KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 26, 2021

Jerry Kelly

Press Conference

Southern Hills Country Club

JOHN DEVER: A big win in your career last year, it's only about nine months ago, a terrific and enduring accomplishment. Is that something that you can still -- it was a strange year for everybody -- is that something you can still here help you this week? Can you draw from it, draw that momentum or is that too long ago.

JERRY KELLY: No, absolutely. 1,000 percent. That first one is, it's a monkey on your back, it's a gorilla on your back actually when you didn't get one on the Regular Tour. To finally get one out here, it was great. Just to have that Kelly Slam and win all the majors last year, you know, that was pretty special. (Laughing).

JOHN DEVER: You've got a slew of top-5s, five of them in six starts this year. You're playing well. What's clicking?

JERRY KELLY: Everything's working pretty well. I'm just kind of, my patience is never really that thick, I'm fairly thin in that department, so I've got to wait for things to drop. I'm around the hole a lot these days. I'm getting the ball in the fairway, my irons are good, my short game is working, I've just got to get more of the putts to drop and then I can be right in the thick of winning.

JOHN DEVER: We'll start with questions.

Q. On this course, I know everything has to click to have a chance to win, but is there one thing more than any other that you feel like for you has to click?

JERRY KELLY: Yeah, it's that patience. You really can't go after the pins, you've got to play to the middles and putt to the edges. So I'm going to have some longer putts than I would like to have, but you're going to land on these pins and the ball's not going to stay on the green. I know where Kerry's going to set them up and it's not going to be easy and this golf course is not easy at all. So to have that patience and the commitment, it was fun listening to Phil last week, that's about all he talked about, committing to the shot, committing to the swing. That's something that I can really take out of what he did and understand a lot of times we can say we're playing to the middle and we have kind of purposely pull it to the left by the pin. Well you can't do that on a course of this caliber, you have to really stay with your line and trust that a good shot could be 20 feet and go ahead and just make more 20-footers than you usually do.

Q. Seems every week you're pulling into a parking lot wherever it is you're going to compete that week and contend for a title. What's that like mentally and what's the build-up of confidence you get out of that?

JERRY KELLY: Definitely get some confidence out of it. But we're playing a sport where we lose most of the time and that can wear on you just as much and then next thing you know you're taking top-5s but you're disappointed that you're not winning, you can push yourself do you know when you really should be lifting yourself up. To be in the mix all the time is all you want to try and do and I've gotten better at working my way in, not trying to win it on the first day. The four-day events are much easier to do that with, those three-day events and some of the courses, we have really got to go low.

This is going to be, again, that test of patience and I know I'm striking it well enough and I'm putting it well enough that I've got to let those things fall into place rather than my normal, oh, you know, go out and get it.

Q. Is there any part or parts of your game you look at now that are better than 10 years ago?

JERRY KELLY: I mean I've been -- my brother-in-law and my coach, Jim Schuman, he's in the tournament this week, which is really nice to have your coach here, but I'm trying not to bug him too much because he's working. But I'm doing everything a little bit better. It's not as much of a timing issue for me as it used to be, now it's more of a structure issue and staying in that structure. Before I was out of it all the time, so it was just my eye/hand coordination at the bottom. But I feel much more confident in what I'm doing right now. I'm not gaining any power, I'm not trying to go after it, but I am hitting it probably a little bit better than I have been in the past.

Q. As many people do, some of us have been asked to pick winners, long shots. One, should I pick you as a long shot to win this week, two, are you offended by the term long shot?

JERRY KELLY: That's first thing I was going to say. I mean, hey, you got me at long shot odds, go for it, buddy. (Laughing.) No, I feel really good. Hey, it's a golf tournament and it's a tough golf course and you go out there and you play, we don't know what the conditions are going to be like. Could throw a lot at us tomorrow, could be fairly sloppy, I'm not hitting it very long, so it's going to be tough to compete against those guys. But I love my mid irons and I know I can hit it with the best in the world out here, so now it's just playing my game. But I feel pretty good.

THE MODERATOR: Take you out of Oklahoma for a second, go to your home state Wisconsin. Ryder Cup coming up in four plus months, but it's coming fast. What can the people in your home state expect there, how do you expect them to rally and rally around the event and make themselves a part of the outcome?

JERRY KELLY: We don't have to put out a rally call for the golf fans in Wisconsin to put on a great show. They are a really loyal bunch and it's going to be full spectator and it's going to be a Ryder Cup. It's going to be exactly what the home team wants. I think it's going to be extremely respectful, but it should be fairly one sided (laughing).

Q. Describe Jim's game and he's usually getting you ready for events, how do you get him ready for a stage like this?

JERRY KELLY: Yeah, well, we have really helped each other quite a bit. He tends to slow down in some of the tournaments and I'm trying to get him jacked up and understand his game's world class. I mean, he could definitely hang. He's got an incredible swing, when he puts that swing into his game, that's when you see it. I mean, he beats me like a drum day-in and day-out, outside of tournaments. So I know it's there and he works with swing with me and I kind of work on playing with him. So we learn a lot from each other.

JOHN DEVER: Wonderful spending time with you and best of luck all week long.

JERRY KELLY: Thanks so much.