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EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP

May 13, 2004

Jerry Kelly

IRVING, TEXAS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Jerry Kelly, first round 66, some solid playing under some tough conditions early on.

JERRY KELLY: Yeah, it was tough starting out with a bogey knowing the wind was going to be up this early in the morning. It was nice to come back. I hit one to about six inches on the third hole, and that kind of brought me back to life a little bit. The easiest hole on the golf course I felt like I bogeyed, so coming back on 3 was pretty key.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Chris Smith talked about how much he enjoyed playing with you and Shaun. Just touch on that a little bit. You played in the Honda Team Matches a couple years ago and you're talking about going to a football game next fall.

JERRY KELLY: We're going to hit the Ohio State-Wisconsin game. I can get them on the sidelines; the only problem is it's got to be the Wisconsin sidelines. We'll see how he handles that one. Smitty is my best friend out here. It's always great playing with him. I always do something to make him laugh, and every time he laughs at me I have fun with it. Once again, it happened today.

Q. You felt so good, you had a great Players Championship, and while you were there it seemed like you really hit on something or found something. Has that carried over?

JERRY KELLY: No, I've totally lost it since then, no question. It's been gone for a little while. I can't even remember what I hit on. That's how fleeting it is.

I felt like I could never hit a bad shot after the feelings that I had at TPC, but I felt something yesterday, and it was on the last hole of the Pro-Am that I felt something, and I tried to take it out there today and I was missing another piece that I felt on the last three shots of the day. You know, I'm hopefully narrowing everything down to where it's not much going wrong, but I still seem to be -- my setup seems to be wrong sometimes, my backswing sometimes, my transition sometimes, my downswing sometimes, my follow-through at times.

Put all those things together, I'm in good shape.

Q. It's kind of what he was talking about, too, just that there's so many ups and downs in this game. How do you keep on an even level? When the game goes up and down, it's fleeting, as you say.

JERRY KELLY: One of the things that helps me is whether my game is up or my game is down, my intensity is still always up. You know, I'm going after everything. If it's going bad, I usually don't just say, well, it's going bad, here we go. I'm going to go, here we go, and I'm going to get mad at myself and get back in there. I don't end up lackadaisically settling into a real bad round. I fight as hard as I can. That's what keeps me around here. It's not -- certainly not pureness of swing or things like that. I've got to keep that with me.

Q. Jerry, at The Players you were talking about -- when you tried to change your swing in the first place, one of the problems for you is that you're so dependent on feel, and do you reach a point where you wonder if you're just always going to be a feel player?

JERRY KELLY: I know I'm always going to be a feel player. What I'm trying to do is -- sometimes I take the feel out of it trying to swing, and I need to do more of the feel playing. You can train and know what you need to do so there's not as much timing involved, but I need to perfect the swing so the timing is there so I can feel the shots. I felt something on the last three shots that hopefully I can take with me for the rest of the year. I've heard that before (laughter).

Q. At least for a couple months maybe, at least through the U.S. Open.

JERRY KELLY: A couple of days I'll take right now, are you kidding?

Q. At The Players Championship, it just seems like that's got to be a fight for every player just trying to capture that perfect --

A. The game is fleeting.

Q. At The Players the way you talked, you were just --

JERRY KELLY: Man, I was there. I was on a different plane at that point, and the plane took off without me after that. I know it's fleeting and I know it's up-and-down. It's a cyclical game. I'd just like to get on a feel for at least a month or so. It's day-to-day and it's wearing me out this year a little bit.

Q. You know Hal came in yesterday and talked about giving pep talks to some of the guys on the Ryder Cup team. Is that something that's entering into your mind this year?

JERRY KELLY: It's right here.

Q. Front and center?

JERRY KELLY: Absolutely, Ryder Cup is No. 1 on my mind. Hal kind of walks by me and he says, hey, Jerry, and chuckles, because it's like a little dog. My ears perk up and my tail starts wagging when he walks by me. He doesn't need to give me much of a pep talk. He needs to just bring me along for the ride and I'll be fine.

