Packers loss trips up Kelly

Jerry Kelly was a bit distracted as he made his ascent up the Sony Open in Hawaii leaderboard on Sunday.

The 48-year-old walked off the 18th green after a par putt saved a bogey-free round of 66 to give him his eighth top-10 finish at Waialae Country Club.

Yet it wasn’t all smiles and hugs for the Madison, Wis., native, who in addition to being a three-time winner on tour, is also the PGA’s biggest Green Bay Packers fan.

Moments earlier, the Packers lost in overtime to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship game after blowing a 12-point fourth-quarter lead, and Kelly was tracking it the entire way.

He wound up making par after a poor drive on the birdie-friendly 18th that resulted in a tie for sixth place instead of a possible third-place finish, costing him $127,600 in prize money.

"I found out (the Packers) lost on the 18th tee and it kind of deflated me a little bit," Kelly admitted. "I didn’t think it would be, but it kind of got to me a little bit. It was too bad."

Kelly, who played with Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in a Pro-Am at Pebble Beach last year, was in much worse shape after an opening-round 3-over 73, which was his highest here since withdrawing after a 74 in 2010.

Instead of dwelling on the first 18 holes, which kept him from making a run at winner Jimmy Walker, Kelly was thrilled with the way he responded on Friday with an 8-under 62, his best round at Waialae.

"I look at that second day and go, ‘What a great job I did coming back,’ " he said. "If my coach wasn’t here, I would have struggled the whole time. We had a good breakthrough and I hit the ball really well the last three days and, man, I’m really excited with how I came back."

Kelly, who has become an adopted son of sorts to the longtime Waialae fans who are out on the course every year, received the biggest roar of his group from the gallery at 18 as he finished up Sunday.

One of his three PGA Tour wins came here in 2011 and he’s finished sixth or better five times, including each of the past two years.

It didn’t look good after a first round that left him five shots back of the eventual cut line in a tie for 125th place.

As he has done time and time again, he found his mojo at Waialae by hitting more than twice the number of fairways as he did the first day and 14 of the 18 greens in regulation.

Sunday’s round included two impressive birdies on the two par-3s on the front nine. He failed to make up much more ground after that as he had three different putts lip out before his final birdie on 16 got him to 12 under.

"The great putt on the last hole that lipped in makes me feel a little bit better, but there were some great putts that I hit today that didn’t go in," Kelly said. "I put myself in decent position. I wasn’t really scrambling for pars too much and that’s what I wanted to do today."

The only thing that was missing were heavier wind gusts that would have played into Kelly’s game. With his expansive knowledge of the course and how it plays in different conditions, Kelly was hoping the weather would become a bigger factor.

"Even though (the wind) is the lightest of this direction that we’re going to find, I was hoping for a nice 20 mph day coming out of the trades," he said. "This course is defended by wind … and being patient and understanding the trades makes all the difference in the world."

With such success in Hawaii, including more than $2.5 million in earnings, Kelly is looking forward to playing the back-to-back with the Sony and the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai that always follows.

Kelly will turn 50 next year, qualifying him to play in the Champions Tour event in 2017.