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U.S. BANK CHAMPIONSHIP IN MILWAUKEEJuly 15, 2009Jerry KellyMILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jerry Kelly is joining us here for the 16th time here at the U.S. Bank Championship. Your last time here in 2006 you finished second to Corey Pavin, and I know you'd liked to do one better this year. Just some thoughts about coming back to a tournament that's dear to your heart. JERRY KELLY: Yeah, this is my hometown tournament. This is what they play for, as they say. There's not a ton of tournaments out there. You know, you've got the majors, but then you've got the tournaments that are close to your heart. You know, sometimes they're just as tough. I'm proud of the way I've played here. You know, I've had so much great will towards me already this week. Only been in town for about 24 hours, and I'm already feeling it from everybody. I'm really excited to play. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Questions. Q. Talk about some of the pros and cons and things that make it maybe easier and more fun to play this week, and maybe some of the things that we don't think about that make this week a little tougher for you to play. JERRY KELLY: Well, the things that make it easier are the people always supporting me the way they always have. That's why me and Strick and J.P. and Mark and Skip, we all like to give back because we get so much. As you guys know, I'm a little hard on myself. When I've got people around me to pick me up -- which doesn't happen ever single week. I don't hear my name called ten times a hole like some people do. It's really nice to hear that and feel it from the people. It definitely brings me up. Things that are hard, talking with the media. (Laughter.) Just more commitments than I would normally have. The tickets, the media. You know, when you have that many people, and I'm not one to say no or shy away from shaking somebody's hand and things like that, I still don't feel that that takes away. When I talk to the media, I tell myself while I'm telling you guys what I wanna do. When I go shake somebody's hand, that's always a positive. Getting tickets for people to follow you, boy, that's a terrible thing. When people stop asking you for tickets, then you know you're in trouble because nobody wants to follow you then. Even the things that come along with being in a hometown-type event that you can look at as time consuming, they're still positive in the end. So there's really not a whole lot of negative, other than the pressure you might put on yourself. Q. You've been brought up along with Steve Stricker as a couple guys hoping to make sure that this tournament is around for a lot of years to come. Talk about that and the effort you're making to kind of help secure this tournament. JERRY KELLY: Yeah, I can't be too specific on this, as you guys know. Steve set out working on saving this tournament. I set out working on saving this tournament. I don't know how it came about, but we started talking about it together and realized we were working towards the exact same vision, which is strange. The best part of it is we went through the right channels and got some really positive things rolling. Took some ideas to the TOUR, and the TOUR loved it. So I think we've got some really, really positive things in the works right now. How quick they fall together -- you know, if we can solidify the idea that we have for this golf tournament, I really think a sponsor will enjoy being associated with the tournament that we're trying to build. I think there's no question about that. I hope we have more of a fight of who wants to -- who's gonna get it rather than, Oh, boy, who do we have to go find? I think we've got that big of a vision, and I think we've got the ability to support this vision, as well. So it has been a lot of work. We've learned an awful a lot about what it takes to put on a golf tournament. Even with all the what I call minor obstacles in the way, we can overcome all of them and I think we can put on a great event. Q. In your mind, is it more of a title sponsor? Is it different weeks? What would you like to see? JERRY KELLY: I would like to see a canvas product. TOUR seeing that, giving us a date. Sponsor seeing both those things, Please let me sponsor this. That's the way I would like to see it fall into place. You know, I might be Alice in Wonderland a little bit, but I'll tell you what, we got a heck of a rabbit hole going. See what happens. Q. Were you hearing gratitude from fans, people on the course saying, Thanks for trying? JERRY KELLY: Yeah. Q. Can you share some of the stuff they were saying. JERRY KELLY: Absolutely. I mean, it seemed like every hole. They're genuinely appreciative. You know, I think that's something that we should have been doing without, you know, as much fanfare and as much acknowledgment as we've gotten. This tournament gave us our start and has been so great to us. The people have been so great to us. This is something we should be doing, not as much something that we deserve accolades for doing. As everybody knows, this is well worth saving. We're not going to let it go anywhere. Q. If you're able to bring back the tournament, do you also want the GMO name attached to it, as well? JERRY KELLY: Yeah, the sponsorship in this day and age, I mean, that's a pretty tough sell. If there's a really solid product that the people just want to be associated with and we're bringing in the players that we think we can bring in, you never know how the name goes. But we'll hopefully get to that point fairly soon. I want to push the timeline. The TOUR wants to make sure everything is in place, you know, P and Qs. But I'm ready to get this thing rolling. Q. How confident are you about your guys' ability to save this tournament, and could you put a number on percentage of how confident you are there's gonna be a tournament in Milwaukee next year? JERRY KELLY: Like I said, if I'm talking -- and you guys know the way that I'm fairly aggressive, I say what's on my mind. A lot of people may think it's a fantasy, but I would like to think I'm 80, 90% solid that we're gonna get something done. We've got too many balls rolling in the right direction to think that, you know, we can't close this deal. You know, I'm talking confident, I'm talking aggressive about it, but that's the way