Jerry Kelly calls Players Championship exemption for Senior Player winner 'one of the great things we have'
Jerry Kelly had some strong motivation down the stretch on Sunday during the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship: getting back to the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Kelly birdied the 16th and 17th holes at the Firestone Country Club in Akron to beat Steve Stricker by two shots and win the PGA Tour Champions major for the second time in three years. He finished 11-under 269.
A monster putt, a 'perfect call:' 20 years later, Tiger Woods, Gary Koch linked by history
Kelly earned a spot in the 2023 Players with the victory and will make his 25th career start at the Stadium Course, counting the 2020 tournament that was canceled after the first round because of the pandemic.
He tied for 19th as recently as 2016. Kelly had a memorable run in 2001 until he was overtaken by Tiger Woods.
“The first major is awesome, but the second one, even more validation,” Kelly said after the victory. “I’m really excited to go back to Sawgrass next March. That was a big piece of the desire in winning this tournament. That’s one of those great things that we have with our majors that we can get to go play at the high point of golf. I’m really excited about that.”
Kelly also won with his wife Carol in attendance. She underwent surgery last year to remove a cancerous mass from her right kidney.
“Just the fact that she’s here this week,” Kelly said. “She’s like, 'You know what, I want to be there for you, I love that golf course, it’s really cool just to be out there.’”
Kelly also won at Firestone in August 2020 and finished second last year. He now has 10 PGA Tour Champions titles and his second of the season.
Playing for the fun of it
PGA Tour members play golf for a living but that doesn’t mean there are times when they want to play for fun – even during the week of a tournament.
Fred Funk once rushed from a post-round interview after the 2006 PGA Championship at Medinah to drive to the historic Chicago Golf Club to get in 18 holes, after opening the PGA with a 69.
He has a kindred spirit in Max Homa.
Homa, a four-time Tour winner, shot 71 in the second round of the Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club last Friday to make the cut by one shot, then zipped up the coast to play North Berwick, a 190-year old club at the Firth of Forth.
Homa had a chance to play Muirfield earlier in the week with Joe Greiner, his caddie, but canceled because Greiner’s clubs had gotten lost by the airline.
He wasn’t going to miss North Berwick.
“I saw the video years ago. It was of North Berwick and I was like, ‘This is the coolest golf course in the world.’ And all of a sudden it became my favorite I had never played,” Homa said after his 66 in the third round of the Scottish Open. “That’s what made [playing North Berwick] a must, because I’m not having a tee time at North Berwick and Muirfield and saying ‘no’ to both. I got North Berwick out of the way, and hopefully play Muirfield the next time we come by.”
Word spread at North Berwick that a four-time Tour winner was playing a recreational round and members followed his group.
“The people around here I find tremendously nice, and kept doubling back and taking pictures,” he said. “You could tell the golf community around here is tight. It was a cool day. It was definitely one of the best golf experiences I’ve ever had.”
Dynamic duo
If Mel Reid and Leona Maguire play anything close to their form at last year's Solheim Cup, they should be a factor this week in the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in Midland, Mich., the LPGA team event that begins on Wednesday.
Reid, a native of England who lives in Atlantic Beach, and Maguire, from Ireland, went 2-0-1 as partners in the Solheim Cup at Inverness, helping Europe beat the United States 15-13.
Their formula: keep it simple, even down to the team name, which Reid said would probably be "just Best Friends ... because obviously, that's clearly what we are. We did so well at Solheim and she's somebody I really enjoy playing with."
Maguire said they won't over-think the strategy any more than that.
"Not going to over-complicate it," she said. "We didn't at Solheim, so there's really no reason to do it this week, either."
Lewis makes first 2022 start
Jacksonville native Amelia Lewis will make her first start on the LPGA Tour in nearly a year when she plays in the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational with Paula Reto of South Africa.
Lewis last played in late July of 2021 at the ISPS Handa World Invitational, her 22nd consecutive start in which she either missed the cut or withdrew. Lewis last played on the weekend at the 2018 Kingsmill Championship, where she tied for 36th.
PGA TOUR
Event: Open Championship, Thursday-Sunday, St. Andrews, Scotland.
At stake: $14 million purse ($2.5 million and 600 FedEx Cup points to the winner).
Defending champion: Collin Morikawa.
TV: Peacock (Thursday-Friday, 1:30 a.m.-4 a.m.; 3-4 p.m.); USA (Thursday-Friday, 4 a.m.-3 p.m.; Saturday, 5-7 a.m.; Sunday, 4-7 a.m.); NBC (Saturday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m.; Sunday, 7 a.m.-2 p.m.).
Area players entered: David Duval, Harris English, Brian Harman, Billy Horschel, Zach Johnson, Keith Mitchell, Trey Mullinax, J.T. Poston, Cameron Smith.
Notable: Morikawa won his second major championship, beating Jordan Spieth by two shots at Royal St. George. … Tiger Woods, who has won twice on the Old Course, is playing his third tournament this year. He made the cut at the Masters and the PGA. … This is the 150th anniversary of the Open and the 30th to be played at St. Andrews. … Eighteen of the past 20 British Open champions are in the field.
Event: Barracuda Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Tahoe Mountain Club, Truckee, Calif.
At stake: $3.7 million purse ($666,000 and 350 FedEx Cup points to the winner.
Defending champion: Erik van Rooyen.
TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Sunday, 6-9 p.m.).
Area players entered: Jonas Blixt, Jonathan Byrd, Matt Every, David Lingmerth, Doc Redman, Greyson Sigg, Julian Suri.
Notable: The tournament is using a modified Stableford scoring system. Van Rooyen scored 50 points to beat Andrew Putnam by five.
LPGA TOUR
Event: Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, Wednesday-Saturday, Midland (Mich.) Country Club.
At stake: $2.5 million purse ($375,000 per team).
Defending champions: Ariya-Moriya Jutanugarn.
TV: Golf Channel (Wednesday, 3-6 p.m.; Thursday-Friday, 1-4 p.m.); CBS (Saturday, 4-6 p.m.).
Area players entered: Amelia Lewis (playing with Paula Reto); Mel Reid (playing with Leona Maguire).
Notable: The Jutanugarn sisters shot 27-under in the team format to win by three shots.
KORN FERRY TOUR
Event: Memorial Health Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Panther Creek Country Club, Springfield, Ill.
At stake: $750,000 purse ($135,000 to the winner).
Defending champion: Taylor Moore.
TV: None.
Area players entered: Chris Baker, Blayne Barber, Chandler Blanchet, A.J. Crouch, Phillip Knowles, Carl Yuan.
Notable: Moore fired a 60 in the third round and went on to beat Erik Barnes by three shots at 27-under.
Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Players Championship: Jerry Kelly earns return with Tour Champions win
