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AT&T BYRON NELSONMay 27, 2015Kelly KraftIRVING, TEXAS ROYCE THOMPSON: Kelly Kraft, thanks for joining us today. Kelly is a current member of the Web.com Tour. He won earlier this year at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open. Also his last start on the Web.com Tour he finished 2nd at the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by Synnex. His only other start here in 2012 at the AT&T Byron Nelson, missed the cut, and 2011 U.S. Amateur Champion. Kelly, if you could give us your thoughts about playing this week in Dallas. KELLY KRAFT: I'm excited about it. Really thankful to get a spot here. I still live here in Dallas and love coming back here and playing. It's nice to have some friends and family out this week. Kind of really looking forward to a good week, kind of a bonus week for me. ROYCE THOMPSON: Speaking of a bonus, obviously next week we play a little bit up north with the Greater Dallas Open. If you could, your thoughts about a tournament on the Web.com Tour coming to this city. KELLY KRAFT:  It's good for the Web.com Tour to come to Dallas. There hasn't been -- I've played on the Web Tour for two years now. Haven't really had a tournament in Dallas. It's nice for them to have the opportunity to move the tournament here and hopefully it will continue to stay here down the road. I think it's a good spot for good golf tournament. ROYCE THOMPSON: We'll open it back up for questions. Q. What you've been able to accomplish on that Tour, how much confidence has that built? KELLY KRAFT: A lot. I kind of changed coaches at the beginning of this year and been really working hard and I felt like my game has come a long way in the last nine months and just kind of full of confidence right now and feel I'm really playing well. Q. Do you feel like obviously this week all the crowds are out here to see Jordan and everything. Do you think next week it will be fun? You'll be one of the more recognizable names out in Castle Hills, people from SMU, maybe haven't seen you in awhile and you'll be able to interact with them. KELLY KRAFT: I'll have a bunch of friends and family out here, too, which is nice. I'm looking forward to playing some good golf and having a lot of fun. Q. Who is the coach you switched to? KELLY KRAFT: Troy Denton. Q. What would you say is the biggest difference in your game from a player who came out of college and was U.S. Amateur Champ, maybe thought you would get out here kind of a little faster than you have, what's the big difference been? KELLY KRAFT: Honestly, I probably am more of the player that I was then that I am now. Kind of got a little sidetracked in the middle there with some -- just a couple weird swing things and things like that. But I feel like now I'm getting back to this draw that I used to hit in college and putting well like I used to and just kind of getting back to my old fundamentals and playing some good golf. Q. U.S. Amateur Champion, you got some early starts out here. What did you feel about your game at that point? KELLY KRAFT: I felt I wasn't playing that well because I didn't do very well and I needed to get better and I started working on some stuff that I thought was the right thing at that time whenever I wasn't playing that well even though I probably freaked out a little bit and didn't need to do that and so now we've been working on getting back to where I was before that and because before that I was good enough to play out here and now I feel like I'm back to that spot and hitting the ball well again. Q. Were there thoughts of maybe you weren't? Did that go through your head? KELLY KRAFT: Yeah. I thought because I wasn't playing that well and I missed some cuts out here, felt like maybe I needed to change some things and, in all honesty, I didn't need to. I just needed to keep on working. Probably a little bit of a slump and kind of tried to rebuild my golf swing and now I'm back to where it was so it feels a lot better. Q. Kelly, can you talk about conditions, how much more difficult will it play or will it play easier with lower scores because of the weather? KELLY KRAFT: That's a good question. It will definitely play easier from the fairway into the green because the greens will be very receptive. The greens are actually still really good with the amount rain we've gotten so it's -- you're going to make some putts. They can speed them up at all they will be really good. I think the trouble out here will be from the tee box down because it's going to play a lot longer. This course is a pretty long golf course and you really got to try to hit fairways and I imagine we're going to play it up tomorrow with the amount of rain we've had. Being in the fairway will be key and having -- just a couple longer shots in that be a little different. Q. The rough severe at this point? KELLY KRAFT: It's healthy. I wouldn't say it's terrible long. It is healthy. The ball being wet, it's going to sit down and be difficult to get the club through there. Q. What's the biggest difference you found between or is there a difference