Q. Considering all the swing complications you've been going through, I mean, are you pretty happy to -- you're right there in the Top 10 still.

JERRY KELLY: My swing complications are a heck of a lot less complicated than they used to be. When I feel really bad -- I mean, I felt pretty bad out there today for most of the day. I really wasn't striking the ball at all. So I've been managing my game, I've been not trying to do too much with what I have, and just waiting for that time when the game comes back to me. I've been trying to go after the game so hard for the last year and a half that I need to start letting the game come to me and get back into the fields. You just made my year.

Q. Despite struggling a bit, you're still in a position to make the team, so you've got to feel good about that. You're not playing your best and yet you're still there.

JERRY KELLY: Hopefully I've had my down period and I can come back strong here for the rest of the year. You know I'm due in majors, so we'll see what happens.

Q. You both talked about -- you and Chris both talked about talking with each other out there. Do you prefer to talk about the round, or is it better when you talk about stuff other than golf?

JERRY KELLY: Oh, no, I even told my caddie this week, Paul, you need to write down 20 things, I'm giving you homework, 20 things that don't pertain to golf at all and just bring them up to me whenever I start getting mad. He did that -- it kind of made me laugh inside because I knew he was reaching for stuff. He had no idea, he didn't do his homework (laughter) so he didn't have his list there, and he was reaching for stuff so bad, but it worked.

Q. What was his biggest reach?

JERRY KELLY: He was talking about me living in Florida, how long did I live there. He was trying. That's all I can ask (laughter).

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Can we go through your round and we'll take one last question. You mentioned starting off with a bogey. What happened there?

JERRY KELLY: Left rough, hit the wrong club, plugged it in the front bunker, knocked it up there 20 feet, missed the putt.

3rd hole, driver, 8-iron to about six inches.

9, 3-wood, pitching wedge about five feet.

12 was a good hole. I hit cut driver and then a little 9-iron, holding it into the wind to about four or five feet on that hole with a big breaking putt. That was a good birdie.

13, par 3, 9-iron to about 15 feet, rolled that one in.

14, hit a little wedge to about 12 feet.

Bogey on 15, right in the middle of the fairway, probably one of my best drives in the crosswind, and hit an awful second shot. I left the club so far behind me -- that's where I kind of found my swing because I felt like I made a good back swing and left it 30 yards to the right while I was trying to hit a draw and realized I'm just plain not getting my club through. I knocked it up there about eight feet, missed the putt, then made a good birdie with a bad drive, layup, and then a 7-iron into that par 5 green. That was a strong birdie.

Q. Talk a little bit about feeling like you're due in majors. How do you feel like the kind of linksey feel to the three remaining places you're going to play this year plays into your hand?

JERRY KELLY: That's right, Shinnecock is. British Open has always been my favorite style of golf. I play a lot of bump-and-runs, I play a lot of adjustable height shots. I can hit a lot of punch shots, a lot of run shots, I can hit cuts and draws with choking down on the club, so I've always been able to hit the shots and control my ball in the wind. I'm kind of looking forward to that. I kind of didn't put it together that all three of them are like that. That's kind of nice.

Q. That sounds like it should be fairly encouraging, should be a good fit for you.

JERRY KELLY: I like that. I'm going back to my first major venue that I've actually played a tournament at before, which is Royal Troon. I qualified back in 97.

Q. You have a chance to play two tournaments in Wisconsin this year, that's got to be a treat, instead of just one.

JERRY KELLY: Exactly. I like it.

Q. Have you played much at Whistling Straits?

JERRY KELLY: I'm going to start next week.

Q. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it.

JERRY KELLY: I've heard a ton of good stuff. It's going to be pretty tough. We'll see how intelligently the PGA can set it up.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Okay, Jerry, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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