Kelly checks Singh into the boards
CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Jerry Kelly, the former all-city hockey star in Madison, Wis., once said his background on the ice hurt him in golf. Aggression doesn't wear well inside the ropes. There's no checking available to temper it.
The only time aggression works well is in match play, when the opponent is not Old Man Par, as Bobby Jones referred to it, but another golfer. Kelly mucked it up in the corners all day Friday, first sending top-seeded Vijay Singh out of the Accenture Match Play Championship, 4 and 2, then taking out Chad Campbell, 1 up. Singh wasn't the only top seed to clean out his locker after the morning round.
Mike Weir, a winner last week at the Nissan Open, fell 3 and 2 to Stephen Leaney of Australia. This was the kind of match Weir had: Two down on the 14th hole, Weir was studying a birdie putt to cut that deficit in half when Leaney holed out from the front right bunker. Weir missed the putt.
Kelly didn't need any such heroics against Singh. Kelly said he never missed a fairway in the match. He won three of the first five holes, then made three birdies on the back side. At the par-3 16th, he never got a chance to sink a 10-foot putt for a fourth bird. Singh, dormie, hit his tee ball in the right bunker, blasted out, and conceded the match.
"I really wanted to beat the number two player in the world, who's playing like number one," Kelly said, referring to Singh. Kelly studied the draw sheet before the tournament and mentally circled Singh's name. "I hang out with Vijay a lot. I really like the guy. Sometimes, the battles between friends are the toughest."
Singh waved off reporters after the match. Kelly beamed after the win, proclaiming he swung as well as he has swung all year, and that he felt healthier than he has felt in ages. The 37-year-old won more than $2 million last year, and had a 2-2 record in the Presidents Cup. But he frontloaded his success in 2003. After five top-10 finishes in his first eight events, Kelly had only four more in his remaining 22 starts. The second half of his year is best remembered for the opening-round 86 in the British Open, when he took an 11 on the par-4 opening hole.
Turns out that he was playing hurt. A pinched nerve in his right hip kept him from making a proper turn in his backswing.
"My leg was numb all year. I couldn't feel a thing. I couldn't work out. I had no strength to load up," said Kelly, taking a swing and stopping at the top. "I had a terrible backswing all year."
Once a back x-ray confirmed his problems were confined to his hip, Kelly embarked on a new physical regimen, which he developed in concert with Singh's trainer, Joey Diovisalvi.
"Joey gave me a lot of good core exercises," Kelly said. "I took up martial arts with my 5-year-old son (Cooper). We're doing hwa rang do. My instructor is 6-feet-2. When I did a sidekick to his head level, that let me know my hip was good."
Kelly made it to the quarterfinals for the second straight year. Last season, he defeated Weir and Phil Mickelson before losing to eventual runner-up David Toms. He also won a singles match over Tim Clark in the U.S. comeback to a tie at the Presidents Cup. He loves the format. After defeating Sergio Garcia 1-up in the opening round, Kelly said, "It's kill or be killed every single day. What I was thinking out there is you can get the pressure of winning a tournament every day and you don't get that in a normal tournament."
Someone asked him if he would like to check his opponent into the trees. "If it was legal," Kelly said, "I'd be doing it."
Ivan Maisel is a senior writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.
