Ace propels Jerry Kelly to Senior Players Championship title

Jerry Kelly survived more than a two-hour weather delay and shot a final-round 1-under 69 to win his first major.

What began as a relatively wide-open race with a possible mad dash to the finish became a two-man pursuit that muted what could have been a drama-filled day on the South Course of Firestone Country Club.

Then, with one scene-stealing, dagger-like swing, Jerry Kelly stood alone.

Buoyed by a stunning hole-in-one on the 200-yard 12th hole, Kelly won the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship by two shots over Scott Parel.

Kelly survived more than a two-hour weather delay and shot a final-round 1-under 69 to win his first major with a 72-hole total of 3-under 277.

One by one the contenders – there were seven players within four shots of the lead at the day’s outset – shot themselves out of the picture until just Kelly and Parel were the last men standing.


Scores: Bridgestone Senior Players Championship


Parel, third on the Charles Schwab money list and the winner of the Chubb Classic earlier this season, shot a final-round 70 to finish at 279.

Kelly’s ace, which extended his lead from one to three shots, came one hole after his bogey enabled Parel to get to within one shot of the lead with seven holes to play. Then, Parel bogeyed the 13th hole to fall four shots behind. Even a birdie on the 17th was not enough.

Kelly, who held or shared the lead from Thursday’s opening round, was winless and had just one top-10 finish this season before prevailing Sunday to win the $450,000 check and a spot in the 2021 PGA Players Championship at Sawgrass. He last won more than one year ago in the American Family Insurance Championship on the senior circuit.

Colin Montgomerie and Miguel Angel Jimenez, one of the first-round leaders, tied for third at even-par 280.

Kelly, with six Champions Tour and three PGA Tour wins on his resume, began the day at 2-under and held a one-shot lead over Parel, Montgomerie and Woody Austin.

He quickly took charge with birdies on two of the first three holes to get to 4-under.

Parel did the same to remain on Kelly’s heels until a bogey on the 469-yard sixth hole dropped him to 2-under.

No one was able to mount a challenge.

Jimenez, who began the day three shots behind, suffered back-to-back bogeys. Montgomerie, with seven career Tour Champions wins, bogeyed two of his first six holes and Els, winner of the Hoag Classic in March, suffered three bogeys on the front.

Austin, who has five top-10 finishes in six events this season, fell back with a bogey on the 471-yard fourth, a double-bogey on the sixth and another bogey on the ninth.

Kelly got sloppy on the final hole and created a little drama with a double-bogey six but Parel was unable to take advantage and finished with a bogey.

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Jerry Kelly remains atop crowded leaderboard at Senior Players Championship

Jerry Kelly made bogeys on two of his final four holes but he still leads at Firestone Country Club in Akron.

The top of the leaderboard is crowded.

The middle portion of the leaderboard is crowded.

Things are crowded at Firestone. Except in the gallery, of course. Saturday is regarded as moving day and several players got out the two-wheelers and the vans to get themselves into contention in the Bridgestone Senior Championship at Firestone Country Club.

Woody Austin and Scott Parel made the biggest moves on moving day with rounds of 3-under 67 that kept them close to tournament leader Jerry Kelly, who remained in sole possession of the lead despite making bogeys on two of his final four holes to close with a second consecutive round of even-par and a 54-hole total of 2-under 208.

Austin, Parel and Colin Montgomerie share second place at 1-under 209 and Miguel Angel Jimenez, one of the first-round leaders and one of six winners in this abbreviated season, was alone in fifth place at 211.

Heading into Sunday’s final 18 holes there are 14 players within six shots of the lead and some of them carry dangerous credentials. Guys like Ernie Els, Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer and Steve Stricker. Austin, Els, Couples and Langer are in the top five of the Tour Champions scoring leaders this season. Langer, second on the money list, won the Cologuard Classic in early March and Els won the Hoag Classic one week later.

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Austin, seventh on the money list, began the day four shots behind Kelly but got within one shot with nines of 33-34 with just one 3-putt bogey and four birdies.

“I really played good today,” he said. “Reminded me of a 30- something kid that used to hit it pretty good. I drove it really well. And all my good irons kept going and I hit it really close. I actually to a point, that’s probably the worst score I could have shot. I mean, I really played solid.”

Parel, winner of this year’s Chubb Classic in February and in the hunt in this event last year until the final four holes, had an up-and-down round with five birdies and three bogeys to make up for his four-stroke deficit at day’s outset.

He admitted a love of the South Course.

“Because it’s tough,” he said. “I did get some lucky breaks, but you’re not going to get a whole lot of luck out there. You really have to strike the ball well. I haven’t driven the ball that great. I missed a bunch of fairways, but I put myself — even when you miss the fairways if you miss them in the right spot to where you can at least run it up — that’s what I think is fair about this place. It is penal if you miss off the tee, but it usually gives you a chance to recover if you miss it in the rough in the right spot.”


Senior Players: Leaderboard | Best photos


Despite there being just four of 78 players under par, Kelly feels someone is capable of going low.

“There’s a 5-6 or 7-under out there, no question,” he said. “It just hasn’t been done yet but I definitely can see it.”

Kelly had three birdies and one bogey on the front nine to get to 4-under for the tournament at the turn but the back nine wasn’t as productive.

“I got a little loose on the backside for the second day in a row and got out of position and made some bogeys,” he said. “I’m glad I made at least one birdie back there. I could have made two or three more birdies, I was burning some edges. You’re going to make mistakes out here, I know that. I just need to make birdies to counteract the mistakes and live with the mistakes.”