you found between playing in a Web.com event, playing in a PGA TOUR event? Is there skill that you'll need next week or something you'll need next week that necessarily is not that important this week? KELLY KRAFT: No. At the same time it's still golf. Got to go out and play good golf. This course -- I haven't played Castle Hills in awhile but I think this course is a little bit longer and it's going to play longer with how wet it is but, at the same time, you just need to hit fairways and make putts to play good golf. That's really all it comes down to. Q. Wondering what your goal is this week and is it any different than your goal next week and then on follow-up of that, just playing in these wet conditions, how is your game suited for that? KELLY KRAFT: I'm going to try to do the same thing this week I'm going to next week. I feel like I'm playing great. I have been playing great for the last couple months. I. Feel like I can have a really high finish here as well as next week. Next week with my card already locked up for next year, I don't know, it may be a little easier to kind of free wheel it but that's the same thing out here this week. Kind of a bonus week. Whatever I do here is just kind of a bonus and more confidence for me. So, what was the other question? Q. How your game fits the conditions. KELLY KRAFT: I think it fits it well. The greens are great, like I said, and I putt well. It's just all going to be getting the ball in the fairway and probably a few different clubs off tees that I'm used to hitting around here. I played here a bunch of times. Probably just a few more drivers, get the ball down there a little further and not much roll out. Q. Kelly, you were talking a couple minutes ago about coming out here and then thinking that oh, wow, I got to change my swing, I'm not good enough, you know, and yet you were good enough to get out here and that's been a problem for years and years, guys that are good enough to get to the PGA TOUR suddenly start thinking I'm not good enough and they look at other people's swings and maybe I should do that. Why do you think that happens? KELLY KRAFT: I think it's probably just being immature and, you know, I never really had much of a coach through college, kind of was helped out by my college golf coach. You come out here there's a lot of people around and everybody has got their swing coaches and their TrackMans and blah, blah, blah. You feel like you probably need to do that, even though that's not what you're used to. I got kind of trapped up in that and I thought I had I had to change some stuff to get better to get to this level even though I did win the U.S. Amateur and had a lot of success for that. Probably all I needed to do was keep going on the way I was going and I would be fine. Now I feel like I'm back to that point and playing better golf. Q. Kelly, being familiar with this area, do you remember a time when everything has been so saturated because of rains and also how -- what's your practice schedule been like the last few weeks with off and on rains and thunderstorms and all the severe weather that's happened? KELLY KRAFT: I don't remember this much rain, ever. I played yesterday and I don't think I've every played a golf course that has been this wet. That being said, it's in good shape for being this wet. They've done a good job of trying to get the course ready as best they can. You know, it's just going to be a little different out there. Q. Kelly, was there an "ah-hah" moment that you can pinpoint where you realized I can just go back to what I was doing? KELLY KRAFT: Yeah, probably after -- like halfway through last year I wasn't having much success and I was just kind of around 70th on the money list, 40th, 50th place finishes. I switched coaches to Troy and he got me back on track just having fun and we play a lot of golf and go out and just starting to love the game again with him and really just try to get back -- he kind of asked me what I thought I needed to do. I think I need to get back to hitting draws and putting better and he says that's all, that's all we worked on. Pretty simple, just getting back to what I was doing a few years ago. Q. How would you describe the position you're in now where you're almost -- you got these months where you're waiting until -- to get your Tour card. KELLY KRAFT: It's cool because our season on the Web Tour is halfway over so I think we have like 10 regular season events left and it's nice to have it locked up and now I kind of switch my goal over to winning the Money List because that would be huge to get in a few more tournaments next year on this Tour. I feel like I'm playing well enough to do that. Q. You said you played Castle Hills before. KELLY KRAFT: Yeah. I haven't played it since they redid it. Q. You don't know if there's many similarities between here and there? KELLY KRAFT: I don't, sorry. Q. College last time you played there? KELLY KRAFT: Yeah, probably. ROYCE THOMPSON: Anymore questions? Thanks, Kelly. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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