HONOLULU — The story looked all too familiar to Jerry Kelly. He was battling his nerves while trying to win his first PGA Tour event, and John Cook was right on his heels.
This time, Kelly refused to buckle.
Four months after he handed victory to Cook with a late blunder, Kelly produced two flawless swings under pressure on the 18th hole to set up a two-putt birdie and win the Sony Open, his first victory in his 200th career start on the PGA Tour.
"You put in 31/2 years of hard work and it comes down to those two shots right there," Kelly said of a 3-wood that split the middle of the fairway and his 3-iron from 231 yards to about 45 feet above the hole.
"I knew what I had to do and I got the job done."
Kelly closed with an even-par 70 on another balmy, breezy day at Waialae Country Club, a tropical paradise for everyone except a 35-year-old guy grinding on every shot, searching for a swing and hoping he can show the mettle it takes to win.
"I've wanted this for a long time," Kelly said.
He finished at 266 for a one-stroke victory over Cook, whose back-nine charge came to a halt when a cell phone in the gallery rang just as he was starting his downswing on the par-3 17th. The ball sailed right into the bunker, and Cook made bogey.
"At that point in time with the perfect club in my hand ... I don't know how that happens," Cook said. "It was the point of no return."
Kelly also bogeyed the 17th with a three-putt, and he matched Cook's birdie on the final hole by lagging his 45-foot eagle putt to about 12 inches for a tap-in victory.
It was the fourth time Kelly had the lead going into the final round. One of those chances came last year at the Reno-Tahoe Open, when he made triple bogey on the 16th hole of the final round, allowing Cook to win by a stroke.
Kelly found it a little ironic that of all the players who had a chance to make a move on him Sunday, it was Cook he found in his rearview mirror.
"I just didn't want Reno to happen again to me," Kelly said. "I wasn't going to do the things that let someone else win. I wanted to win the tournament."
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