Kevin Kisner is back at Colonial Country Club this week for the $9.9 million PGA Tour event. It’s the same course where he won his title back in 2017. Only this time, he has stepped out of the NBC broadcast booth and is teeing up via a sponsor’s exemption with a friend on his bag. His buddy, Russ Andrew, negotiated his way to his position despite all the protests Kisner had to throw. And Andrew, for the record, had no idea what he was getting into.

“And I had not thought for one moment about who was going to caddy for me in the tournament, like not even come on my radar. And I was like, “Man, James, to be honest, I hadn’t thought about it.” You know, as we get closer, if I decide, I’ll call you or reach out. I’d love to work with James, obviously,” said Kisner on Barstool’s Fore Play podcast.

Kisner was out at Pal Meadow about a month before Colonial Country Club when James Edmondson called him about an opening and said that he’d love to bag for him. The catch was that Russ Andrew was sitting right when this conversation was happening, and he overheard everything.

“Russ is sitting in the cart beside me. And Russ was like, ‘You don’t have a caddy for Colonial yet?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘I’m in.’ I said, ‘Dude, there’s no way. There’s no way you can do it. Like, it’s way harder than people think.’ And two holes later, he shows me a screenshot of the American Airlines ticket to Dallas-Fort Worth for Monday. And I said, ‘All right, man. You’re in. Let’s go do it.”

Russ Andrew is Kisner’s friend from back home and is a player himself, but his resume for being a caddie on the PGA Tour is essentially non-existent. Kisner also shared some hilarious moments of how his partnership with Russ actually went on the course.

Before the practice round, Kisner had made his expectations clear. He had said that he did not expect Andrew to be by him all week, and he would just expect him to read one or two greens out of 36 holes. Turns out, their expectations went a bit wobbly, and even Russ Andrew himself did not have anything to defend himself with.

“On Tuesday, we tee off the back nine with Brian Harman at 1. I hit my pattern and push cut in the right rough. And I’m already pissed off. And we walk up there. He sets the bag down, and I look at the yardage, and I go to grab my eight iron. It’s covered in mud.”

“I said, ‘Russ, where’s the towel?’ And he starts looking around at the bag, moving stuff. Obviously, there’s no towel here. He said, ‘It was just right here. I don’t know what happened.’ So, the first hole of the day, they are running back to the clubhouse looking for towels in the practice round.”

Then on the third hole, Kisner takes the head cover off his driver and hits the shot. The golfer always carries his driver, so after they walked down the fairway and set down the bag, Kisner asked him about the headcover, and well, guess what? Russ forgot it at the tee box.

“I’ve been making fun of him all day,” Kisner said.

Essentially, what makes this decision more notable is who was not on Kisner’s bag.

Kevin Kisner’s partnership with Duane Bock

Kisner spent over a decade working with his caddie, Duane Bock. Their partnership stood for nearly 15 years, and that included four PGA Tour victories and two U.S. Presidents Cup appearances. However, when Kisner took a step back from the game, he encouraged Bock to move on and jump on Sepp Straka’s bag full-time.

Sure, it goes without saying that a caddie does far more than carry the bag. They walk the course before the week starts, map out yardages hole by hole, read greens, track winds, advise on club selection, and know the rulebook by heart. Most importantly, they keep the player mentally steady when things go sideways. It is a job that takes years to get right. And Kisner’s former caddy, Duane Bock, was known for spending hours studying each course before the round. Both of them shared a very warm bond over the course of their partnership.

Their best moments together came at the 2017 Presidents Cup, where they went undefeated across four matches as the United States beat the International Team by 19-11. In fact, the same year, Kisner won at Colonial, closing with 4-under 66 by making a clutch par save at 18 to hold off Spieth and Jon Rahm by one.

Now, whether the 2017 version of him is still somewhere remains to be seen, but this week, the question is beginning to become relevant again.