May 7 2010
For a guy who just shot 66, Jerry Kelly didn’t sound very happy after he walked off the 18th green.
“There’s no excuse for the greens,” said Kelly, who started the day outside the cut line and ended it, at least for now, in the top 20. “They’re soft. They’re spongy. They don’t roll true in the afternoon. They can’t keep them short enough.
“I know it was a tough winter, but I just don’t know what’s going on. I’d rather play on mud and dirt like we used to sometimes than play on a first cut. It’s like an old fringe. It’s slower than an old fringe, but when you get it downgrain it’s so fast because it’s so long it’s laying down.”
Kelly’s right in that it was a tough winter and a long one. Because of that, the rough hasn’t grown and the greens aren’t what they were in year’s past at least in terms of firmness and speed.
“I just remember what it was in the past,” Kelly continued. “This is what, the fourth year? There’s no excuse. It just used to be so much harder to get at tucked pins. It’s a whole lot easier right now.”
Case in point: On the 10th hole when the pin was on the right side of the green, Kelly said you’d have to hit it left of the flag and let the ball feed down. Now? “You can go right at it,” he said.
Aside from the conditions of the greens, which Kelly hopes are stressed by the weekend, he was pleased with a quick turnaround from his opening-round 73. Kelly had a visit with his coach Thursday night and they two were able to identify that Kelly was moving his right shoulder too much into the ball on his swing, which got him tilted and out of position.
Once that was fixed, Kelly was able to take advantage of good scoring conditions. Just like everyone else it seems. -- Brian Wacker