I feel about it. If I didn't feel that way about it, I would be wishy washy and sitting back here going, Well, I sure hope something happens. I mean, that's the problem I have on the golf course trying to always make something happen. Doesn't always work out that great. I really feel like we can make something happen here. Q. It's been noticed that in the Pro-Am settings you take the time to help out the guys you're golfing with, even when they have a bad shot. Why do you feel it's important to pass on the knowledge you've gained? JERRY KELLY: Well, they paid for a round of golf to play with me. I mean, it's gotta make you feel good that somebody wants to pick you and wants to play with you. You know, it's kind of similar to the way I work with the corporations with Sub-Zero Wolf and Cleveland. I don't want to be just a billboard and walk around and say, Hey, this is enough. I want to call them and say, Hey, who do you have in the area? You want me to meet anybody, press some hands, do whatever? It's basically still all about giving back to somebody who is being good to you. These guys are basically putting up a lot of the money that we're playing for. So without the sponsors and without the guys in the Pro-Am putting up the money to play in the groups, we wouldn't be able to play for what we have. I enjoy taking Wednesday as more of a fun day than, oh, boy it's gonna be hard to get my work done. If I'm feeling like I need to get work done that bad on Wednesday, I want to play against that guy on Thursday. I've taken care of my business, and my business on a Wednesday becomes taking care of the guys that I'm playing with. You know, I love seeing them improve during the day. A lot of times I'll ask them on the first tee, do you want to win or do you want to get better? Because they're gonna get worse at times when you're teaching them something while you're playing. This isn't the range, and it's tough to hit shots when you're thinking about mechanics. We're out there No. 1, to have fun, and No. 2, make 'em better. If they all of a sudden succeed when all that's going on, that's the Trifecta you're looking for. But I'd rather have fun and watch them succeed than win the thing. Q. Talk about your decision to play here this week as opposed to trying to play in the British. And given your affection for this tournament, was that almost a no-brainer? JERRY KELLY: Well, it's not a complete no-brainer because it is a major. I've always championed the idea that when you've got a chance to play in a major, you better take every opportunity. You don't have that many of them in your lifetime. If you happen to win a major, it changes your career, the way you're looked at, and your life. On the other hand, missing one major to try to save a tournament that it as big as a major to me, then it becomes a no-brainer. I called out the fans in at least two or three different interviews. I just thought to myself, How can I call them out, you have to come, you have to be here, and then not show up myself? It's a situation that was becoming dire and looking bleak. I don't feel that way as much anymore, but I had to put my money where my mouth is and I had to show them how much this tournament is worth to me. Hopefully they can feel the same way. Q. You hit about a million balls on the range last week at the Deere, including that one day when you stood in the rain and tents were blowing around. Talk about your game and how you feel this week. JERRY KELLY: I feel really good. I hit the ball really well the first two days last week. The feeling that I had that I found on that Wednesday in the rain, I really felt like I took that to the course well. Then I focused on a piece of it that was working well on those two days, took that into the Sunday finale. Any time you focus on a piece you lose the whole thing, and I know that. But it's tough -- when you get a feel that's working that well, it's tough not to harp on that. Then you end up overdoing something good. That's my M.O. I'm always an over-trier, over-doer. That was just another learning experience. You know, I got a gift on Monday playing with Chris Smith. You know, just had an awesome time on the golf course and put golf in perspective. You know, watching him swing helped my swing a whole a lot. I took a great swing thought out of that Monday and brought it here. Showed Jim last night on the range at about 7:45. He loved what I was doing. Thought it was probably about the best I've looked. Now, you know, that doesn't mean anything for teeing it up tomorrow, and I know that. So my expectations are to be on the first tee tomorrow and have all the tools. Then we just go forward and hope the mental game follows. Q. I know you can't talk specifically, but have you approached other specific golfers and laid a few things out? What reaction have they had, and are they behind it? JERRY KELLY: Yeah. Yeah. Bottom line, I mean -- I've had trouble with a few of you guys. (Laughter.) You know, we've kept it pretty much in the circle. Most of the guys know. You know, I don't know if they know that we don't really want it laid out there. I've laid it all there to some. I will say that. So you might want to go ask 156 of them. I think there are only 132 here, but you can probably still go ask 156 of them. I don't know how many. The idea is out there. We just have to wrap a few things up before we can have any parties that may be involved able to backtrack. We want them to be comfortable and positive about the idea and the product that we're putting forward. If we stick anything out there too early, could give someone an opportunity to say no. Everybody has got great feelings about it right now. We want to keep that flow moving more than anything. So even though I'm confident and aggressive in the way I'm talking about it, I'm not just going throw it out there in the open. I got respect for the people involved. That's the bottom line. It's not about me. It's about this tournament. The right thing is to get people excited about it because they should be, but not put anybody out there hanging on a thin thread that might end up having to break. That's kind of the situation that it is. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Dr. Jerry Kelly, thank you very much. JERRY KELLY: Ha, ha, that's right. End of FastScripts |
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