Kelly’s Heroes: Tigers Come Roar Teammate Into Amateur Final

By David Shefter, USGA

Chaska, Minn. – Dedication is getting in a car with three friends and driving nine consecutive hours to watch a teammate play for the biggest prize in amateur golf.

	John Kelly (left) is congratulated by a couple of University of Missouri teammates after winning his U.S. Amateur semifinal match Saturday. (John Mummert/USGA)

From the moment John Kelly’s final putt dropped in Friday’s quarterfinal victory over Trip Kuehne at the 2006 U.S. Amateur, Bud Reynolds, Michael Unger, Trent Twaddle and Ryne Fisher had their bags packed. They didn’t even wait to watch The Golf Channel’s post-match interview.

The foursome, along with Twaddle’s father, Bruce, needed all of 20 minutes to get to the rendezvous point. At 5:30 p.m CDT, they departed the University of Missouri in Columbia for Hazeltine National Golf Club, arriving at their hotel around 2:30 a.m.

"We didn’t get much sleep last night," admitted Reynolds, a red-shirt freshman from Knoxville, Tenn. "I think some more guys might be coming shortly."

Tiger-mania might overwhelm Hazeltine Sunday and it has nothing to do with that guy named Woods. Kelly’s 2-and-1 semifinal victory Saturday morning over recent Kent State graduate Ryan Yip of Canada put the Missouri senior in unchartered territory. The win gave him an exemption into the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club and a likely invitation to next April’s Masters. One more win Sunday over Scotland’s Richie Ramsay would land Kelly a spot in the 2007 British Open, and a grouping with Phil Mickelson at the Masters, plus Tiger Woods and Geoff Ogilvy at the U.S. Open.

That had the Tigers teeming with pride.

"Stuff like this doesn’t happen just any other day," said Ryne Fisher, a sophomore from Clarksville, Tenn. "We’re proud of him, for sure."

From the opening tee shot, the Tigers made their presence known, wearing their school colors and whooping and hollering for their guy. Kelly even wore teammate Peter Malnati’s Mizzou golf shirt. Malnati also qualified for the U.S. Amateur and has been rooming with Kelly the entire week at the Chaska home of Paul and Darlene Salentine.

Once he missed match play, Malnati, a sophomore from Knoxville suburb of Dandridge, could have bolted the premises and headed back to classes, which began on Monday. But he had a premonition about how Kelly might perform.

From the time they left campus last May to their practice rounds last weekend at Hazeltine and Chaska Town Course, Malnati saw something different with Kelly’s game. It was a marked improvement from the kind of golf he played last season at Missouri, which included just one victory (Missouri Intercollegiate) and a disappointing 74.81 stroke average. At the NCAA regionals in May, Kelly finished 63rd with rounds of 76-73-77.

"I told him that night [that he made the match-play cut] I’m not going home because if you are going to make history, I am going to be here to see it," said Malnati. "When I told him that … I didn’t really expect this. I was thinking I was going to watch a couple of matches [and] miss a few days of school. Then look where we are now.

"I have known him for 16 months now and I have never seen him swing the club the way he is [now]. His swing is so much more consistent. That kid is a player. Don’t get me a wrong, I knew he was a stud then (last year), too. But just to see the way his golf swing has developed … is amazing."

Added Missouri coach Mark Leroux, who unfortunately arrived on site Saturday too late to see the finish: "This was unexpected. He’s a very talented golfer when he plays golf without distractions."

Relishing the underdog role all week, Kelly played with poise and determination against Yip. He grabbed his first lead by holing a 16-foot birdie putt at No. 10, then got up and down from the bunker at 11 to halve the hole with a birdie. His only hiccups occurred when Yip made similar mistakes. At the par-3 13th, Yip found the greenside water hazard and flopped a perfect pitch to salvage bogey. Kelly missed a 7-footer for par.

Holding a 2-up lead at 16, Kelly came up short of the green with his approach from the right rough. Yip, hitting from the fairway, found the deep rough between the green and Lake Hazeltine. Yip chunked his first attempt, but nearly holed his fourth shot. Facing a 3-footer to win the match, Kelly missed the par attempt momentarily halting the celebration by his Tiger mates.

"We all have bad plays," said Fisher. "I don’t know if I would have sniffed the hole, even on the last hole (17). But it’s a shining day for the University of Missouri."

Kelly didn’t suffer the same circumstances at the par-3 17th. His tee shot came up 50 feet short, but he lagged perfectly to 3 feet. After Yip’s 20-foot birdie attempt burned the right edge, Kelly calmly holed his putt, offering a minor fist-pump. His teammates were even more excited as they all hugged behind the green.

"This is as good as it gets," said Fisher. "The kid works so hard on the golf course and off the golf course. More power to him. That’s impressive."

Often times, the semifinal match at the U.S. Amateur is the most pressure-packed because of the exemptions that go to the finalists. Every player wants his name on the Havemeyer Trophy, but going to the U.S. Open and Masters is every golfer’s dream.

So Malnati didn’t talk golf with Kelly. They rented "Benchwarmers" and laughed. They talked about females and tried to stay loose.

"I told him just think about all the girls you are going to meet if you make the finals of the U.S. Am," said Malnati. "He said, ‘What are you talking about? That is more pressure than the Masters [invitation].’ But he doesn’t mean that. That kid, just like since I was 10 or 11 and knew I wanted to play golf, it’s been my dream to be on the first tee of Augusta."

Kelly gets to fulfill that dream. The only question is whose going to serve as his caddie. Malnati thinks he has the inside track, but the other Tigers are leaving that choice to Kelly.

"I guarantee you we are all going to be there," said Fisher. "We don’t really care [if we caddie]. We are just looking forward to seeing him play there."

Just think how much fun that drive to Augusta is going to be.

David Shefter is a USGA staff writer. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org