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BUICK CHAMPIONSHIP

August 25, 2004

Jerry Kelly

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Jerry Kelly for stopping by the Buick Championship media room. Coming off a 1-19 after last week's NEC after missing your first cut in a long, long while.

JERRY KELLY: A year.

TODD BUDNICK: You played some steady golf.

JERRY KELLY: A year without missing a cut, I think it's a testament to the all-around game, because I really struck it poorly at a lot of events and putted poorly at a lot of events, but something always kind of hung me in there. I know my new caddie helped quite a bit. It wasn't a coincidence that it coincided with getting him that I went a year without missing a cut.

TODD BUDNICK: A lot of people look at Tiger's streak and say it's not one of the better streaks, but how difficult is it to put together a run of your length, 20, 25 events?

JERRY KELLY: A year, I think a year is pretty good. I had some times where I was throwing up till 5:00 A.M. in the morning and go out there and play. I know he's had that situation, too, a bunch of times. You know how you feel in the course of a year. You've got some weeks where you're just dog tired and feel terrible, and to come through making cuts is an accomplishment. As many as he's had, almost 130 now, that's unbelievable. I think that is probably his best streak besides when you put together tournament wins, which I think he had four or so in a row.

Cuts are tough. Like you said, it's harder, it's more pressure when you're on the cut line than it is when you're going to win the tournament, because when you're going to win the tournament, you're playing great. You're just swinging, you're just playing. When you're grinding to make a cut, you know there's something wrong in your game. It's hard to bring the good stuff out when you really need it.

TODD BUDNICK: You missed last year's tournament here, but you're back with two of your college teammates for the first time in this event. Bring back some good memories of the three of you guys? I know you've played other tournaments around, but to come back into the Hartford area.

JERRY KELLY: Yeah, good little clinic at the University of Hartford last night. There's some pictures floating around that brought back some memories, no question. Would like to burn some of those.

But it's great having the guys. It definitely makes it hit home what our team has accomplished, to come back to Hartford, I didn't know it was going to affect us quite this much, but it's quite an accomplishment to have three guys from one team coming back and playing in your college city. I think it's pretty cool.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JERRY KELLY: I think Tim and I were probably the most competitive that way. I know a lot of the guys when they were playing were always like, hey, I'm Freddie Couples, I'm Jack Nicklaus, you know. And we were always saying, we don't want to be anybody that I'm going to want to beat later. That's kind of the attitude I took, and I know Tim had it, too; that this is the way we were going, and there was no question about it and we were going to do anything it took to get there. I think Pat really sensed that. He climbed on pretty quick. He had the game that could make it.

You know, all three of us did what it took to get here. It took us a long time. It took me six years. It took Tim 14 years, and it took Pat, I'm not sure how many years, as well, ten or so.

It's what you start back then that sets the stage for how you're going to react to the golf game. I mean, if you're pretending you're somebody else growing up, that's great. But when you get to that level where this is what you want to do and you're still pretending that you're somebody else, what are you going to do when you're facing them in the final round of THE PLAYERS and the Masters or the U.S. Open? It's hard to play against, you know -- you want to be the best that you can be. You don't want be to the best somebody else. I think we forged that pretty early.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JERRY KELLY: I think the greens will firm up pretty good this week. We get this weather, these greens will be pretty solid. All the rain that you guys had, the fairway is extremely we will wet and the ball is not going anywhere.

It could be interesting if the collars stay fairly soft and the greens start getting firm. You're going to have to play from the front edges on a lot of pins. If you're a few inches short of the pin, you're going to have some long putts back to the holes. You try and push it back to the hole and you're going to get some bounces over greens.

I think it's going to be shaping up for a great week, great shape, greens are perfect. Just dries out a little bit, you're going to see a pretty strong tournament, because the rough is up again this year.

Q. Talk about getting so close to the Ryder Cup and not making it.

JERRY KELLY: I learned a lot. It's hard to see what you're doing and what you're focusing on while you're doing it, because there's such an extreme emotional attachment and physical attachment. I'm the kind of guy that wants it so bad, going after it with everything he has.

