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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY MORGAN STANLEY

May 30, 2008

Jerry Kelly

DUBLIN, OHIO

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Jerry, thanks for joining us in the interview room at the Memorial Tournament. Not what you wanted today, but you hung in there. The conditions out there seemed to be pretty difficult. I don't know what's going to happen this afternoon. Maybe just talk about when you started and how it was when you finished and maybe some par saves that you had.
JERRY KELLY: Yeah, well, starting out the wind wasn't blowing and almost made my first shot with a 6-iron on 1. And then I hit the pin with a wedge on 2 and had about five feet. But misread that one.
3, I knocked it in there about six feet again and missed that one. 4, I knocked in about 10 feet and missed that one. So it was kind of a recurring theme right there. But striking it well. So I was just staying patient. And I got a good birdie on 7 with a long putt. 8, very easy bunker shot that I had, I hit -- even when you don't have great lies in these bunkers, which you're not going to have, the sand is so fluffed up by the depth of those rake thongs that you've really got to have a lot of speed on your shots. And I didn't until the 18th hole.
And 8 and 16 taught me that, because I hit two good bunker shots and left both of them short. So I knew I needed a little more speed.
But the putting -- and once the wind picked up the swing just got a little sloppy. I started reacting to the wind rather than just swinging getting some good crisp iron shots. So sloppy, but I held it in there okay.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. How much more difficult was the course playing compared to yesterday once the wind did start kicking up today?
JERRY KELLY: Well, it definitely -- looking at those pins, it turned into the Muirfield that we know and love because when the wind is gusting like that, and it wasn't very consistent either speed-wise and direction-wise.
So it definitely was difficult to get it into the tough pins. And unfortunately I kept on going after them.

Q. Why do guys, seemingly everybody long hitters, short hitters, put this in their top five or six courses on TOUR?
JERRY KELLY: I think it's --

Q. What do you like about it? Assuming you agree with that?
JERRY KELLY: Well, when people ask me, what's your favorite course outside of the Majors, I tell them Muirfield Village. This is my favorite golf course on TOUR.
I actually think it's fairly similar to Augusta. You've got tight-tucked pins. You've got to hit the ball one spot to have it end up in another. Very fast greens, undulating greens, tough bunker shots. It's just a great test. And when it's a little firm like this anybody can compete. And that's the same thing with Augusta. Anybody can compete.
I hope it doesn't get too wet this weekend. But if the wind does blow, then it's going to make it -- make the difficulty up there where it's going to level out the field still even if it's wet.
But it's -- the tournament experience, the total tournament experience, just -- this is the only place where I just love hanging out in the locker room. I love going through the buffet line. I love ordering. The chefs take care of us here better than anywhere else. And because like it starts with one man and that's Mr. Nicklaus. Just making sure that everything is taken care of for the players. And we appreciate it. And talk about being spoiled, gosh, this place, we're spoiled rotten.

Q. Talk about how this course this week compares with Major Championships setups. Is this tougher than the last eight Majors or can you put it in perspective how this stacks up with the Majors?
JERRY KELLY: No, because you've got generous fairways. So even though the rough is way up, it really might be some of the worst rough I've ever been in, just because all the seed heads are still on the grass. It's not like soft, long Kentucky Blue or Bent. It is thick, nasty stalks.
But you do have the generous fairways. And then once you get it in the fairways, you've got very difficult pins. And you can play smart out here. You're going to have tougher putts, but you can play smart.
Not my forte.
(Laughter.)

Q. You mentioned when it's like this that anybody can compete on this course. With some of the tweaking that Jack's done to some of the holes out there the last five or six years, has that made it even more like that, that a guy like Bart Bryant or somebody like that or even yourself can compete?
JERRY KELLY: I think it's tougher on us --

Q. You think so?
JERRY KELLY: -- than it has been. Yeah. 17, if it gets into the wind, I got to play out to the right. 15, I really -- I can't get there unless it's downwind.

Q. I thought with bringing -- he has brought the rough in on some of those, hasn't he?
JERRY KELLY: I haven't really noticed that, that much. They're still pretty generous.

Q. Obviously you're focused on your round, but it seemed like Goggin had a crazy round, sort of all over the place. Was it just kind of watching him go bogey, birdie, bogey? Was that -- were you around to see that?
JERRY KELLY: Yeah, we were both kind of in position, out of position, in position, out of position. It was -- we had fairly similar rounds. I just had a little less -- I know he put it in the water a couple times. And if he hadn't done that, our round probably would have looked fairly similar. But, yeah, I had plenty of opportunities early and I didn't give myself many opportunities late.
But in fact I hit some good shots coming down the stretch and unfortunately my good shots led to one bogey and an up-and-down out of a bunker. So it's just swing it and let the wind take it, rather than kind of reacting to the wind.

Q. If it rains tonight and the greens presumably soften up, you made a couple self-deprecating cracks about how hard it is for you to play away from flags and the greens soften up, would that be an advantage for you in that you might be able to go at a few more of them because they would be holding and not releasing as much? In theory?
JERRY KELLY: As long as I don't have 5-iron through 3-iron in. If the fairways stay somewhat dry I think some water will definitely take care of the greens. And if it stayed like this the rest of the week it would be a heck of a weekend. It would be a shame to get too much water. Hopefully we don't. Because we all like to see it play tough and fast and have the ball bouncing.

Q. It's kind of been awhile on that front, hasn't it, four days of that, of dryness here, if ever?
JERRY KELLY: Anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. I can't tell you about yesterday. It was just the guys were just licking their chops seeing no wind and perfect conditions. It just -- it seems like it hasn't happened.
I think the whole country can attest to that it's been some strange weather this spring with all the tornados and activity that's been happening. So we're not immune to it on the PGA TOUR, that's for sure.

Q. At the end of the day with this wind and what it might do this afternoon, do you think your score today is -- in the end you'll take it?
JERRY KELLY: I'll take even par out here, when it was a sloppy day. Good save on the last. I made a great save on 9. I hit it way right and I had to chip out and knocked a sand wedge, spun it back from behind the hole and made about a 10-footer there.
I know I wasn't doing what I needed to do, which was just swing like I did yesterday. I reacted. And that's got to change. And it's tough. You see me with all my actions and everything, that's me reacting to the shot, the situation instead of just swinging. And yesterday I held my finish more than I have totally all year probably. So it shows me what I need to do.
I didn't back up today. That's a good thing. Had my chances. But I made a couple saves too. So get out of there with even par, knowing what I need to do and hopefully I clean it up on the weekend.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thanks, Jerry, for joining us.

End of FastScripts

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