KA’UPULEHU, Hawaii >> Jerry Kelly stood on the 18th green seconds before taking part in all the pomp and circumstance of the trophy presentation. His caddie asked him if he was thirsty and Kelly said, “I’m dying.”
He handed Kelly a bottle of Evian and he knocked it back like a college student drinking a beer at a fraternity party, then turned and tossed the empty to an unsuspecting reporter who snagged it out of the air like it was an option play in a football game.
“Nice catch,” Kelly said, then did a 20-minute show for the 400 fans packed around the 18th green — one of appreciation and aloha for the 50th state. It was a genuine speech for a man who made his first showing here at the 1996 United Airlines Hawaiian Open. He has appeared in every Sony Open in Hawaii since 1999, including his victory at Waialae in 2002.
Sixteen years later he was hoisting the Mitsubishi Electric Championship trophy with a broad Wisconsin smile spreading across his face, a little surprised he wasn’t involved in a playoff with runner-up Colin Montgomerie.
“After I made that birdie I figured we would be chasing the dark,” Kelly said. “I was surprised Colin missed that par putt.”
It was a dramatic Saturday of back and forth between these two players, with each taking turns leading the other by one shot. Tied at the 16th, Kelly knocked his drive into the lava guarding the right side of the fairway, hit a provisional down the middle, then went and looked for his golf ball. He found it, took a drop, hit his third shot to within 20 feet and missed that par putt for his only bogey of the day.
“It was shocking,” Kelly said of that wayward drive. “I stayed really solid within myself all week and I tried to hit the crap out of that one and it cost me right away. I knew it was an anomaly, so I could still make great swings coming down the stretch. I knew exactly what I did wrong. I took a big, old backswing and I couldn’t come back from it, showed me a lot.”
With Kelly down one with two to play, both parred the 17th, with Montgomerie just missing a birdie putt. He turned toward the crowd and grimaced as he threatened to snap the putter in two. He must have had a feeling bad things were coming because he hit his drive into the bunker along the left side of the 18th fairway, knocked that shot over the green into a fluffy lie, then chipped out to about 10 feet for par.
Meanwhile, Kelly hit a beautiful drive and approach to within 17 feet. Minutes later with the sun dropping close to the horizon over his right shoulder he rolled that birdie putt straight and true into the bottom of the cup to catch Montgomerie at 18 under for the round.
That 10-footer for Montgomerie — who paced back and forth waiting for Kelly to putt, wiping his hands repeatedly on the back of his pants — suddenly looked like a hundred for the burly Scot. He knew he had missed it the instant he hit it, giving Kelly a huge win before an appreciative crowd.
Montgomerie’s wife would later say it was going to be a long flight to Dubai. All her husband would say is, “I’m not saying anything to the media.”
Fortunately for local golf fans, Kelly had plenty to say about a lot of things, including his love for the state and the Hawaii spirits he believes helped him overcome that errant drive at the 16th to secure his third PGA Tour Champions title.
Kelly closed with a 6-under 66 for a 54-hole score of 198, a one-stroke cushion over Montgomerie, who managed a 3-under 69. Montgomerie had three birdies on the front and three on the back, but the bogey at the last and the double bogey at the par-3 fifth did him in.
Kelly countered with three birdies and an eagle at the four par-5s, as well as two birdies at the par-4 14th and 18th to offset the one square at the 16th. He took a one-shot lead at the 13th with a 27-foot birdie putt, then did a little Tin Man dance for Golf Channel commentator Billy Ray Brown after birdieing the 14th to take a one-shot lead.
Montgomerie drew even with a birdie at the 15th, but that would be the last one the 54-year-old would make. He left the scorer’s tent like a big offensive tackle looking for someone to block downfield. No comment was a given.
That’s OK, Kelly closed with a nice statement: “It’s just so cool. It’s amazing how many times that kind of stuff happens. I can’t explain it. But you know, King Kamehameha may have had something to do with that one because I always say a lot, I talk to the spirit of the islands all the time and it means a lot to me to win here again. They did it for me in 2002 and they’ve been with me ever since. It’s just fantastic. I love it.”
