STEVENS POINT, Wisconsin – It had been 39 years since Jerry Kelly walked the pristine, manicured fairways and greens at SentryWorld.
Needless to say, his memory of the golf course was a bit foggy.
“It’s pretty much all been redone. I kind of remembered one of the par fives. The Flower Hole was No. 7 back then, I think,” Kelly said.
The Madison golfer was on the grounds last Thursday for his first look at the venue for this week’s U.S. Senior Open Championship, essentially cramming for a major test that could have many answers to the same question.
“I pretty much played at least 27, maybe 36 holes today,” he said during a phone interview shortly after Thursday’s lengthy practice session. “Hit three drivers off a bunch of tees. Hit utility, 3-wood, driver on a few other ones just because of bunkering and trying to hit it short. See if you want to squeeze something up, see if you want to get up close to it or you really want to lay back. A million putts from the centers of the greens out to all the corners – uphills, downhills, sidehills. Short-side bunker shots.”
And what did Kelly learn about the course he last played during the 1984 WIAA state tournament, when he shot 77-82 and finished in 10th place seven shots behind another state golfing legend – Steve Stricker?
“I think it’s about as classic of a Wisconsin parkland, wooded golf course as you’re going to find,” Kelly said. “What they’ve done with this golf course … there’s nothing tricked up about this golf course. The only tricked-up situation you could get into is set-up, and that’s entirely on the USGA side. This golf course is awesome.”
Here’s what Kelly had to say about the course, the state of his game heading into the major championship and his prediction for the winning score:
On the thick rough at SentryWorld
“It’s very uniform and it’s very thick. So even if they top it, those morning rounds with the wet grass it is going to be impossible really. A few guys with some good lies may be able to advance it 150, 170 but nobody’s going to chance it when they’re going over some of the water and into greens like that. There’s going to be a lot of punching it out of the rough and hitting wedge shots in. It is that thick and that deep. It’s Wisconsin. We know how to grow rough here.
“A lot of the guys were sending me pictures. It was up to their shins in some spots. And I’m like, ‘Guys, understand you have an illusion of getting a tournament course ready.’ You have to grow it out so it can be uniform once you do cut it. They’ve done a fantastic job. But holy crap, it is still really thick and really deep. … It’s gnarly right now. You’ve got so many strands that you have to go through that it’s definitely stopping the club here. It’s crazy stuff.”
On staying patient in a major
“It’s really going to be a cool championship and it’s going to be a U.S. Open style test. I’m going to have to have my patience hat on. I don’t always have that on. I lose patience hats all the time. I leave them in hotels. I leave them in my car. They’re all over the place. … But I have got absolutely nothing sideways about this golf course. I was talking to it all day because I was by myself. I had no one else to talk to but the golf course. I was like, ‘You are awesome.’ It’s fun to play.”
On the keys to winning
“No. 1, you have to get the ball in the fairway. I mean, that’s A-No. 1. You can’t play out of this rough to these greens. It’s absolutely not possible. You can’t even go at a bunch of these greens if you happen to put it in the rough with some of the water and some of the creeks and things like that. No. 2, if you do get the ball in the fairway there’s a few greens that slope away and you really have to pay attention to what you’re hitting into them and you may not be able to go fly something back to a pin. And it may come up short. And it may be like, ‘Oh, what’s he doing. It’s a terrible shot.’ But if I land it 5 feet further, it bounces forward and goes in the water. I did that on 12 today. Ball-striking is going to be key, but again fairway is going to be most key because these greens are very difficult.”
On finishing 11th at the American Family Insurance Championship at University Ridge two weeks ago after a first-round 72
“I did this to myself at University Ridge. I was like, ‘Man, this is the hardest this place has ever played.’ I’m going, ‘You shoot 2, 3 under you’re golfing your ball here.’ Next thing you know there’s a 10-under the first day (by Justin Leonard). I played the front side and there’s no scoreboards on the front side, so I didn’t realize the guys were going low until I made the turn. I think I made the turn at even or 1-over, something like that, and I’m like ‘I’m in the game. Just get some birdies.’ I talked myself out of shooting low because I thought it was going to be a grind. These guys just attacked like they always do and blew by me so far on the first day and now I’m playing catch up and it just wasn’t a great situation. That’s one of the few times where I let myself think about a score. ‘Oh, it’s not going to be as low so I can just kind of make sure that I do the right stuff and do all this stuff,’ where normally I’m attacking the golf course.”
On the winning score this week
“You’re going to have to shoot low to win. I think there’s no question about that. Do I see a 20-under? I don’t. There’s going to be too many bogeys. There’s enough trouble around this golf course. There’s really no trouble around (University) Ridge. This there’s actually trouble and when you get in the rough, it’s a major penalty where it wasn’t there. I never put a number on things because of Mother Nature. If the wind blows, my goodness hitting the fairways is going to be tough. If the wind blows, distance control into those sections of greens is going to be tough. There’s an awful lot of slope that can bring balls back into water in a lot of different places. Whether it firms up or softens, there’s difficulty in both of them. If it blows and it’s cold, I’d say good luck at this place because it’s long. I am not a long hitter and I hit a lot of long clubs today. With that said, it’s the U.S. Open. We know what we’re in for when we sign up to these tournaments. That’s exactly what we want because it should separate the field quite a bit. It’s going to be an incredible finish.”
