Late Friday morning, Kevin Kisner was feeling a familiar and not-always-welcome vibe: grinding out a score to make the cut in the second round of the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic.

The Aiken native and veteran PGA Tour player was 2-over par after 10 holes of the second round, with the projected cut line to play the weekend at 1-under, or perhaps lower. “When I was 2-over on the 11th tee, I knew I had to make some birdies,” he said, and birdies at the 11th and 12th holes at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club got him to even-par. Another birdie at the 16th pulled him to 1-under.

Now it came down (maybe) to the par-4 18th, whereupon Kisner pulled his tee shot through the left-hand rough and into a tricky pine-straw lie. Still, he had no choice about what to do. “I knew I had to make a 3,” he said. “I wasn’t going to lay up.”

Then Kisner smoked a draw out of the woods and onto the green, setting up a downhill putt for birdie. It was the kind of shot the 41-year-old has pulled off countless times in a 15-year career highlighted by four PGA Tour wins and $29 million in earnings.

“Do it, boy!” a fan shouted. “You’re going to win when you show up and show out!”

Kisner grinned as he walked to the green. And then … his birdie try slide past the cup.

By late Friday, he knew his fate. He’s seen it all too often the past couple of years.

“It’s been a grind all year,” he said. “I’m so close to popping off (a great score), but I can’t shoot that 4- or 5-under (score) to make it seem easy. I’m hanging around par and the cut line all year.”

Once in his career, that might’ve been disastrous for Kisner. But this year, he’s been mapping out another, post-playing career. Now there’s little doubt what his future holds – only when that future begins full-time.

Last Dec. 4, Kisner and NBC agreed to a deal where he will serve as the network’s lead announcer for 10 PGA Tour tournaments this year, including the U.S. Open and Open Championship. The announcement came as he was finishing outside the top 200 on the PGA Tour for the first time in a decade.

The NBC job, previously filled by the legendary Johnny Miller and then Paul Azinger, is one the personable Kisner seems tailor-made to make his own. “I think I offer a different perspective that is more player-centric,” he said when his new gig was announced. “I’m not going to give you fluff because I’ve got an analyst’s job. I’ll tell it like it is.”

In his NBC appearances so far this year, Kisner has earned positive reviews, and his TV future appears bright. It’s his career as a player that he admits is now in question.

“I had such a poor year in 2023 and most of 2024, (playing) this year was mostly to prove to myself I wasn’t going out that way,” he said Friday. “I haven’t been nearly as successful as I thought I’d be, but I’ve played way better. I just haven’t put it together, haven’t shot a 65 or 66 that takes the pressure off.

“I’m playing around par, waiting for it all to come together, and I continue to make 4-5 bogeys the first two days, which you can’t do. The caliber of play is so good out here (that) you just can’t afford to make any mistakes.”

That said, Kisner is grateful to NBC, which allows him to keep playing tournaments he has qualified for while fulfilling his on-air obligations. “I’ve said it 100 times: NBC has been so good to me to let me still be a player,” he said. “I do what I do, only doing (TV on) weekends, and if I miss a cut, I can still practice at the tournament sites.”

He laughed. “It’s not too much of a grind on the golf game, more on the family. Just being gone, I’m sure my wife is ready for me to come home and help with the kids.”

Kisner said the Myrtle Beach Classic was a personal must-do, despite its status as an “alternate” event versus this week’s “signature” Truist Championship. “I was always going to play here,” he said. “I played it last year and thought the golf course is great, and obviously being in my home state, I’m always going to try to support it.

“It’s a cool event and a cool golf course. What’s crazy is, with all the tournaments I played in Myrtle Beach in my life, I’d never played here until last year. I think it’s a great layout and a great test for the PGA Tour.”

Asked what he was thinking, sitting at 2-over in mid-round Friday and needing to grind out three or four birdies to survive the cut, he laughed.

“(I thought) this kind of sucks,” he said.

Soon enough, that grind will be the province of full-time players, not a guy with one foot in a TV tower. “If (after this year) I only have partial status, I don’t think I’ll do both,” Kisner said. “I think then I’ll just quit playing and do NBC.

“That’s where my head is now. This is my last year fully exempt, and if I’m in the situation of only playing the odd tournament here and there, I don’t think I’d be doing myself justice to be full-time with NBC and playing maybe five times a year.”

Whenever that day comes, Kisner will miss a lot about competing. Days like Friday, grinding away every hole, hoping to squeeze into the weekend? Not so much.

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