Vincent Whaley 66-67-69—202
Joseph Bramlett 68-66-69—203
Charles Howell III 69-63-71—203
Si Woo Kim 68-66-69—203
Patton Kizzire 63-68-72—203
Jim Knous 68-67-68—203
Marc Leishman 67-68-68—203
Keita Nakajima 67-64-72—203
Sahith Theegala 65-69-69—203
Brendon Todd 67-66-70—203
Erik Van Rooyen 66-68-69—203
Brett Drewitt 68-67-69—204
Brian Harman 67-68-69—204
Kyoung-Hoon Lee 69-66-69—204
Vaughn Taylor 65-70-69—204
Kevin Tway 66-67-71—204
Paul Barjon 66-68-71—205
Kevin Chappell 63-72-70—205
Henrik Norlander 68-67-70—205
J.T. Poston 64-69-72—205
Hudson Swafford 68-67-70—205
Jim Furyk 62-72-72—206
Denny McCarthy 71-64-71—206
Webb Simpson 67-68-71—206
Sepp Straka 66-67-73—206
Jimmy Walker 69-66-71—206
Sam Ryder 68-67-72—207
Justin Lower 67-67-74—208
