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JOHN DEERE CLASSICJuly 9, 2008Jerry KellySILVIS, ILLINOIS DOUG MILNE: Jerry Kelly, we thank you for spending a few minutes with us here at the John Deere Classic. You mentioned out there a couple weeks off, kind of recouping from a little injury. Maybe just as you head into the week here, just assess where your game is. JERRY KELLY: I feel pretty fresh, even though injury took its toll. I mean, at the beginning of the year I had a torn biceps, and I was able to play with that better than I was able to play with a pulled adductor muscle. I just couldn't load and couldn't swing through. And that happened right before the Open, right when I was playing great. So it was kind of disappointing. You know, I was really looking forward to the Open, and then to have something like that happen. And then Hartford, where I went to school, too. That was two, and then I had to pull out of Tiger's event to recuperate. It's been a tough month, but I feel pretty good about where I'm at in my game. The game is in good shape. I knew once I got healthy, I'd be right back on. DOUG MILNE: Off the course, we've heard a lot about the relief efforts from the floods. You've been very vocal about your support and drumming up other support. Just talk a little bit about what you've done, what you've seen, and what it is you're encouraging people to do. JERRY KELLY: What happened with me was I went and I caddied at Erin Hills at the Women's Pub Links tournament for a little girl from Hawai'i, and driving home, I didn't realize that the interstate from Milwaukee to Madison was closed, and it was for a couple of weeks. So I drove south to try and get to the next exit, came up to the next exit and it was closed. So then I went north. And once I went north, I ran into three different washed out roads, county highways that were completely under water, and the entire farms were under water. I could see the house on an island and the entire farm completely under water, and people were parking about a mile away and having to basically boat and swim over to their house to get supplies. They couldn't get their car anywhere near it. And I know it was right after seed -- actually I'll get to that point in a second. And then after I came home and I flew out, and we banked over a couple of sections that were just unbelievable to me. I could not believe the amount of water that I was seeing in Wisconsin. I mean, everything seemed to be under water. Like I was saying, I know it was right at seed time, and farmers basically spend all their money on seed. You know, they're broke for a time being basically, the ones that live crop year to crop year. They're kind of broke right after that happens, and they're counting on those crops. So many farmers have less than 50 percent of their fields. And then you look at the housing situation and foreclosing on farms, I mean, there's just way too many families that could lose their farm because they just don't have the money to recoup their plow and their fields. Those are the people that have been behind -- everybody in Wisconsin has been so behind me all my whole career. I made a decision while I was on that flight that I have to ask the TOUR to do something. To me this is like a Midwest Katrina. You know, 9/11 was a different situation, but the PGA TOUR has stepped up in these types of times and really taken care of some of the people who have taken care of them over the years. Once I came to the PGA TOUR and said, hey, can we set something up? Could we have a sheet where they sign away their Pro-Am money or this, that and the other thing, and they said, well, you know what, Zach Johnson just came to us last week and brought up the exact same thing. It was great timing. Apparently they were going to come to me anyway, I hope. But Wisconsin was severely hit like Iowa was. Many portions of Illinois, as well, I'm sure. Driving down 88, once I got near that Rock River, I could see the amount of fields that were washed out there, too. It's something that we can do to support the people who have supported us over the years, and I knew I needed to do something for the people who have supported me through the years. They're not the richest people, but they are absolutely the salt of the earth. They are the people we can't do without, the farmers. I have a feeling -- I hope FEMA is not overlooking them, but something needs to be done to help them past the government. People need to understand what they're going through and actually what they're going to be going through in the wake of this, like a few months from now when they're supposed to be reaping the benefits of their seed and it's not going to be there. So right now you're looking at the buildings and the equipment and things like that. But down the road there are going to be many farmers with a really great need. And I'm hoping that the PGA TOUR can meet a little bit of that. Q. When did you go to the TOUR exactly with that? JERRY KELLY: Probably three weeks ago. Well, I mean, you look at the Women's Amateur Pub Links at Erin Hills, and I was playing the next tournament. DOUG MILNE: Travelers, Hartford? Was it the week of Hartford? JERRY KELLY: Yeah, it was the week of Hartford because I caddied Sunday and Monday of the Open Championship. DOUG MILNE: So it would have been the week of June 16th. JERRY KELLY: And I had been gone for a while, so I didn't get a handle on the devastation until I actually saw it with my own eyes, and then it was kind of automatic that we just had to do something. Q. Do you get the sense that guys are coming across, that guys out here are coming across with donations? JERRY KELLY: Yeah, I know a bunch of guys filled out the form last week. You know, here I am, the form is sitting in my locker and it's Wednesday already and I haven't done it. So I know -- but I know what I'm going to do, and it's outside of prize money. I feel the need to do something substantial. I'm not going to publicize it or anything. But I feel really strongly about it. And if I'm going to grandstand it, I'd better put up, as well, and I plan on doing that. You know, it's tight times for a lot of people, but this is going to be tough. And I know the PGA TOUR players really do get behind these causes. There's enough guys out here who see it directly being from the Midwest, but I think they understand the need that's there, and I think they'll step up. DOUG MILNE: I don't know if you had heard yet or not, but apparently the John Deere Foundation is