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Soaking It All In

U.S. Amateur Runner-Up Kelly

Relishing First Masters Experience

By Dan O'Neill

Augusta, Ga. – The actuality of John Kelly’s Excellent Augusta Adventure began to sink in on Sunday night when he used the facilities, so to speak, at Augusta National Golf Club.

"You just think about who slept in your bed, who went to the bathroom in the same toilet … well, that’s kind of gross, but you know what I mean," said Kelly of his first evening in the Crow’s Nest. "You know your walking in the same footsteps of greatness. It’s just really neat."

Be it personal hygiene or putting one foot in front of the other, the bunkhouse that sits atop the clubhouse at Augusta National is filled with history and ambiance, a place where legends like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods snoozed in their first appearances at Augusta.

Kelly, 22, a senior at the University of Missouri, is staying in the Crow’s Nest with three of the other four amateurs playing in the Masters: Richie Ramsay, the Scotsman who defeated Kelly in the U.S. Amateur final, U.S. Amateur Public Links champion Casey Watabu and U.S. Mid-Amateur champ Dave Womack. British Amateur champ Julien Guerrier, of France, made other arrangements. John Kelly is hoping for another memorable week at the Masters like he had last August at the U.S. Amateur.

Oddly enough, Kelly said he had no trouble sleeping in the imposing environment. "I was surprised, but I slept pretty well," he said. "I was really tired."

On Monday morning, Kelly had breakfast at the club and got another jolt to his senses. "I had my grits and bagels," said Kelly. "Then I looked over and there’s Phil Mickelson grabbing a bite to eat. It was cool. Just so many things like that about being here, it’s unbelievable."

Kelly played nine holes of a practice round with 2006 Ryder Cup member Vaughn Taylor on Monday. Taylor, an Augusta, Ga., native, quit after nine, but Kelly finished the round and nearly had a hole-in-one at No. 16. He was slated to play with two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw on Tuesday.

"I think it was good for him, actually, to play by himself," said Rob Sedorcek, a St. Louis teaching pro who is on hand to watch his protegé. "It gave him a chance to really practice some shots and gather his thoughts. If he can keep it straight, he should be fine. The guys with the measuring devices told me he had one of the longest shots all day at No. 14 and Nos. 17 and 18."

On one hand, the challenge for the St. Louis native this week is intimidating. No amateur has ever won the Masters, and few make the cut for the weekend. Since 2000, just eight of the 34 amateurs that have earned invitations at Augusta have stuck around for the weekend. On the other hand, Kelly can’t lose.

"It’s a little bit of both," he said. "The competitive side of me wants to play and beat the heck out of these guys. Then there is the other side that says, ‘Hey, up to this point in my life, this is the coolest thing to ever happen to you.’ So I want to make sure I take it all in and just enjoy the moment."

In addition to his parents and Sedorcek, Kelly’s gallery includes Missouri golf coach Mark Leroux. Flooded with caddie offers, Kelly finally chose friend Barr Blanton to carry his bag this week. A former player at Wake Forest, Blanton lives in St. Louis.

"I had a lot of people to choose from," Kelly said. "But I’ve known Barr for a long time from playing golf and I think he’ll be a big help. We’re just going to go out and have a good time with it."

Dan O’Neill is a freelance writer whose work has appeared previously on www.usga.org.

Gearing Up for the Season

After a long and very white winter, we are finally seeing green and the golf season is just around the corner! With the first year under my belt as the Executive Director of the Missouri Golf Association, I am trying hard to continue the momentum of a great first year, and continue leading us to better things for years to come.

First of all we are trying to make everything more User friendly for our players by moving all of our entries online for the first time, eliminating bulk mail to all our participants. So far it has been a huge success and we look forward to improving the process even more in the future.

Another new addition for the MGA this year is the Senior Series for players 50 and over. We are going to have twelve separate 1-day events throughout the state, leading up to the Tour Championship to be held in October. What makes this series so wonderful is that it’s geared to all levels of golfers. In each age group players are competing in both gross and net divisions, providing an opportunity for all players to have a chance to win. We’ve had an overwhelming response to this series so far and we are looking forward to this new venture.

The week of June 18th we are having our 100th Missouri Amateur Championship at Jefferson City Country Club. This event is rich in history with many great names in golf that have won this prestigious honor; Tom Watson, Payne Stewart, Jim Colbert and Don Bliss to name just a few. I encourage golf fans from all over the Midwest to come see some of Missouri’s best compete for this prestigious title.