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Jerry Kelly alone atop leaderboard at Senior Players Championship

One Friday survivor was Jerry Kelly, who was one of six players to shoot par and took a three-shot lead over four others heading into the third round.

Aided by an ever-changing wind and a laser-like sun that turned the greens into a landing area slightly softer than an airport runway, the South Course at Firestone Country Club has turned ornery.

There were few survivors during the second round of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship, which resumes Saturday with the field scrambling in the first of what was supposed to have been the third of five majors on the Champions Tour this year.

The Regions Tradition, postponed from early May, is scheduled for Sept. 24-27. The other three majors have been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

One Friday survivor was Jerry Kelly, who was one of six players to shoot par and took a three-shot lead over four others heading into the third round. Kelly, with six PGA Tour Champions wins under his belt, stood at 2-under 138 after adding a 70 to his opening 68.

Another to solve the conditions was slimmed-down Colin Montgomerie, one of four players in the field of 79 to break par with a second-round 69 and a two-day total of 141.

How tough was it?

“It was a challenge,” said Steve Stricker, one of four players in at 1-over 141 after a second-round 73 when he hit just nine greens. “I’m not hitting it all that great and that makes it more of a challenge. And we had a little bit more wind today and it’s a cross wind on all the holes, because it’s coming out of the east. So all these holes run north and south, so every hole’s a cross wind. It made club selection a little bit more challenging.”

Through two days and 159 rounds, only 20 scores have been at or under par.

Montgomerie, whose round included five birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey on the par-3 12th, said the conditions were what they should be.

“It’s a major championship and it should be more than a challenge,” said Montgomerie, who has lost approximately 40 pounds in the past five months. “It’s one of those courses where you get rewarded for good play and one of those where you get heavily penalized for not.”

Kelly, who finished in a tie for seventh in the recent Ally Challenge in Michigan, agreed.

“You get out of position here, you’re in deep trouble and that’s what it’s like in a major,” said Kelly, whose round had a painful ending when he suffered an elbow injury by hitting a tree root on the famed Monster 16th hole. “It’s definitely harder to get back in position. It seemed weird the way the holes were shaped and the way the wind was blowing. You know, it switched almost 180 degrees a couple times.”

Kelly saved par on the 180-yard 12th by chipping in from the right rough.

“The chip-in was awesome,” he said.

Not awesome was hitting the root from the right rough on the 16th.

“Hitting the root on 16 was not fun,” he said. “I saw a root in front of my ball but I didn’t see the root that my ball was sitting on. It is what it is.”

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Jerry Kelly shows Firestone some love, then takes Senior Players lead with a 68

Kelly was pushing sponsors to extend their deal at Firestone, talking up the course and the conditions.

Organizers of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship didn’t need to use a hard sell to get Jerry Kelly to sign on for this week’s event.

With a history of solid showings at Akron’s Firestone Country Club, Kelly wasn’t just eager to get into the field, he was looking to preserve the tournament for the future.

During Wednesday’s pro-am event, Kelly was pushing sponsors to extend their deal at Firestone, talking up the course and the conditions.

“It’s a treat. I feel really lucky we are able to play this golf course at this
stage. It’s a fantastic golf course,” he said. “I played with the Bridgestone guys yesterday, and I was like, ‘come on, sign for another five years out for this one, too.’ I love coming back here.”

Kelly was talking on Thursday, too, but with his play. Despite a pair of bogeys after the turn, he righted the ship and finished with a 68, good enough to end the day atop the leaderboard, tied with Miguel Angel Jiménez, Steve Stricker, Rod Pampling and Wes Short, Jr.

In the past, Kelly played four events at Firestone during its World Golf Championship days. Kelly made all four cuts, finishing as high as 11th, and amassing over a quarter-million dollars.

“I had my chances with good finishes, but Tiger won every time,” Kelly joked on Thursday. “So that’s all there was to it.”

Kelly’s game is where he wants it to be — he played well at the PGA Tour’s Workday Charity Open in Columbus, overcoming an opening-round 75 to finish T-22, then finished T-7 at the Champions Tour restart in Flint, Michigan, last week. That’s in contrast to how he entered the pandemic break, struggling to get a handle on new irons and dealing with nagging injuries.

He said a bad back forced him to the sidelines for a few weeks, and he’s still seeking post-round treatments, but it didn’t hamper his play.

“I felt better today. Yesterday was rough, working with the guys in the trailer, and they really got me unstuck,” Kelly said. “So, but I’m not going to the range, I’m going right to the trailer and see if I can stay unstuck all week.

“And then I can build off of that. But I couldn’t do what I did today yesterday, so it was nice.”

Nominees announced for PGA Tour Champions player, rookie of the year honors

Check out who’s in the running for the PGA Tour Champions end of the year awards.

As the only players in 2019 to win multiple times, seven players have been nominated for the PGA Tour Champions Player of the Year award.

Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jerry Kelly, Bernhard Langer, Scott McCarron, Steve Stricker, Kevin Sutherland and Kirk Triplett are all vying for the honor. Five of the seven nominees finished inside the top 10 in the race for the Charles Schwab Cup, won by McCarron, who ended Langer’s seven-year run atop the tour’s money list.

The favorite to win, McCarron won the Mitsubishi Electric Classic, Insperity Invitational and Mastercard Japan Championship and finished runner-up at the Senior PGA Championship, Cologuard Classic and Shaw Charity Classic. He sat atop the Charles Schwab Cup standings for the last 21 weeks of the season.

As for the Rookie of the Year award, Retief Goosen and Doug Barron were nominated. Both awards will be presented next month at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Hawaii.

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