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BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 15, 2015

Jerry Kelly

Lake Forest, Illinois

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Jerry Kelly into the interview room. He's making his 18th start at the BMW Championship, an event he won back in 2002. I know this tournament means a lot to you. If we can just get some comments.

JERRY KELLY: Well, as just about the oldest PGA TOUR event that we have, I feel like there's an awful lot of history behind this tournament. I feel very fortunate to have my name on this trophy, and I think BMW has done a fantastic job of even bringing it up, propping up the WGA, and keeping the tradition of a fantastic tournament.

JOHN BUSH: You come into the week No. 65 in the FedExCup standings after a top-10 finish at Deutsche Bank to play your way into the BMW. You need a really good finish this week, I think third place to move on, but comment about being here in the Playoffs.

JERRY KELLY: Well, I think this course sets up very much like last week where it's an advantage to have length, it's not a prerequisite to have length. I definitely know I can compete at a course like this. I thought Plainfield had probably the largest disparity of length-favoring of any tournament that I think I've ever played. That was difficult.

But last week I put myself in that hole where I had to get it done, and luckily did on the last hole for the second year in a row.

Coming in here more healthy than last year. I love the fact that I made Cherry Hills. That was a fun golf course and a fun tournament. I'm really looking forward to this one. This is my first time at Conway. Kind of a home game for me.

Q. Getting your first look here, I assume this is the first time you've seen this course.
JERRY KELLY: Yep.

Q. Have you had a chance to kind of go through all 18, and what do you think? As you said about length in particular, there's probably not going to be 16-under like there was two years ago I would guess.
JERRY KELLY: I wouldn't think so. You never know what happens when the rain comes. It could make it easier, it could make it harder because the mud could be there. Everything is in such fantastic shape, you hate it see it rain on our parade, but that's what Mother Nature likes to do sometimes.

But the course is just beautiful right now. There's such a huge mix of subtle holes that you still have to play very precisely, and then some big holes that give you run-ups, that give you shots into pins even though you have length. That's why it's not a prerequisite for length, because I feel like I can access the pins, even the more difficult pins, with a longer club, with a lot longer club. But that's the way it is.

Q. Being sort of one of the bubble boys coming into this event, do you look at it as more pressure on you going into this week or you're sort of playing with house money at this point?
JERRY KELLY: I always like to look at it as pressure. I've got to take top three, so the fear is if you have a difficult start that you just say, oh, it's not in the cards anyway. I need to make sure, especially on a course like this, that when the wind is going to blow, anything can happen, and one great round can take away a lot of bad that has happened.

I'm not going to let myself get down, even if it gets into a tough starting block position. Four days automatically helps a shorter hitter tremendously because I can still get one of the low rounds in there.

Q. You're a football fan; I certainly don't want to put thoughts in your head, but with this sort of getting lost in the mix among the mainstream at least during football season, do you wish that the FedExCup could end before football season starts, or do you like how it ends the way it is right now?
JERRY KELLY: I think we're in a pretty good position right now. I mean, I would hope that the best of the best in golf coming down the stretch here can -- you know, it's not going to compete, but I'd like to think it could compete with the first couple weeks of the season.

There's always something out there. I mean, we are a sports nation. It doesn't matter what you go up against. You've got to put a great product up, and right now, I mean, the way these young kids are propping up, we've got a great product. You know, Tiger is a great name on there, but the golf that these kids are playing is a credit to him because they're the ones who have grown up watching an incredible mental and physical specimen, and they are coming out at a very young age with that roadmap on how to do it, and they're getting it done.

Q. Just kind of alluding to the top three in points are Jason and Jordan and Rickie Fowler, and I'm just going to ask you kind of the state of the -- what does that say about the state of golf right now, the condition it's in and the future that it has, especially from your perspective as you've seen it over the years?
JERRY KELLY: Yeah, I think it was Ernie Els that said it's really a pretty good turnover every seven years, and you kind of see a full regime change every seven. I've been fortunate enough to see three of them.

It's interesting, Tiger played so well through a couple of them there that the young players kind of got lost in the mix a little bit. But these players now are different than any of the young players that I have seen in my career except for Tiger really. It's really, really good golf being played, and really no fear at all. I never liked the idea of thinking that we were afraid to play with Tiger. It was difficult because of the media circus, and he was so mentally tuned in to tune out the circus alongside the tees, along the ropes, everyone leaving once he's putted. The commotion was very hard to deal with; it wasn't playing with Tiger. Nobody was intimidated. He doesn't have a gun pointed at us or anything.

