Jerry Kelly overcomes injuries and Padraig Harrington to post 'favorite' victory at SAS Championship

Jerry Kelly is accustomed to winning, but this time, victory would take its sweet time sauntering into his awaiting grip. Oh, you bet he was there, waiting. Sunday at the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club, on one of the more demanding courses that PGA TOUR Champions encounters all season, Kelly brought the circuit’s regular season to an emphatic close, first getting the better of World Golf Hall of Famer Padraig Harrington, and then conquering the tricky nerves that accompany the final hours of contention, shooting a closing 5-under 67 to earn his 12th Champions Tour title, his first in more than two years.

North Carolina has been a comfortable place for Harrington in 2024. Harrington, who entered the Hall of Fame earlier this summer during the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, was seeking his third victory of the year, and began the final round with a three-shot lead. He had been a perfect 4-for-4 in converting those final-day leads to victories. But Sunday at Prestonwood, Kelly (67) charged and Harrington went cold with the putter, managing only three birdies in shooting 71. Harrington failed to get up-and-down from just beyond the green at the par-4 18th for a par that would have forced Kelly, who had just three-putted the same hole for his lone bogey of the round in the penultimate grouping, into extra holes. In fact, when Harrington missed from 8 feet for par following a greenside chip struck with too much weight, Kelly already was walking toward the 18th tee, anticipating a playoff that never came to be.

“It’s a long time coming,” said Kelly of winning again. “You wonder if you’re ever going to do it again once the injuries start piling up.”

He moved to 10th in season-long Charles Schwab Cup points just in time for this week’s arrival of the three-tiered Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs in Virginia, which will begin with 72 players. The field for the opener was finalized on Sunday. Woody Austin, whose lone birdie of the day at 18 cemented a T17 finish, seized the last spot for the upcoming Dominion Energy Charity Classic, moving up two spots from 73rd. Arjun Atwal, who did not play in the SAS Championship, held on to the 72nd and final spot.

For Kelly, the injuries he plays through include Rheumatoid arthritis, something that makes the joints in his 57-year-old body feel worn down and sore, as well as a balky back (two bulging disks) that is not always cooperative in helping him maintain a pain-free and consistent motion swinging the golf club, action that led him to winning three times while on the PGA TOUR. Friends have been urging him to shut it down, to take some time off to get healthy, but he admittedly is too stubborn to do that. He'd rather be on a golf course than at home on a couch.

Sunday, when Kelly needed it most, his game was there for him. He overtook Harrington for the lead with a hot start (three birdies over his opening five holes) and kept making birdies once he turned, pulling away slowly with birdies at Nos. 10 (18 feet) and 13 (14 feet). He kept bogeys off his card right up until executing a smart approach from 170 yards into 18 that left him on the front left edge of the green, facing a long two-putt for par. He ran the first putt past, and then missed his attempt for par.

Kelly’s strong showing marked his sixth top-six finish at the SAS Championship, as well as his second victory. (He also won in 2019). Kelly considers the Carolina community that surrounds the tournament to be family. He has been competing at Prestonwood since his early days on the developmental Nike (now Korn Ferry) Tour. Kelly joins Bruce Lietzke (2001-02), Russ Cochran (2010, 2013) and Bernhard Langer (2012, 2018) in winning multiple titles at SAS Championship.

Kelly dedicated his victory to former Champions Tour caddie and friend Jon Trasamar, who played college golf at Minnesota, competing on a team that included South African Erik von Rooyen of the PGA TOUR, the roommate for whom he went on to caddie. Trasamar died late last year at age 33 after being diagnosed with Stage 4 Melanoma. Days before he got to the SAS Championship, Kelly played in a tournament to honor Trasamar, who was married to Kelly’s niece, Allie, and Kelly said it put him in a proper state of mind to compete.

“We had a great memorial golf event for him just last week, and it put me in the right frame to come out here and ‘give it to God’ like he (Trazzy) would have,” Kelly said. “That’s really what I felt like I was doing. (Kelly said Trasamar came to him in a dream on Saturday night, telling him to keep his feet calm when he swung.) “It was him playing through me today. That’s what it’s for. ... This is definitely my favorite win. I mean, there's no question. It just means so much more. It's pretty incredible.”

“This one is really big. I knew I was going to take next week off, and I wanted to give myself a little positioning (for the Playoffs), which I think I did. I just love coming here. ”

Following the SAS Championship, the top 72 players in the Charles Schwab Cup standings advanced to the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, which begin on Friday at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Virginia. Ernie Els, a three-time champion in 2024, enters the Playoffs still holding his lead in the Charles Schwab Cup points race; Steve Alker, the 2022 Schwab Cup champion, closed the gap on Els with a solid finish in Cary (a closing 69 left Alker T5). Shane Bertsch (solo third) shot 70 and had his best finish of 2024. Fifty-four players will advance to the second leg of the Playoffs (Oct. 25-27, Simmons Bank Championship in Little Rock, a new venue for 2024), and 36 will make it to Phoenix Country Club, in Arizona, for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship (Nov. 7-10).

Kelly’s good pal and fellow Wisconsin native, Steve Stricker, is the defending champion of the Charles Schwab Cup.