Q. If this ain't no hobby, then what are your hobbies?
KEVIN KISNER: Hunting and fishing and parenting. About the only three I have anymore.
Q. If you were running late for a tee time, you only have time to do one thing, do you brush your teeth or put on deodorant?
KEVIN KISNER: Brush your teeth. I don't think you can make it all day. I sweat anyway. I don't even think deodorant works, in this heat anyway.
Q. When you knew you were going to make the team, get your second crack here -- you've been really, really close in a ton of Ryder Cups -- what happened? Who told you? What was your emotions like?
KEVIN KISNER: I actually reached out to Davis and asked him if I need to practice or not during the TOUR Championship because I was probably going to hang them up for a while. So he told me to stay sharp.
We talked about every day that week, and then Sunday he kept calling me and then not saying anything, and I thought that was pretty odd. Finally he called me, and he was like, all right, I can't stand it anymore. You're on the team.
Q. He kept calling you and saying nothing?
KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, we were just chatting about random stuff. He's like, all right, I'll talk to you later. I'm like what is going on with this? About 3:30 that afternoon, he let me know.
Q. Do you think he was messing with you?
KEVIN KISNER: I don't know if he was waiting on the TOUR Championship to be over, or I don't know what his thing was. I think probably that. Then he just couldn't stand it anymore.
Q. What were you going to do if you shut it down?
KEVIN KISNER: Hang out, hunt, fish, take some time off. Try to gain some weight. I lose a bunch of weight during the season. Then I come out here and sweat like crazy and lose it all again.
Q. You said earlier you're going to try to enjoy this one a little bit more. As you get closer, as you're out here now, is the match play guy in you starting to ramp up?
KEVIN KISNER: You want to perform. You don't want to let your team down, and you want to be ready to go. So trying to get your game ready for that. I hadn't played in a month, so hopefully not too rusty when I go.
I think the experience will help, and then the atmosphere is going to really be a testament to getting me fired up to go play.
Q. In your previous appearance, you had a successful and pretty fun pairing with Phil. He's played more of these than anybody. What kind of things did you take from him just about how to be successful in this format and in this event?
KEVIN KISNER: Man, his preparation is pretty intense. Find out how crazy a person he really is, probably the first thing I learned. All the things he told me throughout.
One of my favorite stories was the first couple holes we played alternate shot, I left a few like 30-foot birdie putts short in the gimme range, and he came up to me and said, stop doing that. You can hit them as hard as you want to, I guarantee you I'll make every one of them coming back. Phil being Phil in the most Phil way.
Q. Any flack for being the old man in the team room?
KEVIN KISNER: They are relentless on that. I think that's the only thing they have on me because I'm firing at them nonstop. So it's grandpa or pops all the time and how short I hit it. Everybody here is a frickin' bomber. So they all laugh at that.
Q. What's the best one-liner you got so far?
KEVIN KISNER: J.T. got me with something yesterday about that buffer was only 243 that I didn't cover. It was a pretty good one.
Q. On that topic, when you've just missed the Ryder Cup in the past, often people are like, well, it's because of his length. He doesn't fit the course. We wanted long hitters.
KEVIN KISNER: And they pick me for the worst one ever here at Quail Hollow?
Q. Yeah. I was thinking, because you have a strong match play reputation, does that put any kind of chip on your shoulder? Put me out against these guys. I can beat them. Even though they hit longer than you.
KEVIN KISNER: Sure. It's really annoying when a guy is way behind you and then tapping in in front of you. It gets old quickly.
In a match play format, I love being back there and hitting shots that they are not expecting. That's what kills your mentality in match play. Hopefully I can do that a lot.
Q. So there's strength in being the first one to hit an approach?
KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, and when you see a guy back there, like I said, 230 into 18, probably not expecting me to hit a great shot there. I wouldn't if I was up there with a 6-iron. Those are the things that you can really needle guys with.
Q. Along the lines of being one of the oldest players on the team --
KEVIN KISNER: Oldest by three years.
Q. Following along the question asked of D.J. last year at the Ryder Cup, should you guys win on Sunday, can they hang with you in a celebration?
