BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 16, 2002

Jerry Kelly

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: I'd like to welcome Jerry Kelly, 2001 Sony Open in Hawaii Champion. He got his first victory and 200th career start. We're going to start out with birdies and bogeys.

JERRY KELLY: I started on 10, so I'm going to start on 10. I knocked it on in two on 11, just off the front edge. Chipped it up to about six feet and made birdie there.

Then down to the next par-5, 569. That was a layup hole. I didn't drive it very well and left myself, my number at about 110, and hit a pitching wedge just behind the hole. I made a good downhill slider right there of about fifteen feet. Best putt I've hit in a while.

And then the 18th hole -- no, the next hole was a 9-iron to about five feet.

The 18th hole was driver, 4-wood to about 15 feet and left it short.

First hole was a good driver, 7-iron cut shot in there about eight feet behind the hole, just on the fringe.

Next par-5, knocked it on and 2-putted from about 30 feet.

And then a 3-iron on 5 with a cut shot to about eight feet.

Driver, driver on the next hole and had about 20 feet, 2-putt, leaving myself a nice five feet short. So that was a good second putt.

And then 7 seems to play the hardest for me every year. And I pulled it left of the green, like I have so many times, and just didn't get it up-and-down. I left it probably four or five feet and just burned the edge and then knocked it four or five feet on the next hole and burned the edge again.

9, I really wanted to get one there, hit driver, 7-iron and drew it in to about 12 feet and made a good, dead straight putt right there.

Q. What kind of pressure is there to shoot low every day?

JERRY KELLY: You've got a benchmark now of, what, 36 under? So you've got to do the math. It equals a pretty low score every single day. You just try and get as many as you can. You don't -- you can't add it up. I can't even add it up right now. I just have to go make as many birdies as I can tomorrow. I've got the Wells first off, it may be cold and not go as far, but I'll have fresh greens, and that will be great out there.

Then I go Tamarisk and Bermuda Dunes and back here. It's an absolute birdie-fest, you cannot letup. You could be 30-under, and lose by a lot. So you do the best you can to make every putt.

Q. Do you think that you're the hottest player on the Tour right now?

JERRY KELLY: Oh, you know, I'm playing pretty well. I'm playing with some confidence. I just felt like my swing was in front of me again today, and my misses would go straight again. So I could go at the pin or just beside the pin and really feel confident that all I was trying to do was get the correct distance.

And that's been a big key for me is not worrying about the left and right, because my swing has been on enough, and just getting that right distance. And I've been coming up with a good distance, too, a lot. And my putter feels good right now, too.

But I'm driving the fairway, that's the initial thing. We're calling my driver the "Fairway Finder," so that's a good thing.

Q. What was the celebration like Sunday night?

JERRY KELLY: The celebration was having one beer and your three-year-old keeping you awake on a red-eye flight all night long. So we have yet to celebrate. And my wife said, "Let's just stay." And looking back and seeing what it did to me not sleeping, as bad as I felt the last two days, I should have stayed, because I didn't play -- I tried to come out and play after not sleeping on the red-eye and it didn't work.

I played three holes and went back home and tried to go to sleep. And it kind of ravaged me a little bit, but I was looking to this week .I didn't want to celebrate and lose a day of practice. When it started Wednesday, I needed to see four courses. I wasn't going to give that up for a celebration.

I'm going home next with week and that's really where I'm going to celebrate with all my friends and family. And it was really a preparation thing that I didn't celebrate. And really it probably turned out, my body probably would have handled it better had I celebrated and then just flown during the daytime. I would have adjusted much easier.

But I'm not going to complain about my start. So I guess it worked out. I guess thinking of it that way probably helped me, just turned my focus right to this tournament.

Q. Knowing you have to go low every day, does it matter to you what your rotation is or where you go the next round? You don't necessarily think -- you have to shoot 64 every day, anyway, right?

JERRY KELLY: Yeah, the wind blew a little bit, but it can blow and swirl pretty hard out here. So I'm kind of glad to get finished with this course right now without there having been too much wind and then go to the other ones where they're a little bit more wide open. They may be smaller courses, but you don't have the X with the skull bones in the yardage book where you can't go. You can put yourself in tough spots, but there's not as many penalty shots on the other courses. But Tamarisk can get you, though, but they're all fun to play.

They're right out in front of you, and if you just think fairway first, then you can do whatever you want to these courses -- but fairway first, and that's where it starts.

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