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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 26, 2004

Jerry Kelly

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jerry, for spending a few minutes in the media center with us. Great round of 66, 69 first day, 66 second day. Same thing you did a couple of years ago in 2001 when you had an exciting week and finished 4th. Make a couple of comments about today's round and maybe your position going into the weekend.

JERRY KELLY: Okay. Boy, I just came in trying to hit solid shots on the fairway, solid shots on the green and TWO-putts. When we got to 10 and saw how crusty and firm the green was, we thought we were in for a pretty long and tough day, especially when the wind picked up. It was starting out as a very conservative thought, and then as I started playing better, I started feeling like I could do a little bit more. Then it got to the point where I actually tried to do too much more than I should have. So I started hitting it poorly again, and gave myself a chance at a couple of bogeys, but some great saves coming in on, what was it, 6 and 8, two very good saves.

So it was a good kick-start round and then I had a chance to stall but came through okay.

Q. How many times can you get it that close, if you went back there on 6? How good a shot was it? It looked hard on television, in the air-conditioned room?

JERRY KELLY: That was a pretty hard shot, even for the armchair quarterbacks. I'm not going to hit it where I hit it, which is exactly where I wanted to, it's not going to bounce up the way I wanted it to every time. It was just executed perfectly, and I was happy that Mother Nature laid the ground the way I saw it. It worked out.

Q. Have you got your strength back from last week?

JERRY KELLY: No problem. I was fine last Sunday. It was with me a solid four days, but it definitely came back.

Q. You said you're a different golfer from this event two or three years ago, primarily based on your swing. Just go through that if you could?

JERRY KELLY: I starred working with Rick Smith seven years ago, PGA seven years ago. I know I didn't have a very good swing. I was a very athletic ball striker, meaning I had a lot of timing, and it wasn't pretty, but I got the job done. And he did say to me, boy, I'm glad you came to me because if you can play well with that swing, you can be a great player some day (laughter).

Q. Is that a compliment?

JERRY KELLY: Thanks Rick, yeah. I knew what he meant. All we had to do was try to find some way -- I was back like this, and getting the club caught behind me, some way to get the club in front of me with my hands in front of me. Really it was a month ago that I got the feel. I wondered what I'd been doing, and I'm sure he wonders what I've been doing for the last seven years. But I've got a feel that it's like an epiphany. I kind of know about my golf swing that much better. I know how to hit the ball.

The difference between then and now is I was relying on timing, and I had no clue what a good shot or bad shot was going to come out. I'd try my best, I'd do whatever I could, but it was a timing thing. Now if I do what I know I have to do, a good shot is going to come out. You're going to hit bad ones now and then, but I've got a handle on something I know I'll never lose.

Q. Where do you find then -- (inaudible).

JERRY KELLY: No, that was a month ago, yeah, I had no clue. I had a clue, I knew what I was doing, but I didn't know how to fix it. Now if I have a bad swing, it's because of this, oh, it's because of that. I kind of have a diagram to go off of in my head that before it was feel, now it's kind of I know exactly what I have to do. I may not do it every single time, but it also -- I can see where I go off the diagram now when I hit a bad shot. So I can go back to the one thought or one picture, one idea when I do hit a bad shot. It's not, boy what happened there. So it's a nice feeling.

We go through highs and lows. It's a huge momentum-swinging game. I don't know if this is it for me, this is what my swing is supposed to be and now I'm going to be a great player. I don't know. If this stays with me as long as I hope it will, I can improve a lot more than I am right now.

Q. Did you have to overcome your instincts as a hockey player to get your swing to where it is now, or were there benefits from being an athletic hockey player?

JERRY KELLY: The hockey gave me mental benefits and mental drawbacks. It wasn't a swing, because hockey only helps you with the swing, getting the big muscles and the back involved and taking the little muscles out of it. But mentally, you know, that's why we kind of figured out that I'm pretty good at match play, because I can go after somebody other than myself (laughter), and I tend to go after myself a little bit when it's stroke play. But when it's match play, I can go after somebody else.

Q. Mental cross-check?

JERRY KELLY: Absolutely, yeah. And it's not bad when you do it to somebody else but not good when you do it to yourself.

Q. How much did you take out of this, even though your swing was not where you wanted it to be three years ago, when you had a good week here, even though you didn't win? It was probably the first time in a spotlight like this. Anything to gain from that week?

JERRY KELLY: A ton. Mentally I could hang with the best players in the world, and that was the big breakthrough for me. Don't get me wrong, I could play from where I was, swing-wise, I just had to do it very athletically and let it come out; otherwise if I got tight I'd be in trouble. So mentally I let it come out for that whole tournament, and that was a huge breakthrough for me, down the stretch a lot of shots, I hit the ball where I wanted to and how I wanted to, and that was mentally because I let the athlete come out in me. Now if I can do that with a good swing, boy, I can do a whole lot better.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Jerry, 36 holes without a bogey. Why don't we just go through those six birdies today.

JERRY KELLY: I might know that, too.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Starting with 11.

JERRY KELLY: 11, just driver, and then I had 3-iron in. I had probably 218 or so to clear the bunker. I didn't think I was going to get my 3-iron onto the green. So I was just popping it up there in the bunker as far as I could, and I didn't get the ball up-and-down, which is what I did.

And then I hit a great shot on 13, cut 7-iron, landed right on the slope, almost went in and had about five, six feet for birdie there.

15, one of my better drives, and then I hit a little 8-iron cut shot right into the bowl and it came up and broke right to the hole, the way I wanted it to, and had about four feet there.