KEVIN KISNER: Yeah, absolutely. We're all buddies. It's not like we hate each other or anything. I'm pretty sure in '17 we all ended up in one team room at some point in the night with a deejay or something. A little fuzzy. I can't remember why. We're all going to hang out at the end anyway.
Q. If there were ever a PGA TOUR-LIV Golf event, would you play in that?
KEVIN KISNER: No.
Q. Why not?
KEVIN KISNER: No need. They're not recognized as a world golf tour.
Q. Kis, what's the best part of this week for you? You guys talk about the team room and being around the other players, but is there something specific that stands out for you?
KEVIN KISNER: I think just being on the team, having other people pulling for you that are genuinely pulling for you, and the camaraderie you get amongst guys you never get during a regular tournament week.
We don't ever eat together that often or train together or hang out nonstop together with our wives. It's fun to do that here.
Q. How much college football discussion?
KEVIN KISNER: Pretty much all in. We all sat around and watched both Monday night games until whatever time that was. Could have been some dollars on the line, but good times.
Q. Did you think you were going to be picked for this team?
KEVIN KISNER: When Will got hurt, I thought I had a chance then. I didn't think so until he was not going to be able to play.
Q. How do you feel about your game right now?
KEVIN KISNER: It's going to be what it is. I'm going to dink it down the fairway and hopefully make a lot of putts to piss people off.
Q. Do you want to be paired with one of the bombers?
KEVIN KISNER: I'll be paired with any of these guys. Are you kidding me? What's the worst World Ranking, like 15? I can handle that with any of them.
Q. Between the two ways they set lineups, here with the back and forth thing, and then Ryder Cup it's sort of blind. Do you have a preference? Do you think one is cooler than the other?
KEVIN KISNER: I think going back and forth is way cooler because then you can find out some guys probably want to play against other guys, and you can have a little more chip on your shoulder thinking that they posted against you and we posted first. They obviously want them against us. So we'll see how it all shakes out here in a minute. Are they doing it in here?
Q. Yeah, at 4:00.
KEVIN KISNER: Sweet. I know what you don't know.
Q. You probably know who you're playing with?
KEVIN KISNER: We all know a pretty good idea how it's going to shake out. But it's like anything else. It all goes according to plan until you get busted in the mouth.
Q. What's it like to have this experience for a second time but a lot closer to home?
KEVIN KISNER: It was super cool to be able to drive my truck up here. I got a lot of friends and family. Both my parents are from Charlotte. My brother-in-law is a member here at Quail Hollow. We'll have a ton of friends and family out here.
So whenever I don't play, I'll probably be perusing with the crowds.
Q. When you look at it statistically, it seems like foursomes are where the international team has struggled the most with the last few Cups. Why do you think the U.S. Team has an advantage in that format?
KEVIN KISNER: We're probably a tighter knit group that play a lot more golf together. They're so spread out from where they are in the world. Just think we all know each other's game so well.
When you see our foursomes line up here in a minute, you're like, yeah, they know exactly what each of them like, don't like, and what they're thinking. That's what's great in that format.
Q. Does the course set up for you? I haven't analyzed this. Is it set up -- if you were to play with a bomber in alternate shot, is it set up where you can pick certain holes? Is there an even-odd kind of disparity?
KEVIN KISNER: You've got to pick even or odd before you start.
Q. Is this course set up in a way that it would work out one way?
KEVIN KISNER: Yes, because odds get 14 birdie putts if you hit every green in regulation. And evens get all the par-3s. You drive it and you putt on the odds. Then they get to find out it's not all that easy from back there.
Q. If you had to build your ideal match play player out of the 12 guys on this team, who would you pick to drive the ball, hit the iron shots, short game, and then putting?
KEVIN KISNER: I played against Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns the first two days here. If you just combine them, you could probably have one helluva player although they look like stepbrothers out there to me.
They both look like the same person. They both get up there and hit it 350 down the middle of the little cut and then hit iron right at it and then make a putt. It seems like a pretty simple game. I told the captains, if you don't play those guys every match, you're crazy.
