THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 14, 2003

Jerry Kelly

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Jerry Kelly into the interview room, 12-under par 132, and a 12-under par 62.

Were you thinking 59 out there?

JERRY KELLY: I was thinking 59 after my eighth hole. You know, it didn't stop me. So I went ahead and kept thinking it the whole way around, counting it down a little bit. I knew I had three with four holes to go that I needed to get, and, you know, it just didn't happen. I hit some decent shots, but I got some bounces that went in the rough and flyer lie and then the edge of a bunker on the last hole, so it just kind of stalled on me.

JOHN BUSH: Obviously, shooting 62, all aspects of your game were top-notch today, but is there anything in particular that stands out?

JERRY KELLY: You know, 1-putting on the first ten holes, it tends to get you on a roll. I knew I was making putts. I wasn't even putting it as close as I normally do. I could still get better with my swing this week, which is a plus, but the putter was hot, no question.

Q. Were you even aware you had one-putted the first ten?

JERRY KELLY: I think it was after. It was just when I made the turn. I started actually going back saying, have I 2-putted. I couldn't figure out where my first 2-putt was, so I knew I had it going. I'm pretty sure I one putted 10.

Q. Are you saying if you were a baseball pitcher you would not care if a teammate told you you had a no-hitter in the sixth; that wouldn't bother you?

JERRY KELLY: No, because I like the adrenaline. It's not to where I was kind of mellow and just going about my business and all of a sudden I'm 8-under and all of a sudden the adrenaline kicks in and you start thinking 59. I kind of like to start out with adrenaline, and then when I get in that position, adrenaline doesn't bother me, it just feeds me even more. So that is something I changed last year, the way I approach it and it's really helped me a lot.

Q. Can you remember a day before when you were playing like this, scoring-wise?

JERRY KELLY: It's been a while. I mean, I thought it was like that yesterday. I got to 6-under par through 14 or so. I happened to make a triple and bogeyed the 17th hole, also.

This was that much better. I just wasn't missing many shots. I wasn't hitting extremely close but I wasn't missing shots. So it was within 15, 20 feet and I was just pouring everything in.

Q. 70 after the first round, were you wondering --

JERRY KELLY: Ask her (pointing to his wife) how I felt last night. I rode home the entire ride home with my father and we did not say one word. I was frightening him, I think, for the first time. I was very unhappy that I -- I feel like I've been playing better. I just saw my coach and started hitting it good and I was putting good, really, for the first time this year, and got it to 6-under and I'm just licking my chops going, okay, let's go.

I had a good shot turn into a triple; it really killed me. And then I've got the par 5 that I can reach on the next hole with an iron and I double-crossed it left, knocked it in the hazard. I ended up bogeying that one and it burned me hard to give back four shots so quick.

I finally started doing what I wanted to do with my golf game this year, so, I mean, there's no question that Carol said to me last night, "You know, you got it to 6-under today, you can take it lower tomorrow." So that's kind of what I kind of turned my sights on the next day instead of wallowing in my pity.

Q. What did you do to triple 16 yesterday?

JERRY KELLY: The win was in the back and I flew the entire green and kicked it on the downslope and put it in the hazard, but it was playable, kind of up against one of those machines, whatever they are.

I had some cables in my way, couldn't take a drop but the lie was good enough to go ahead and hit it and I thinned it -- I flew the green, went into the hazard in front of the green. Now I've got a tougher shot, but it's playable. And I fat it, and it rolls right up underneath one of those heather lines. I took two steps forward, turned to my caddie and I said, "Hey, I've got to hit this one, too, I've already hit two of them." I actually hit it up there by the green and chili-dipped it and made a good one for a triple-check.

Q. Does it affect you when the scores are so low?

JERRY KELLY: Yeah, you just have to think birdie on just about every hole. There's a few sucker pins you can't go after but you've just got to be aggressive. You can't play par golf. There's not many tournaments out here anymore where you can, but there are some. This isn't one of them.

Q. This is a perfect tournament for you, because you're an aggressive player, aggressive personalty?

JERRY KELLY: No question. Sometimes it helps me the aggressiveness, push the driver into positions where I shouldn't and get into some rough, things like that. So this is a good kind of tournament where I can hit the driver, so I'm just playing it where everybody else. I just got a great 1-iron in this week and killing that. That's playing pretty well for me off the tee.

Q. How often did you hit the driver today?

JERRY KELLY: I don't know, maybe five, six, something around that number. Give me 15 minutes and I could probably go back.

Q. You used to live here for a long time, I know you moved back up north, but do you feel like this is still home ?

JERRY KELLY: Well, yeah, it's been a part of me for so long. I mean, the heat is hard for me to take but it's actually pretty cool this week. I know what it's like down here and what it was like down here last week. That's the only thing that bothers me about the area is the heat -- and all of restaurants, I'm staying at my parents house, practicing at Jupiter Hills again, before I played, that always gets me in a good frame, I love that place. I've practiced well there for so long that that tends to get me into a pretty good rhythm.

JOHN BUSH: You're back in the hunt. Good luck this weekend.

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