donating a million dollars to the Red Cross in an effort. JERRY KELLY: That's awesome. I mean, I'd love to -- I just don't know where to channel it to get the local farmers help. You just don't know what's set up. I really want to do a little bit of homework and understand how we can get it into some of the farmers that were hit the worst, where FEMA might not be making up their full crop money and they've got a chance of losing their farm. I'd like to see direct help to the farmers, direct help to the farmers, not to a foundation that helps but can't really maybe save a farm itself. That's kind of what I'm looking into a bit. I really want to get down to the roots of it. You know, I don't want to put frosting on a burnt cake. I want to fix the cake. Q. You go through all this, it's an emotional issue. How much are you involved with where it goes, how it interfaces with the people who need it and how it gets sequenced? Like come three or four months when that shortfall comes, do you kind of throw the money somewhere or do you have a way of knowing how it's going to -- the mechanics of it? JERRY KELLY: I know I've got four weeks -- even more than that. It's through The Western down in St. Louis. We've got quite a few weeks to where basically right now I'll probably be throwing a percentage there but not the size that I want to yet because I really want to know what's going on. I want to get into that part of it. Q. Is that pretty tough to do from your position, to get to -- JERRY KELLY: Well, right now the PGA TOUR threw it together very quickly and did a fantastic job when we came to them. They got these sheets prepared and they got the entity prepared to accept the money very quickly, so they responded extremely well in that respect. Now I kind of want to make sure that we don't do anything with that money that's just going to be -- it's so hard that way, because you really have to do a lot of homework, and I know we've got enough people doing their homework on it. Q. Are you worried about a Katrina-type situation where it gets to New Orleans and it sits in a warehouse and you've got to fight through that kind of bureaucracy? JERRY KELLY: Absolutely. I mean, how do you get it directly to the people who need it most? I mean, you see a little kid on TV starving and donate to UNICEF. Is that kid going to get the food? I mean, that's the one that's tugging on your heart, and you're going to give it to somebody, and the bureaucracy of it all is going to take 70 percent and they're going to get a little seed down there for them to plant and they have no water and no irrigation so nothing is going to grow anyway. It's how do you directly affect the people that I want to help, because those are the people who have helped me get to where I am right now. Q. Is it possible to even focus on something as mundane as a golf tournament and playing when you're that involved as you are emotionally and mentally? Is it tough to put it aside for four hours and go play a round of golf? JERRY KELLY: Well, the good thing is the better I play, the more I can give, so it's definitely a motivating factor I'd say. Yeah, you have to do your job. Q. Is it an issue that drains you mentally at all, though? Is there a fear that it can take away from the golf game? JERRY KELLY: You know, no. Not to be insensitive, but when I'm out there, it's all business. You know, any time you look out at that Rock River you're going to be reminded of it, but that's something that can motivate you a lot more than take away from you. It takes you feel so good when you do something good, so it should be more of an empowering situation that we're in than a detriment of a drain, just knowing that we're helping the situation and that we have stepped up and done something about this as an entity, rather than just a few individuals. You know, it's pretty special. I love seeing the spot that Zach filled last week. You know, that's going out nationally. People just have to understand that this is a Midwest Katrina. This is not a small area, this is not an isolated incident; this is a full-on catastrophe, and we've got to treat it as one. I don't want solid -- I don't want to say what I was going to say. Q. Doug said John Deere made a substantial contribution. Just thinking, I don't know a lot about flood and flood repair, but since John Deere is the king of earth-moving equipment all around, are they going to interface in any way, shape or form with rebuilding levees, rebuilding stuff? Or could they? DOUG MILNE: I'm certain they could. The only information I got was about the million-dollar donation. JERRY KELLY: I can't imagine they wouldn't do everything they can to -- whether it's send equipment to farmers or send equipment to the areas that need to be rebuilt. I mean, the farmers built John Deere; why wouldn't you do what you can to rebuild the fields, rebuild the levees so they can use the John Deere equipment on their fields? And believe me, that is a very patriotic but they're also a very loyal group. They're not switching from this, that and the other thing. Someone like John Deere comes in and shows how much they care from what the farmers have given John Deere, then that's going to be a loyal John Deere buyer in the future. I'm sure that's not their motivation; their motivation is more let's help somebody who's helped us, kind of like the same situation I am. But it comes back twofold. Doing anything good comes back twofold, I believe. It would be in their best interest. DOUG MILNE: Zach was in here yesterday and he talked at length about it, and he had his -- his mom's office was flooded to the ceiling. Do you have any personal ties, family or friends, that went through anything particularly? JERRY KELLY: Basically I think as bad as we got, our lakes were over the banks. You know, there are lakes in the backyards and things like that. We live in an urban area, and we've actually got -- it's a chain of seven lakes, so we've got some ability -- the biggest lake is actually the highest, and then it filters down -- we've got a dam system with a lock, so we let it out slowly so as not to flood the other ones. But it's all over the place. There were roads closed and plenty of tough situations, but it wasn't the devastation like you saw out in the outlying areas where the water table just rose unbelievable. DOUG MILNE: Jerry, we certainly appreciate your time and thoughts, and best of luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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