I saw from early in the year looking bad, I saw from early in the year that I focused on the wrong thing. I went to thinking about piling up Top-10s -- I had four or five Top-10s early, four Top-10s early and I said, okay, just Top-10s and you're in. All of a sudden, focus on Top-10s, you start just missing the Top-10. It's like focusing on cuts. Guys that get out here, they just want to make the cut, they always are around the cut line; they miss a lot of cuts by a shot.

I was in a good frame of trying to win tournaments coming right out, and that's why I was finishing fifth, because I was trying to win, and it just wasn't happening. I didn't have any game for four straight days.

All of a sudden the focus changes and then all of the sudden you're not achieving and you start pressing, you start searching, why am I not there. And boy, I really just overfocused myself down into a hole that I had a hard time coming out of. It taught me, you know, that I really have to focus on the process that much harder and what I'm going through mentally, rather than getting all of the physical pieces of the swing.

Before the PGA, I changed my chipping and pitching motion. I mean, just little things -- I wasn't chipping and pitching very well, but instead of focusing on my touch and my feel, I figured my technique was off. So it was a mental causing it to be physical problem. You have to be so aware of the mental side, and when I overpressed, I overanalyzed. I'm a perfectionist in a big way and any time that something perfect or close to perfect isn't coming out, I'm looking to find a way to make it perfect, instead of trusting and working on the feel and getting things back.

That feel is what happened to me at the PGA. We had a really tough Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The wind was blowing up to 30, 35. This was going to be a really hard golf course and you were just going to have to feel your way around the golf course.

Next thing you know, the wind dies in the morning and it's a birdie-fest. I wasn't into feel; I was into technique. I was more of a technician, and I'm a feel player. I couldn't make the adjustment because my mental side wasn't there to make the adjustment. I was just so focused on what I had to do that I didn't focus on what to do to get there.

So there's a lot of things that I learned from it, and, you know, I tend to be a little bit of a slow learner, I'm extremely stubborn and a perfectionist. Those are the things that work really hard against you in golf. You know, I'm going to get better doing things like missing Q-School by a shot for three years; not winning for a very long time,200 starts; and not making Top-10s in the middle of this year, all of these setbacks; and then not making the Ryder Cup.

None of these events has ever put me into a shell and put me into the position, where, I'm not good enough to make that team, I can't do this, boy, I'm terrible. No, I will look back every time and I will get better. I will do the things that in two years, I'm going to make that team. Next year, I'm going to make -- that's just if I do what I do best, mentally and physically, and let those things happen. They will come out, because I know I'm good enough to do that.

I just work against myself too much and that's what I'm learning. I've been learning that for a long time. It's time now, I think, to just drop the gloves in a different way. (Laughter.) Put them away. Put the gloves away.

Q. What are the mental and physical requirements to keep fatigue -- inaudible

JERRY KELLY: The mental requirements are far beyond any sport that you can play. You're hitting a stationary ball, which, you know, reactionary sports, don't take nearly as much thinking. It's a reaction, and, you know, the reactionary muscles, the quick-twitch muscles are much easier to let go and not try and control.

Then you've got a stationary ball and you've got to move to hit it, you've got to somehow turn that stationary into a reactionary, and that's just letting things go. That's the hard part. We all want to make the action happen. You can't play golf trying to make the action happen. You have to ingrain it so well that you trust what you're doing and let it happen, and then it becomes reactionary, and then when golf becomes easy.

But once one thing goes wrong, what do you want to do? You turn it into an action that you're trying to do. All of a sudden, you're back to square one again.

So, it's entirely mental. As long as you put your work in on the physical, it becomes an entirely mental sport. It's physically difficult when it's that mental. I just went back with my sports psychologist (Dr. Deborah Graham) because of everything I was just talking about of looking back over everything, and I needed her views and what's happening.

