Pro golfers passionate about football, too
| • | Kelly makes breakthrough in Sony Open and PGA |
| • | Sony renewed through 2006 |
| • | Cell phone call makes stroke of a difference |
| • | Ferd Lewis: Kelly achieves 'classic finish' |
By Bill Kwon
Special to The Advertiser
Jerry Kelly probably would have done a Lambeau Leap if Waialae were a tundra.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
First, he set the alarm to watch his beloved Green Bay Packers beat the San Francisco 49ers in an NFL playoff game. Then he went out to win the Sony Open in Hawaii for his first PGA Tour victory in 200 starts.
Jerry Kelly watched the Packers beat the 49ers.
It doesn't get any better than that, according to Kelly.
"I love watching (Brett) Favre dancing around. He gives you a good attitude," said Kelly, a Wisconsin native who moved back to his hometown of Madison last year.
Kelly raised his hands almost similar to a touchdown signal when he tapped in a birdie putt on the 72nd hole to finish with a 266 total and one-stroke victory over John Cook. Besides his first victory, Kelly collected the biggest paycheck of his career — $720,000.
The PGA Tour might have started its 2002 season in Hawai'i with back-to-back tournaments — the Mercedes Championships and the Sony Open — but it's still football season for even the touring professionals.
They take their football seriously.
On Saturday when he took a two-stroke lead going into yesterday's final round at the Waialae Country Club, Kelly didn't only talk about the prospects of winning for the first time on the PGA Tour.
Kelly was also elated that he could watch the Packers game in its entirety and still make it to the golf course in time for his one o'clock tee time.
The telecast of the later NFL game really didn't conflict with golf because Kelly and the others on the leaderboard were just beginning by the time Baltimore was putting the finishing touches on Miami.
It was unlike the day before when the third round and Saturday's wild-card games — also on prime time back East — were competing for television viewers.
When David Toms was being interviewed after his round Saturday, Jim Furyk knocked on the glass door and yelled out to the reigning PGA champion, "There's football on, let's go."
Even David Duval was caught up in football as much as golf at the Mercedes Championships at Kapalua's Plantation Course.
Asked into the media center after shooting an opening-round 67, Duval was surprised that college football's national champion game between Miami and Nebraska in the Rose Bowl wasn't on TV instead of the golf tournament.
"I'm flustered. You all have to turn the TV on the football game," Duval said.
Asked if he was a golf fan, Duval replied: "Not when there's a national championship game on. Yeah, that's the one day I will preempt golf for a football game."
Realizing his view might not be politically correct with the PGA officials, Duval added, "How's about at least a split screen?"
David Toms, who lost in a playoff to Sergio Garcia at the Mercedes, is a huge Louisiana State University football fan. He made it a point of rushing home after the PGA Grand Slam at the Po'ipu Bay Resort last November in order to see his Tigers beat Auburn and then Tennessee to win the Southeastern Conference title.
Unfortunately, his New Orleans Saints were aint's this season.
Furyk, who finished tied for seventh yesterday and fourth last week on Maui, is such a serious Steelers fan that he promises to skip the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am if Pittsburgh makes it to the Super Bowl, which is the same weekend.
"If they're in the Super Bowl, I'm going," Furyk said.
