FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 11, 1999

Jerry Kelly

JERRY KELLY: All right. Well, started off today, good drive. Just putt it in the front bunker. Kind of uneventful. Few pars leading up to the 15th hole, which was 3, to an 8-iron to about 10 feet, birdie. Then par 5, driver, 3-iron on the front edge. 2-putt birdie. 17 and 18, were pars. And No. 1, I hit driver 8-iron. About 15 feet, birdie. 2, was a par. 3, I hit driver, 3-iron, into the front left bunker. Knocked it about quarter of an inch in for birdie. 4 and 5 were pars. 6, -- 6 was a drive and a 9-iron to about 2 feet. 7 was a driver 7-iron to 8 feet. And then 8 and 9 were lipouts.

JERRY KELLY: Yeah. It helps a lot if you get a good round in the afternoon and you don't have to feel you have to go out and hit balls in the afternoon. Going to go back, get something to eat, fall asleep, wake up, and hit balls; go right back at it. Definitely helps the flow a little bit rather than having a solid 24 hours in between when you finish and go off again.

JERRY KELLY: Course is playing soft. Fairways are firming up. Some places, the balls are rolling through the fairway through the rough. On the 7th hole, I've never been able to really get my driver up into the neck. That was, that was my 16th hole. I drove it through the fairway into the left, past the bunkers, and I never would have guessed that was possible. So I know it started to roll out. Will start to play fast on the weekend probably, a better course; fast in the fairways and obviously a better course when it's on the greens. But I don't think that's possible because of the temperatures. It couldn't grow rough really this time of year yet. Even though it's running through the fairway, you're looking at a decent line. Should have been able to get it to the green at least.

JERRY KELLY: No, it's tough to find.

JERRY KELLY: Tough to find the bad lines. I've gotten a couple of them; but still the grass is young. It's fairly soft even when it's long. If you put your club behind it, you can tell -- you're just setting it down and going all the way to the dirt. So you know when you take the force of the swing, it's going to be able to lay down and catch the ball. To the right of 18 might be the spot where there's a deepest rough; where it's probably the best spot for rough on the golf course anyways. There's spots -- they grew it in the key places, I'd say.

JERRY KELLY: Distinguished?

JERRY KELLY: It would be hard to distinguish me from the water boy with the distinguished career I had. I played a lot. It's still my passion. It's probably my favorite sport. I'm glad I'm not playing for a living. I've got a few friends in the NHL; my longevity is going to outlast theirs. Great game. I grew up playing with a lot of really good players. That made me better. I was a fast center; liked to go into the corners, and that doesn't bode well for my longevity in that. That was, I think stupidity. I like to be aggressive that way in golf and in hockey, and that's kind of where it comes out, my golf game, probably, from the hockey. I think I'm just that way anyway.

JERRY KELLY: Friends I grew up with. There are two in the neighborhood. When I say neighborhood, that's living less than half a mile away from me. And we had neighborhood hockey games every single, I mean, before school sometimes, and after school always. And that would usually last till dinner time it. It would be below zero in Madison, Wisconsin, we'd still be sweating playing hockey. We got one guy Kevin Dean from the New Jersey Devils and Richter from New York Rangers, literally neighbors of mine. And a lot of players I played with and against, I played a little in summer school with some of the guys at the University of Wisconsin. Those two guys would say, "Come on, let's play." And I'd get a taste of it with the real big boys. Chelios and me and those guys. It showed me I picked the correct profession. I was way too small and not nearly as good as they were. I was a good City hockey player. But going past that level, I wasn't big enough and strong enough.

JERRY KELLY: Yeah, I'm going for Buffalo, I'm going out on a limb and calling who I'm after. I told everybody who asked me on the Tour here. They asked me who I think would win, and I was like: Dominik Hasek was the type of goalie who would take that team all the way. Once I saw Buffalo and Dallas; a great team.

JERRY KELLY: I just got a lesson from my brother-in-law Jim Schuman down in Florida. And we never really related it to the slap-shot, but it's shorter. I'm taking it back shorter than I ever had. And for me, hitting it solid, much more solid now. Getting it in the fairways is key. You could say it's a slap-shot now. Before, I was taking it back way too far. And so it's closer to Allen Doyle's swing, but I don't want to brag about it.

JERRY KELLY: Yeah, I even played without masks most of the time when I was growing up. They weren't invented yet. But yeah, I -- I didn't dive in front of many pucks. The one I did went through my ribs and into my lung, but I kind of stopped doing it after that point. That's when I knew hockey was getting a little rough for me.

JERRY KELLY: There's good and bad about being aggressive and using that aggression. You can make a bogey and use that aggression to make a birdie. But you can also make a bogey, and when somebody hits you in hockey, you take their number and want go after them. You're the person who you're going after; so you're really hard on yourself. And I've been very hard on myself in the past. That's my main weakness, you know, is just getting down on me. And I think that's the person that I, you know, I've got my own number. I chase myself around every once in a while. That's -- it's good and bad for hockey. It depends on how you react to the bad ones.

JERRY KELLY: Nothing. The good thing is I'm not swinging from my heels. I'm just getting the ball on the fairway; getting the balls on the correct part of the green, got putts for birdie very often. And that's all you want to do when you're in contention too. So it's not like I'm changing anything. Where that's the problem I've always had in the past, I was always swinging hard and overswing. So when I get into contention and maybe I want to get this one in the fairway or get this one on the green. That's out of my, out of my rhythm. And now, it's kind of into my rhythm to do what I'm supposed to do on the stretch. Hopefully that will help me for the weekend. It's really literally the first time I've cared about the fairway than the distance. Actually, I told myself to worry about the fairway more, but this was the first time. I'm trying to get the ball on the fairway hitting it well. I'll give myself chances; I'll make birdies out there.

JERRY KELLY: Well, I think when the scholarships started rolling in, you see the quality hockey schools are saying: Yeah, you can come walk on. And the good golf schools are saying: Hey, we are -- we'll pay all your expenses. That's when you know. I couldn't get over 150 pounds when I was in high school. I mean, obviously, that was right at the time when size was changing from 5' 10", 180 to 6', 220. I mean these guys just got huge -- and skateable being that big. I mean, usually the goons were guys who would just stand right there and you try not to run into them as you skate around them. Most guys can skate and stick handle. The big guys are impressive now.

JERRY KELLY: Not a lot. Most of the tournaments as a junior would be in the wintertime except for the real majors of the U.S. Majors and U.S. Amateurs. I was come out of the north and playing poorly just because I hadn't played. And that didn't make me look too good when I was going into college either. But, we played enough, I'd have to say, you know, and hockey was a great break. Winter was a great break. I think if I had grown up down south with my kind of -- I don't know. The way I go about a sport, I don't think -- I think I would have burnt out if I had to play all year round every year, I don't think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much, looked forward to it as much after a good, long winter.

JERRY KELLY: My kids will play hockey. She loves the sport too. Her favorites sport is boxing. Come on, my kids aren't going to be boxers. They'll take boxing for hockey, but that's about it.