And these young kids play like that right now. You just didn't see that kind of mental maturity before. I just don't think there was a roadmap for it as much as there is now. He showed the young kids how to do it. You still have to have that maturity. I don't know where it comes from because I still don't have it. My 17-year-old kid is more mature than I am, which could be a reason why I've been out here so long. And it'll be interesting to see if burnout happens or whatnot when people maybe take it too serious at too young of an age what happens. I don't know. But I didn't have a problem with that.

Q. But that's the difference is the kind of fearless factor?
JERRY KELLY: Yeah, it's kind of a -- how do I want to put it? I don't want to say oblivious, but it's almost like, whatever, 7-, 8-, 9-under, okay, let's just go make another one. You know, before there was always kind of, it seemed like, a comfort zone, where guys had these numbers and they never really went that much lower and they could shoot higher. But these guys just keep going deep consistently, and very deep, and it's not the same one each week, which is very cool for golf. There's some fantastic match-ups out there right now. We've got Verlander against Ortiz out there a lot. I mean, it's fun to watch, and once people start really getting into the individuals that are there and realize how great a golf they're playing, and they're going to see that with a Tiger-Phil thing, but there's a whole bunch of them, I mean, Thomas and Berger. It's not just those guys. There's a ton of them right now, and it's cool to watch.

Q. How have you been able to keep your motivation, and how much longer are you hoping to stay out on the big tour?
JERRY KELLY: You know, I still feel the adrenaline rush every single time I go to tee it up, so that's a positive factor for me. As long as my body can handle the adrenaline that I get, I'll keep going as long as I can. I've got a little over a year before I turn 50, and you know, I'd probably call the Champions Tour my home Tour and I'll play where I want to play on the PGA TOUR as long as I'm exempt. I've beat my head out here for an awful long time, and things are just getting longer. I'll play Sony, I'll play Harbour Town, Greenbrier and Greensboro, and a bunch of the courses that even an over-50 guy could win at if he's still got the skill level.

I feel like as long as I stay young in my mind, which I have no problem doing, and my body keeps up with me, I think I can have fun and compete with these guys out here.

Q. What do you attribute your success this season to, that you've been able to hang with these young guys?
JERRY KELLY: I feel like I'm playing some of my best golf, but it's still not consistent. I still have a whole bunch of missed cuts. But that's the way my career has always gone. Even when I was fourth on the Money List in '02, I still had a bunch of missed cuts in there. So I've never felt like I've had my best for a whole season. I hardly ever feel like I have my best for one round or for one tournament.

So I put a chip on my shoulder pretty consistently to come back, to fight back, and I went through some swing changes and hurt my back about four years ago and three years ago. So the last bunch of years I've just been coming back healthy with a better swing, and just playing the same way I always have, which is just get the ball in the hole as quick as I can, not trying to overpower anything. So maybe knowing myself more.

Q. You mentioned that you're closing in on kind of converting to Champions Tour schedule. I'm wondering as you're playing now and what you do next year if you'll look at those tournaments in a way as like you don't know how many times more you're going to play those because your schedule is going to change. Will you look at those kind of things, like if you make East Lake next week, that that's kind of a cool deal given where you're at with your career?
JERRY KELLY: Yeah, I mean, I've said my goodbyes to a few tournaments out there already. You know, some of the courses have grown past me. They were past me to begin with. They haven't grown past me. And I just can't play that much anymore. I have literally in my head -- I went to a few of them that, I was like, this is it. I was making cuts in them, and I was like, great, let's leave on at least a semi-good note.

But I don't know, I just want to keep competing with the guys. I mean, it's really fun to have guys who weren't born when I got on TOUR to rib and to play against. You know, it's been fun with Jordan and Berger and some of these guys that -- you know, they're going to call me old man, and I'm going to call them youngsters, and we're just going to have fun. There might be a little more banter than that, but I can't say it here. But that's going to keep me on, and hopefully they realize they don't have to get old and crusty while they're playing, too. Maybe they realize they can have fun with a long career.

JOHN BUSH: Jerry Kelly, thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

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