Last, but certainly not least, for the first time in MGA history, young ladies will be able to compete in our one day Hieronymus Junior events. There are five of these events during the summer for kids ages 10 to 18. We also have a Junior Event in June for boys and girls under the age of 10. I can hardly wait for my 3-year-old daughter, Taylor, to become a participant! The Junior Golf program is a great place for young people to get involved with such a great sport.

As you can see, we are trying to build the Missouri Golf Association to be among the best in the country. If you like the game of golf and you like to compete, I encourage you to come out and join us. For additional information about the MGA, or specific information regarding certain events, check us out on the web at www.mogolf.org. I hope to see you soon on the first tee.

New Road Home

It’s here!!!! Thanks to the new partnership with AT&T our new mobile office has arrived. We are now going to be able to run each event from this state of the art trailer and with the MGA now having over 30 events, this trailer will allow us to better serve the players. The trailer has a weather system inside to track bad conditions for us and it will allow us to provide Live Scoring. However, the biggest plus is that we will have a main hub at each event, so it will be easy for players to find us!!


I would like to thank AT&T for making this happen for us. I am looking for a long and great partnership for years to come.

Now onto the world of professional golf, I get a kick out of all commentators who just jump to conclusions on the littlest things. Take for instance this past weekend at the Bay Hill Classic. Tiger is making a run on Sunday and then makes a few un-Tiger like errors and it took Johnny Miller two seconds to start questioning what he and Hank Haney (Tigers teacher) are working on. Come on, give me a break, the guy makes two bad swings coming down the stretch of an event on a really hard golf course and he get crucified about swing adjustments. All this showed is that Tiger is a little human. Yes he played bad on the back nine, but is he in a slump? No I do not think so!!! I have not been around a more driven person than Tiger. All that did Sunday afternoon was make him work that much harder for the Masters. All I have to say is that I hope they are getting his green jacket ready at Augusta!!

See you soon on the tee,

Scott

Player of the Year!

During halftime of the last Missouri Basketball home game verse Colorado I had the privilege of presenting John Kelly with the MGA Player of the Year Award for 2006. John had a great summer by winning the Ozark in April, finishing runner up in the Cotton, winning the Missouri Stroke Play Championship, and then highlighting his whole summer with making it to the Finals of the United States Amateur at Hazeltine. With John’s great play in the US AM, he now gets the honor of playing in the Masters. I talked a little bit with John about the upcoming event and he said that he is already making trips down to Augusta to get some extra time in there. (Who blames him) He also said that he has practice rounds set up with Ben Crenshaw on Monday and Fred Couples on Tuesday. I think that is a great thing that these former Masters winners will take John around the course and show him what he needs to be watching for. What a great experience. I know all of us here at the MGA wish John good luck and to have fun in April.

About three weeks ago I went on a golf trip with some friends down to San Antonio. There were 12 of us that went on the trip. Joe Jimenez the long time head golf Professional at Jefferson City Country Club lives in the San Antonio area now, so we played four days of golf in a pro am format. Each day you rotated pro’s, that way each guy got a day with Joe. My day with Joe happen to be the day we play LaCantera, the host course for the PGA Tours Texas Open. The wind blew about 30 to 40 mph that day, Joe is in his 80’s now, however that does not stop him from still powering each drive out there between 240 to 280 yards. Joe broke his age each day with ease, shooting around par each day except for the wind blown day where he still shot 77 from the back tee’s which well over 7200 yards long. It was a great treat to play with him and see what a great tempo he had. It was a struggle for me that day, and I had to really grind the last two holes so that I would not be beat by a man well over twice my age. I birdied the last hole to clip him by two. (Thank God)!! I pray to God that when I am 80 that I can be as active as he is. If you are looking for a good golf trip, check out San Antonio, there are some great courses and the prices to play them are reasonable too.

Entries have been open and on line now for about two weeks. So, if you want to enter a MGA event this summer, go to the web site (http://www.mogolf.org/) and create a player profile for yourself to start entering the events. If you want to get in the Four-Ball or Senior Am do not wait, these two are filling up fast!!

Enjoy this great weather the next couple of days, before long it will be 110 each day and then too hot to get out and play.

Until I see you on the tee,


Scott Hovis

Don't Miss Out!!

Don’t forget this Monday, March 5th at 9 a.m. you can go to http://www.mogolf.org/ and start entering events. So make sure that you set your clock and be ready to go. You can enter all the events that you want to play in for the year at once. So do not miss out!!!

Also if you have not looked at the Swingspeed, you are missing out. We have sold 6 already and getting phone calls all the time. The cost is only $90 and it is available for right and left hander's. This is a great tool to help you warm up and also get your muscles in golf shape. I highly recommend this piece of equipment. Go to http://www.swingspeed.com/ and check it out. Email me at shovis@mogolf.org if you want one.

See you on the tee!!!