	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 26, 2009

Jerry Kelly

OAKVILLE, ONTARIO

DOUG MILNE: Okay. Jerry Kelly, thanks for spending a few minutes with us here in the smelly media center at the Royal RBC Canadian Open. Eventually this golf tournament is going to come to an end and you are right in the thick of it. I guess you are 1-under, through 6 holes today, tied for second, so you're obviously in great position. Just a few comments on your game as we have about a round and a half to go.
JERRY KELLY: It's been pretty incredible. You guys have lived through it, too. You've gotta be here. You've gotta cover it. There's nothing fun about waiting. We've had some good times in the locker room. I get up in the kitchen a lot, which I love. Have a good time with all those guys in the kitchen.
You know, this way you get to know a lot of the players, too. It's time that you're really not grouped together just passing each other, saying hello or eating. You're actually hanging out for hour upon hour. So it's actually a pretty good time in that respect.
But it's tough on the golf. It's tough stopping and starting. But we do it all the time. It's our job, and it's just another part of our job.
DOUG MILNE: Pardon the cliche, but golf is a game of patience. You kind of touched on it. Has that really been put to the test with you this week or does it actually bother you?
JERRY KELLY: This doesn't really bother me. My patience gets tested on the golf course more than it does off the golf course. This is just so be it. Whatever. You start getting uptight about Mother Nature, you're in deep trouble because she's always going to be around. She's always going to do something to you.
So this is easy compared to the way I hit the first 6 holes. My patience was definitely tested there, but came through 1-under. I was pretty pleased to get out of there with that.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. We'll just go ahead and open it up for a few questions.

Q. What's the mood of the players the way it is right now? This is a tournament that comes right behind the British Open, which really tests attendance at this tournament. With the rain not only this year but the year before, do you see the players having any effect on attendance in future years?
JERRY KELLY: I'd say no, just because there's a really good buzz about St. George's next year. So the golf course, you know, sometimes is really what makes a tournament. And I'm not sure of the road, but do we do St. George's and Hamilton?

Q. (Indiscernible).
JERRY KELLY: Oh, okay. You know you got me for the next two. And then there's another outside of Glen Abbey. And then Hamilton. Yeah, the members are stretching that one out a little bit. We'll see what happens.
But you know, there's so many great golf courses up here, and you know, people are great everywhere you go, so it's tough. If it was at Glen Abbey next year, I think it would be tough just because two years in a row doing the -- even though St. George's is just down the road, I think the buzz on the golf course is going to get probably even a better field than this year.

Q. Going into tomorrow we're supposed to have very similar possibilities here. Do you prefer a 54-holer?
JERRY KELLY: No. I prefer 72. If I'm going to win, I want to win four rounds. I want to be tested all the way through. You know, if I win in 54 holes, so be it, but you know my ideal, even if I was leading through 54, I would be, let's go play. I want to hold them off for another 18. I want to do my job the best I can.
I always feel like rain delays hurt them in some events. Sometimes you just don't get that true feeling of accomplishment that you would normally if you finish the tournament all the way through against the top field.

Q. You were saying that you had your patience tested today. Is it just the stop-start of it that's doing it to you?
JERRY KELLY: No. Today was my golf game. Wow. Holy crap, it was gone. Boy, I hit a couple of shots so far off line with my driver that I mean -- I am usually straight. And I was a long ways off line.
So you know, I found something on 6. Hit a good drive down the middle, and that was a lot of power, and I knocked a 6-iron to about a foot and a half, and I'm like, okay. Let's go.
I got a pretty good idea of what's going on. And I was lucky to tee off on 7, then the horn blew. But it didn't bother me that I'm going to get to practice again before I go back out there.
I got a pretty good idea what happens to me. Not as much under pressure, but when it starts getting down to a point and I kind of spaced on something. And like I said, I feel like I found it on 6, and I'm ready to go, but I did a good job. I worked hard up to 6.

Q. Does how a player handle the stop and start? Does it have much of an impact on the outcome of the game, of the tournament, do you think?
JERRY KELLY: Oh, I think so. I think golf tests your patience enough while you're on the golf course, that if you're tested off of it because of a situation like this, it can keep you riled and wired too much, too long.
I had no problem going back to the hotel, checking in and sleeping. You know, I was waking myself up snoring watching the Senior British. No offense to those guys. (Laughs). That's great golf. (Laughs). No, I've been around long enough to not let this part get to me.
And I would think so. Being inexperienced, you know, you get a young guy leading who hasn't been in this position before, he might be feeling it a little bit more, but I'm not inside a guy's head, so I don't know.
But, I mean, I'd say it probably got to me in the past because a high-adrenaline player like myself, it's tough to keep that adrenaline up all the way through. I've found ways to calm myself down and also found ways to get the adrenaline back up before I play. So I can kind of ride those cycles. Instead of forcing myself to try and stay up there as high as I possibly can to go back out, now I can put it in neutral and then put it back in drive when I need to.

Q. Jerry, yesterday Mark Calcavecchia nine birdies broke your record. How do you feel about that?
JERRY KELLY: Yeah, we just had a little cheer through a beer in there, and he was getting one, and I said, hey, get me one. And I said, "nice record." And he said, "yeah, nice record you used to have." (Laughs).
So it's kind of fun. Those are the fun things. He was one of the first guys that I saw when I came in yesterday, I was like, "Calc, why did you do that?" That was the only record I had on Tour. That's it. I'm out now. I'm not in the record books anymore. So I'm going to have to find something else to do.

Q. How did your record of 8 happen, do you remember?
JERRY KELLY: Yeah. Vividly. I was on the 15th hole of TPC what would be a driveable par-4. I knocked it in the front right bunker, but the pin was all the way in the back left up a pretty good shelf, and I knocked my bunker shot up on top, and it spun all the way back, so I had 50 feet to go. But I did eagle the next hole, the 16. So I was 10-under through 10. That was pretty good.

Q. Does it take anything away that this record was made during these type of playing conditions?
JERRY KELLY: Wow. No. I don't care. You gotta hit the ball. You gotta get in the hole. That's all there is to it.

Q. Jerry, you were talking about getting the adrenaline out and being able to put it in neutral for a little while. The fact that there are two young guys basically on top of the leaderboard right now with Jason Dufner and Anthony Kim, do you almost kind of lick your chops at the fact that they may or may not be able to do the same thing, inexperience may play in the question?
JERRY KELLY: Not too worried about A.K. A.K.'s got some season in him already. He's been in a Ryder Cup, and successful in a Ryder Cup. I haven't even been on a Ryder Cup team. So you know, I've had a longer career. He may have had more success already, you know.
So you know, when you've got a player who's had that kind of success, we don't look at him really as a young player as much anymore because the mental side's gotta be there. May not be there as consistently as he'd like, but it's definitely there.
You know, Jason Dufner, somewhat untested, but he's still playing great golf. If he just relies on the way he's been playing, he'll be fine, too. But you know, you expect a dog fight no matter what the names are, and it always is. So that's what makes it fun. Anybody can win out here.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. Well, Jerry, thanks for your time. We appreciate it. We'll let you get back to business.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297