On Thanksgiving, Kelly spent his fortieth birthday November 2006, with the troops as part of the PGA's "Operation Links Handshake Tour." Here's a "slice" of the report:
"It was a life-changing experience," Kelly said in a telephone interview. "It was the coolest thing I've ever done."
The golfers visited 14 bases in Iraq, entertaining the troops with golf exhibitions and swapping stories with soldiers in conversations that stretched into the early morning hours.
"We hit balls off of Saddam's palace, off the back of a tank, off the wing of an Iraqi MIG fighter," Kelly said. "We stopped a soccer game in the Kurd region and hit balls off the field into Turkey. We hit balls in Mosul.
"We did a ton of stuff. We wish we could have spent more time with the guys. They were like, 'Thank you so much.' We were like, 'Are you kidding me? We're the ones who are thankful.'"
Jerry Kelly had a great 2007 season on the PGA tour with 7 top-10 finishes, 3rd in the Byron Nelson, his best ever finish at the Masters (5th), a great US Open (7th) and winning over 1.9 million on tour.