I have had some injuries last two years that have -- they are not good, and I live on adrenaline. I get the adrenaline going so hard, and trying to make the Presidents Cup last year, and then going to the Presidents Cup, and then trying to make the Ryder Cup, I've been on a constant adrenaline binge. You know, she's bringing up the cortisol that's pumping through my body because of all the adrenaline is just basically deteriorating my body.

So it gave me a new insight into how I really need to be out here if I want some longevity. I can't be pushing myself, pushing myself, pushing myself mentally. You've got to give your body a rest. I've been miserable off the golf course this year because it's been weighing on me so much. I've got it in the pit of my stomach wanting it so bad, and that's keeping my adrenaline up and I don't get any flush in my system from the bad chemicals. That's when injuries start popping up.

Hopefully if I can relax in my off time a little bit more and get away from golf, maybe I won't have to have the three surgeries I need. (Laughing) I have an AC problem in my left shoulder joint this year, and my left knee is as bad as my right knee was, just stopped me right in my track, Friday afternoon at the PGA. I had a morning tee time, Friday afternoon I was back home doing my first workout in about three months and I worked extremely hard for that week and then came back out. I was still in some pain but once again, I was almost so angry that I was getting adrenaline going while I was doing that and hurting myself some more.

I've got to make some wholesale changes, but it's not changes, really. It's just perception more than changes and try to not change as much, but just go about it just a little bit differently.

Q. Do you work out or train very hard on your fitness?

JERRY KELLY: I was kind of an every other day guy, not as much out on TOUR, but when I'm at home, I'm pumping hard.

Q. Have you spoken to Hal?

JERRY KELLY: I haven't seen him yet, no.

You know, what I will say, even before Stewart won, he's got experience, he's tied for the lead in putting, I had not been closing down the stretch. I did not want -- I wanted the pick for just what I've done in the last three years. But you know, when it comes right down to it, you've got to get it done till the end. I don't think I would pick somebody who has not been on the Ryder Cup. The Presidents Cup I feel helped a little bit but the Ryder Cup I feel is still a step up -- sorry, PGA TOUR. It's a little different atmosphere, and experience helps. I think everybody on TOUR knew Jay Haas was going to be a pick. He could bring an awful lot to that team.

You know what I figured the picks were between Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank. Those were my two picks. I think when Scotty went down with a little ankle problem, I think that made Hal's picks pretty easy. It was great to see Stewart vindicate himself. It might have been some questions, but he just answered all of the questions right there. So, perfect.

The team is set. I think it's a great team. I'm going to be the first one cheering them. I'm right there. I have absolutely no hard feelings for Hal not picking me, not calling me, nothing. He knows, I'm the kind of guy that he doesn't need to call and say, "Hey, sorry, Jerry, you know, didn't pick you." Not getting a phone call, I knew exactly what was going on. That's not even a question.

So, it was fun to be in the hunt. It was just another learning process. That was my first Ryder Cup hunt. It's not just the PGA, the finality of the PGA. You're thinking about it for a long time when you're on that team again. It's really cool to be just, you know, having some people in the gallery saying, "Hey, they should have picked you, you'd bring some emotion." That's great, I'm glad a lot of people think that.

Like I said, if we needed more emotion on the team, I would have been a great pick. I think we have plenty of guys to bring emotion. I totally agree with the picks. It's just fine. I needed to be in the Top-10 and I knew that.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JERRY KELLY: I could give the Saturday night pep talk. The pep talk would come right after a mandatory showing of Miracle. And I will -- I didn't do it at the NEC, which everybody was there and I feel bad I didn't do it. But I want to go right out to the store right now and I want to get 13 Miracle DVDs and put it in every one of their lockers that it should be mandatory to watch that. It's not about the golf, it's not about the players, it's about everybody in this country behind you. I mean, Miracle was such a fantastic movie. It wasn't a hockey movie. It was a movie about the state of the nation and what you as an athlete can bring to an entire nation, and that's what the Ryder Cup can do. It's that big of an event. A lot more people than just golfers watch. I'm going to be dying to be a part of it in two years again, as well as the Presidents Cup next year.

End of FastScripts.

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