Q. Short game? Putting?
KEVIN KISNER: I always take Jordan Spieth because he always pulls something out of his ass, for lack of a better word.
Q. How much football talk is going on in the team room? These last two weeks have been pretty good.
KEVIN KISNER: It's nonstop. We're all talking about the lines this week. We watched football all night Monday night. Got some good games Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
In '17 I asked to sit out in the afternoon because Georgia played Tennessee. Strick is like seriously? I'm like, yeah, man, that's my squad.
Q. I mean, it's Tennessee. Do you really need to see it?
KEVIN KISNER: Tennessee is good this year. Don't sleep on them. They're going to whup your Gators this weekend.
Q. I'm a Penn State guy.
KEVIN KISNER: You live in Gainesville. Penn State ain't much either.
Q. What's your favorite part about this week so far? What is the one thing you're like, man, this is better than I thought it was going to be?
KEVIN KISNER: It's just hanging, man. Hanging with the guys. We don't do that ever during the course of the year. It's always a single guy running around doing whatever they got to do to play in a tournament.
This week we're all playing together in practice rounds, having fun, doing a little gambling, going back to the team room, having dinner, hanging out with our wives, playing ping pong, whatever it is. There's always something worth gambling on.
Q. Have you ever practiced alternate shot just for fun ever?
KEVIN KISNER: We did yesterday, five holes. We were 1-under. I was like, damn, Coach, we might need to play. Me and Billy Ho. Still lost, though.
Q. Oh, really?
KEVIN KISNER: Yeah.
Q. So I asked one of the other players this question. I'm going to ask it to you. Jump ahead Sunday on singles. You look at the international squad. Is there one guy over there that you would like, yeah, I would love to get a shot at my man just to see what happens?
KEVIN KISNER: You've got to beat Adam Scott. He's so damn good looking. You've got to beat him up and then tell everybody how much better looking you are than he is.
Q. Jason Dufner used to say he didn't want to play him because he couldn't beat him because he was too good looking.
KEVIN KISNER: But then maybe all the hot chicks are watching your group.
Q. You know what happens then, they send Camilo over. If it's Adam and Camilo, you've got no chance.
KEVIN KISNER: We want to bring all the good looking girls to our group. We don't care. We're a welcoming party.
Q. What's the one thing you're most looking forward to this week when play starts?
KEVIN KISNER: Just getting out there and performing in front of our crowd. Being on U.S. soil is so much fun when you get things rolling. Feel that energy, man. It pumps you up. I can even hit it further with that.
Q. So 262?
KEVIN KISNER: 268 maybe. Feeling good this week.
Q. (Question regarding Jay Monahan.)
KEVIN KISNER: The thing I love about Jay is he has an opinion. He's not afraid to have a different opinion from the players. He and I talk to each other all the time. He has an opinion, I have an opinion. We have different opinions, and we're not afraid to let each other know. We don't have a problem coming to a consensus on those opinions.
I think he's very confident in the way he believes and what he sees for the future of the PGA TOUR, and he's working his butt off to make that happen and working with the players. Just hired Jason Gore to help. The players have been more involved than I've ever seen in my three years on the policy board or my 12 years on TOUR.
So that's only a positive. He works for us, and I think that realm, what that is, the players are starting to see that, and they're starting to want to be a part of the TOUR to help make it better.
Q. It seems like he's sort of front and center on a lot of this because he's taking the artillery coming his way.
KEVIN KISNER: I feel terrible for him for that. That article about him flying around on a private jet for free, it's awful. I saw him last night, he said, yeah, I've just been flying around, hanging out, vacationing all year on my private jet.
Q. There's a school of people out there who think he could have prevented all this or done it differently. You're on the inside. Would you probably say otherwise?
KEVIN KISNER: I don't know. Who knows what the future would have held if he had a meeting with them, but I don't think we were ever going to do business with them feeling comfortable just allowing them to pump an exorbitant amount of money in our TOUR.
They always wanted to come in and what we call sport wash, in our opinion, and that's not the way we want to do business on the PGA TOUR.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports