ADVIL WESTERN OPEN

July 6, 2002

Jerry Kelly

JOAN V.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jerry for joining us. Great round today and great position going into the final round tomorrow. Why don't you make a couple comments, and then we will go into questions.

JERRY KELLY: I felt like I played okay today. I know I hit a tough stretch on 9, 10 and 11, but -- 9, 10 and 11, 12 was my slow period of the round. I had my chances early and got a few on 7 and 8, and then I just decelled on a wedge on 9, decelled on a wedge on 10, and same thing on 11 really, 3 shots in a row. So I kind of knew what I had to do from then on.

Whatever happened to my ball today, it seemed like I knew why, which is a good sign. That's how I could come back and finish with birdies instead of bogeys again. So it was pretty steady.

JOAN V.T. ALEXANDER: Questions?

Q. Jerry, your first five years of the Western, you wouldn't really consider them a great success but you've played well the past couple years. Is it just you're playing better or something you've figured out about the course?

JERRY KELLY: I'm hitting the ball in the fairway now, which is a wonderful thing. I've always been a good iron player, so I always made a lot of birdies and a lot of bogeys. You hit it in the rough here, you're going to make a lot of bogeys. Last couple years, I've worked really hard just keeping my ball in the fairway, not just here. You can't play consistent on the Tour from the rough. It's not possible. That's the one consistent we have each week is the rough, and it plays tough.

Q. Is there one day out of a tournament now that is critical to you? And how important is a good round to you on a Saturday, the way you've played?

JERRY KELLY: I've come to realize no days matter but Sunday. It doesn't matter what you've done until you do it on Sunday. And the good thing that I've seen already this year is that if I just play my game, don't try and do anything special, then I can be good enough to win and I can do the kind of things that lend a person to win. So I'm going to go out there and just do the exact same thing I've done. I'm going to play my game. I've never tried to do that before. I was trying to be Superman, and it hurt me. Now I'm trying to be Super Jerry.

Q. So you're not going to have a score in mind when you go out there?

JERRY KELLY: No. I don't know what the conditions are going to be like. If it blows 30, par might work. You don't know. That's the beauty of this game. You play as well as you have to for that day, but you can't predict anything day-to-day.

Q. You made a nice move on Sunday last year. Has that given a little bit of confidence going in tomorrow?

JERRY KELLY: You know, that was a confidence-builder for, you know, as it turns out, Reno and Hawaii. I mean, just anytime you play well, you've got to take all the good things out of it, then bring it to the next week and bring it -- just bring it into the fold of your game. There's so many negatives for us to look at out here because we only win what percentage? Definitely not even close to 1 percent of the tournaments, so in a lot of people's minds, we're losing, and that's hard but you got to take as much as you can.

Q. Jerry, do you get the impression that your peers look at you differently since you won the Sony Open?

JERRY KELLY: Personally or professionally? You know, I always kind of thought maybe to myself that they knew I was a threat on the leader board but maybe not coming down the stretch because I didn't consider myself as much of a threat until I got it done. Now I think anytime I get on the leader board, I'm definitely a threat. I'm a guy that can birdie a bunch of them to overtake somebody or play solid to win. You know, whether they feel that way or not, that's the way I feel now and that's the most important part.

Q. You said out there that Allenby won't back up. What kind of pressure does that put on you out of the gates tomorrow to do something, you know, to be there or give yourself a cushion?

JERRY KELLY: Well, you just have to put pressure on the guy in the lead. I mean, if you don't show him something early, he's going to think he can just play solid golf, and you got to kind of make him play special golf to win because that's extra hard. But you've got to play incredible golf to make somebody in the lead play special golf. I'm on a roll today, aren't I? (Laughter.)

Q. How important is this tournament to you being so close to home? I mean, there's got to be a ton of Wisconsin people here. Is this almost like the GMO?

JERRY KELLY: Absolutely. It always has been. I get more support in these 2 weeks than I get all year really. It's starting to change. I'm starting to hear it from people everywhere. I think the TPC last year was kind of the start of it. I think a lot of people all over the country kind of relate to me a little bit more than maybe a Tiger, blue-collar guy, but this has definitely a home-town feel to it.

Q. Is this a tournament you've wanted to win more than others because of that?

JERRY KELLY: Yeah. No question. -- this would definitely be one of the special ones. I mean, I've got my whole family, I've got a ton of friends. Anytime you have that kind of support watching you, you want to do well for them, and if you can possibly win in that situation, then it's a really big part.

Q. Do you get a lot of hoots and hollers out there?

JERRY KELLY: Yeah. It was really great. There was a lot of support, a lot of support, it was really fun.

Q. Why do you and John Cook always play well at the same tournaments?

JERRY KELLY: I was thinking about that yesterday watching the tournament finish. I was like, man, every time I'm playing well, John Cook is right there. I don't know. We must have similar games, but he's got a lot more wins than I do, so hopefully, we do.

JOAN V.T. ALEXANDER: Can we go through your bogeys and birdies?

JERRY KELLY: Number 3, I made about a 35-footer up the ledge.

7, oh, I drove it in the left rough, actually caught a pretty decent lie and hit a 9-iron to about 5 feet above the hole.

And then 8, hit 4-wood, 8-iron, to about 3 feet.

The bogey on 11 was pretty bad. Hit it in the right bunker off the tee. Had a great shot out of the bunker to give myself 137 yards, and it looked about 120, so I decelled on my 9 and hit it short and hit a bad chip and lipped out my putt.

On 13 driver, 5-iron to about 4 feet.

And 15, driver, 4-wood over the green in the bunker to about 6 feet out of the bunker shot and made the putt.

JOAN V.T. ALEXANDER: Anymore questions?

Q. Do you feel like you were fighting out there to stay reasonably close or --

JERRY KELLY: No. I was comfortable pretty much the whole day. I got bothered by that stretch, but I was pretty confident that I knew exactly what I was doing, even when I was doing it wrong. And if I did the right things, then my swing would make it up for me. You know, I had more chances than I brought back, but, you know, I at least came back a little bit, so that was good.

Q. How do you nix the decel on your swing? What did you tell yourself?

JERRY KELLY: I'm right now getting my body turned back better than I have in a long time, so I have to fire my right shoulder down and through, and there's a tendency for me, who -- I used who used to go arms up and lay off and then just drop my right shoulder straight down and not get it through. So now that I'm turning back, and I have to turn all the way through. It's very noticeable when you turn back when you don't turn through. It's not as noticeable when your arms are going and your body isn't anyway, so it was at least promising for me to at least realize what I was doing.

Q. Jerry, are you somebody who likes to watch the leader board on Sunday, and if you have to put pressure on, do you have to watch it?

JERRY KELLY: Absolutely. You have to watch it. Unless you birdie the first three and get on some kind of roll where you're in this zone, and you keep on doing the same thing, keep on making birdies, making birdies, nothing else matters. But if you even throw three, four pars in a row, you better find out if that guy is taking off on you.

JOAN V.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jerry, for joining us.

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