Putting his sponsor’s exemption to good use, Kevin Kisner has started hot at this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge, shooting a 3-under 67 at Colonial on Thursday. Kiz won this event in 2017, back when it was called the Dean & DeLuca Invitational, and perhaps this year he’ll bring his new caddie to the winner’s circle with him.
That looper is Kisner’s buddy Russ Andrew, who will be telling the story of how he finagled his way onto the bag at a PGA Tour event for the rest of time. Even Kiz seems kind of shocked at how it all worked out.
Kiz’s caddie for Colonial this week?
His buddy who forced his way onto the bag by buying a plane ticket to Dallas 💀
Presented by @Chevrolet pic.twitter.com/9B4tpiM5zh
— Fore Play (@ForePlayPod) May 28, 2026
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“ I was playing at Palmetto one day about a month ago, and James Edmondson, that caddied for Tom Hoge most recently, called me, who’s a member at Colonial, and said, ‘Kiz, I don’t have a bag for Colonial yet. I’d love to caddie for you.’ And I had not thought for one moment about who was gonna caddie for me in the tournament. And Russ is sitting in the cart beside me, and Russ was like, ‘You don’t have a caddie for Colonial yet?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘I’m in.’
“Russ, there’s no way you can do it. Like, it’s way harder than people think. Two holes later, he shows me a screenshot of the American Airlines ticket to Dallas Fort Worth he bought for Monday. And I said, ‘All right, man, you’re in. Let’s go do it.’”
It goes to show you that you gotta shoot your shot. The pairing appears to be working out so far for Kisner, with three birdies and zero bogeys over his first 18 holes, but it sounds like it was a rough start for Andrew earlier in the week.
“ Tuesday, we tee off the back nine with Brian Harman. I hit my patented push cut in the right rough, and I’m already pissed off. And we walk up there, he sets the bag down, and I go to grab my eight iron, it’s covered in mud. ‘Russ, where’s the towel?’ And he starts looking around at the bag. He said, ‘It was just right here. I don’t know what happened.’ ‘Well, go back and get it.’ First hole of the day, they are running back to the clubhouse looking for towels in the practice round.”
“Third hole, driver, I take the head cover off, set it on the bag, hit driver, we take off. I always just carry my driver after I hit it walking down the fairway. And we get down there, set the bag down. I said, ‘Russ, where’s the head cover?’ No head cover. Three holes in, he’s run back to the tee twice.”
But hey, that’s what practice rounds are for.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