17, I hit it about -- what did it say, four feet five inches I think it said on the scoreboard as I was looking back. It was a perfect club for me, wedge -- it was borderline wedge, but the wind could have been hurting just a hair, so I hit it with a 9, knew it would come back.

2 was good driver on the corner and then just tried to get 3-iron as far into the green as I could. I kind of mishit it and came up toward the front edge. It was a very tough 2-putt, and I missed it short and made the next one.

And then 5 was driver, 4-iron about 35 feet. That was my token bomb. That always seems to happen when you have a good round, so that was nice to get that one in there.

And then the next hole was probably the round saver, on 6. That was key. I didn't have enough for my sand wedge, so I tried to baby a little pitching wedge, kind of lost it a little bit and hit the palm tree, and had a downhill buried bump-and-run up-and-down. That definitely saved my round. And that made me feel pretty good going into 8 when I had a tough up-and-down, that I could get that one up-and-down, because it was a whole lot easier than 6.

Q. You haven't missed an up-and-down opportunity in two days; I think it's 13 for 13. Is that physical or mental or both?

JERRY KELLY: It's a little of both. It's mental because you have to trust the physical. And I'm trusting the vision that I have for the chip shots. Almost every single one of those -- I think I've only chipped three times, so they're all putts from the fringe. So I'm not mishitting it very much at all. I think that's right, I've chipped three times for up-and-downs for par. It's been a pretty solid ball-striking. I'm not leaving it in spots I want, but more often than not I am.

Q. Can you talk about what happened last week at Bay Hill?

JERRY KELLY: I played one hole at practice round, and Tuesday night it was pretty bad. Tuesday night I had it coming out of both sides. It was so bad that whole night that -- and the next day, I had the chills sitting in bed with the North Face on and socks. I love the cold, and that was not fun. I went to the hospital Wednesday night, just because my history of dehydration, I can't mess around anymore. I was feeling some symptoms. And I went in, took a couple of bags of fluid, a little anti-nausea, and away I went. Now, I didn't have more than a half bagel from Tuesday night to Friday night.

Q. I meant about the whole thing with John Daly and the pro-am partners.

JERRY KELLY: You got me. John Daly pro-am partner?

Q. There was a thing in the magazine saying you took over for John in the pro-am.

JERRY KELLY: I would be in the practice -- I was in the pro-am on Tuesday. I played one hole with my group.

Q. There was something in the magazine?

JERRY KELLY: Who wrote that in the magazine?

Q. The Sports Illustrated policy that named Rick the most overrated coach. Do you take exception to that?

JERRY KELLY: Do you think (laughter)? Let's put it this way, the only thing good about it is he knows how I felt when I was second-most overrated player in that same poll. We figure, Rick and I had a powwow, saying the overrateds have to come through here a little bit. Guys get polled. The thing is that

if -- it's got to be good for him that the name even came up. They only know Harmon, Leadbetter, Smith. Those guys are out there all the time. They're out there all the time for a reason, because the players need them out there. We want them out there, but we need him out there. And that's a testament to how good they are, because I would not be where I am right now, period, without Rick Smith, period.

Q. Surprised to see Tiger come back and make the cut?

JERRY KELLY: I didn't know that, but, no, it doesn't surprise me. I almost expected to see him on the scoreboard to tell you the truth (laughter).

Q. You toughed it out last week. What did you learn about Davis these last two days?

JERRY KELLY: I tell you, I thought about it last night, thought about it this morning, thought about it when I finished my round. That is one classy individual and one extreme competitor. There's really none better on our Tour than Davis, and he showed it. His heart was there. He was hurting yesterday, and, I mean, he was an extreme gentleman yesterday, going through what he was going through, especially after that start. It can teach me manage, because I certainly probably wouldn't have been, if I had that start. But he's one of those guys you can strive to be like. It was an impressive performance, and I'm glad he came back. I'm sure he made the cut. 1-over was the cut, 2?

Q. Did you think you'd see him on the tee this morning?

JERRY KELLY: I thought I'd see him on the tee this morning, just because he's the defending champion, and that's the kind of guy he is. That's what I figured. When I read all the things about how bad he was hurting and things like that, I'm thinking to myself, Davis isn't going to quit. Davis is going to get worked on, and if he has to have another day like yesterday, he will.

Q. When he was 6 over through six, what was he like at that point? Could you tell by the body language?

JERRY KELLY: No, he was still saying nice job, great shot. He was being Davis, you know.

Q. You were grinding pretty hard on the West Coast and struggling with your game. Can you discuss how much easier it is to play the game the way you're playing it this week?

JERRY KELLY: I can't even tell you. It was so bad on the West Coast, that club was so far behind me. I was a club and a half shorter than my normal distances. It was almost comical at times. And my caddy and I have been talking, you know, those were some of my best performances. Just to make those cuts, just to finish where I did, because that was -- that was some bad ball-striking. But that was playing the game, and what I want to do is put together playing the game with good ball-striking, and that's exactly what I did today. When things went off, I played the game. When it was ball-striking, you don't have to play the game, it just feels easy.

Q. You mentioned your caddy. I imagine he's played this course a few million times. This is the first time around this course together as I recall. Does he help in terms of backing you up and planning and strategizing?

JERRY KELLY: No question, he's got some great ideas from when he played and some good ideas when he and Vijay worked together. I'm definitely using probably three holes some of his plans. The biggest one is probably the third hole. He's got a number and a spot, and that's where we hit it every day, doesn't matter where the pin is. That's what we've done the last two days, and it's worked out. That simplifies that hole.

End of FastScripts.

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