Kelly breaks Long Victory Drought in New Orleans

Mike Dudurich

Posted 2009-04-26

See what happens when the PGA Tour’s upper crust takes the week off? Unpredictability, chaos, a winner who would have had a very slim chance of being on anyone’s fantasy golf league’s team for this week.

Welcome to the 2009 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the champion of which is Jerry Kelly. Don’t recognize the name? He’s a nice man, a 40-ish fellow (42 actually). Not one of the long bombers on Tour, but certainly one who knows how to get the ball around a golf course.

Kelly’s Sunday 71 was good enough for a one-shot victory over Rory Sabbatini, Charlie Wi and Charles Howell III. It was Kelly’s first victory since the 2002 Western Open , a span that covered 200 events in Kelly’s career. He hasn’t been totally off the map since then, finishing second four times.

But a litany of injuries and a failure to keep his game at a high level has kept the limelight over that time.

When he was able to overcome some early nerves and other contenders fired and fell back late in the round, Kelly had won an event for the first time after holding the lead through 54 holes.

“My caddie came up to me and the first thing he said was, well, you've got to stop saying the last time you won was '02. Long ago. Because it was in '02, and now you can say, '09 divine. So I'll go with his thoughts on that one.“

Kelly missed a short birdie putt on the first hole and eventually fell three shots out of the lead before righting the ship with birdies on 11 and 14, which eventually provided him the one-shot pad he needed to win.

“This has been a long time coming. It has a lot to do with family and my brother-in-law, Jim Schuman, who helped my swing so much for me to go forward now,” Kelly said. “Steve Stricker this week took time, again, to help me so much with my putting. He's been such a great friend to me. I hope he can say I've been a great friend to him through the years as well.

“My family has done so much for me. My wife, right now, is packing you up our house as we're moving, building a new house. This ($1.1 million winner’s check) will go a long ways to help with that, I'll tell you that, too. So I'm just happy I get to come back here to New Orleans twice next year, media day and tournament.”

The trio behind him all had chances, but none could close the deal. Howell III took advantage of those Kelly bogeys and when he made a birdie (one of his six on the day) at 11, he had a two-shot lead.

But he bogeyed 15 and 17 for a 68 to end his hopes.

“Yeah, it's frustrating,” Howell III said. “I got up to 15-under, and you know, had every chance to do it, and I just didn't finish it off. But, yeah, I got close.”

Wi made a birdie on 14, but couldn’t make any more on the way in. Sabbatini birdied the 18th, but that couldn’t offset the bad bogey he made on the 17th and he finished in the tie.

Steve Marino, another of the PGA Tour’s “lunch pail” guys, found himself in the final group with with Kelly and hung with him all day. He chipped in for an eagle on the short 15th and came to 18 a shot back.

Being a bomber, Marino had a chance at the shortish par 5, but he hit his tee shot the one place he couldn’t afford to if he hoped for an eagle: a fairway bunker on the left. He had no play but to wedge the shot to the fairway and then couldn’t hold the green.

A possible eagle or birdie became a bogey and he finished tied for fifth with local favorite David Toms, who couldn’t put together a final-round charge.

“I hit a pretty good drive,” Marino said. “And found a tight bunker. I didn't have much of a stance. I didn't want to just explode it out of there, because I wanted to get somewhat close to the green and have a shot. And I tried to go for it, and it hit the lip and then it went like nowhere.

“I thought I hit a great third shot in there, and it just came off like half a club short in that bunker, and that was it.”

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About Mike...
As a sports writer for over 35 years, Mike Dudurich has seen a lot of great things, covered spectacular events, but his passion is, and has been golf. He recently ended a 29-year career at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and will now be a frequent contributor on GolfGearReview.com. Mike hosts a weekly golf radio show on 1250 ESPN in Pittsburgh from the beginning of April through the end of August. The show airs Saturdays from 8-9 a.m. and can be heard online at http://stations.espn.go.com/stations/espnradio1250/show?showId=insidepghgolf - Listen to Mike Here!.

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