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EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 15, 2004

Jerry Kelly

IRVING, TEXAS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jerry Kelly, thanks for joining us. Three rounds in the 60s puts you in great position heading into tomorrow, two strokes out of the lead of Sergio Garcia. If we could start with some opening comments on your day, three birdies, no bogeys, so not real eventful, but you played some great golf this week.

JERRY KELLY: It was just a real kind of calm day. I wasn't doing anything spectacular. I hit my irons well and I was just trying everything I could just to punch my ball into the fairway. I wasn't hitting the driver very well at all and just trying to shape the shots into the fairway, which means I was hitting it extremely short, but my iron game was so good, I didn't care if I had a 6-iron against a wedge.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You talked about how far your game has come in the last couple of years. It's a pretty good indication, two shots out of the lead in contention not playing your best golf.

JERRY KELLY: I've remarked on that a few times and I'm real happy that my game can do that. I always kind of wondered about Tiger when he was winning pretty hard and saying I've got my -- what's it like to be leading the tournament and have your C game as he used to call it. You know, I haven't been hitting it very well all year, and I've had some pretty good finishes, so I'm kind of coming to understand it a little bit and real happy my game is able to do that.

Q. Has that been the biggest -- is that the best thing that you've done really, having moved up so far in your play, being able to have more consistency regardless of how --

JERRY KELLY: No question, my game has become a lot more rounded. I was just a little off in every category, and I'm still a little off in every category, but the gap is narrowing. You know, I can -- I know how to get the ball around the golf course. I can know what I can do around the greens, and it's a confidence builder.

Q. Have you been searching, rummaging around trying different drivers or do you know it's your swing?

JERRY KELLY: If you go down in the locker room, look at the top of my locker.

Q. How many do you have this week?

JERRY KELLY: 20.

Q. How many got tryouts this week?

JERRY KELLY: 20.

Q. How many hacks does each get before they get thrown out?

JERRY KELLY: Three.

Q. Three-strikes-you're-out rule, kind of like baseball?

JERRY KELLY: Absolutely. All of us can change our swing to a club eventually. The key is putting the swing you know on it and watching what happens. I mean, there are ten drivers that I can take one swing with and know.

Q. What do you anticipate tomorrow, Jerry?

JERRY KELLY: I anticipate a lot lower scores than today from the leaders. I'm very surprised that I'm in the position that I'm in after a 3-under round. It was pretty benign out there. I didn't think it was playing that difficult. But like I said, I managed my ball off the tee pretty well and hit good iron shots. If somebody was all over the place, it could have been a lot more eventful. You know, that's what it's going to take tomorrow, steady golf, get the ball in the hole a few more times than I did, and it'll work out pretty good.

Q. What is it about this course that seems to lend to this severe bunching around the leaderboard in typical shootouts on Sunday?

JERRY KELLY: I think if you look at the driving accuracy statistics for this week, it'll amaze you how low it is compared to any other week. You've got more slight doglegs and worse shaping of the fairways that causes you to have to really shape the drives, and they're still long enough holes that you have to hit the ball instead of just shape it. It's tough to hit a lot of fairways out here.

Q. Have you played with Sergio lately? Are you looking forward to that?

JERRY KELLY: I played with him at The Masters, final round. He played okay (laughter).

Q. Do you feel like your game, even though you're not hitting it on all cylinders, do you have enough to get around --

JERRY KELLY: Yes. I feel great about my iron game, and if I can just hit my driver a little bit better tomorrow, you can shoot anything out here.

Q. You said you haven't been playing your best golf. Is it starting to come around, though?

JERRY KELLY: No question, it's starting to come around. I've got some good feels for my irons right now. I'm going to go work on the driver a little bit this afternoon, and I know I'll have the seem feel with my irons tomorrow, so I'll keep putting and chipping well, also.

Q. Jerry, while your career evolves to where you want it to be, do you find yourself, you've got Tiger up there, Sergio, Vijay Singh, a lot of these heavyweights over the years who are now fighting it out. Do you find yourself a spectator at all to that stuff or a fan of those kind of slug fests between those kind of golfers?

JERRY KELLY: You know, I never watched golf. I never wanted to watch the guys that I wanted to beat, and really the golf that's come out of all of us in the last couple years, I watch golf now. It is fun to watch.

I mean, guys are hitting just amazing shots. I'm back there watching the end of some tournaments when I haven't played well, and I'm going, "He's got no chance from here," and boom, it's incredible. It is really fun to watch golf these days. We're doing stuff that is pretty tough to do and making it look pretty easy.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could go through your three birdies and we'll take one or two last questions. Birdied No. 2, the par 3.

JERRY KELLY: Hit a little cut 6-iron into a left pin to about eight feet or so.

8 was a driver, 5-iron to a back right pin to about 12, 15 feet.

16, par 5, I hit probably one of the worst drives I've ever hit, still was straight, but the thing couldn't have flown 220 yards, and it found the fairway and ran, but I had full 3-wood just to clear the bunkers there. Jonathan Byrd had iron into the green and I was just trying to clear the front bunkers. I ended running one up about 20, 25 yards short of the green and just had a nice spinning lob wedge in there to about eight feet, made the putt.

Q. What have you learned about playing in the last group on a Sunday that will serve you well tomorrow?

JERRY KELLY: Just not getting ahead of yourself. You know, even if you get it to a three-shot lead early or if he's two ahead, if you drop four back early, don't press and say I'm losing this golf tournament or don't say, hey, what do I need to do with all that money, or it's going to be nice shaking Mr. Nelson's hand. You've just got to be really focused on what you're doing.

It's actually easier when you're in that position, for me it is, because that's all you have to do is focus on what you're doing. You don't have to chase anybody, you don't have to look at leaderboards all the time. If you just play good enough golf, there's a chance you can win.

Q. At what point do you pay attention to the leaderboard to kind of gauge --

JERRY KELLY: I always do anyway.

Q. You try not to?

JERRY KELLY: I'm the kind of guy, I want to know exactly where I stand all the time.

Q. At what point does it factor into your strategy?

JERRY KELLY: Back nine.

Q. Last three, four holes?

JERRY KELLY: It factors in usually on Thursday morning for me (laughter).

Q. Last week and this week, Tiger Woods was the midway leader both tournaments, and at the end of the third round he was not the leader. Do you think this is a bit of a different phenomenon? It used to be that he got it and he pushed it. Do guys look at that differently? Is there an aura of invincibility that maybe isn't there anymore?

JERRY KELLY: We definitely see what's going on. We also know that at the drop of a hat he could go on a streak. Let sleeping Tigers lie. Not that he's sleeping or anything. Don't print that (laughter). No, Tiger is like playing with everybody a little bit the way I look at it. I think he can still do whatever he wants to do.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jerry Kelly, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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