Jerry Kelly battles rheumatoid arthritis: 'Fight left to be fought'

Jerry Kelly battles rheumatoid arthritis

In the game of life, golfer Jerry Kelly not only grinds – he fights. Now, he's in a battle he didn't expect. Brandon Cruz goes Beyond the Game.

MILWAUKEE - Jerry Kelly has been known as a grinder in the game of golf.

In the game of life, he not only grinds – he fights. Now, he's in a battle he didn't expect.

Kelly's lean is as common as the flag he shoots for on any given golf course. His love of the game, especially when it's in his backyard of Madison, is always evident.

"It's just always nice being back home. This will always be home obviously, but you know, just getting out on the back porch and looking over the lake just gives me a nice calm," he said. "I love being back."

When Kelly returned for the 2024 American Family Insurance Championship, his usual energy was noticeably absent.

Jerry Kelly

"I don't have a whole lot of strength, things just keep popping up. It's not fun, but it's repairable," he said.

Three years ago, the fun of golf took a backseat to concern for the health of his wife, Carol, as she battled kidney cancer.

"There was a strain, mentally, on both of us. Yet, it was more of the unknown," Kelly told FOX6 in 2022.

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The mental strain is back for Kelly. This time, it has arrived with a physical component that's affecting him greatly: rheumatoid arthritis.

"It's affecting me a lot. My hands locked up, it went to my feet, my ankles, my knees. It's probably been lying in my back for longer than I'd like," he said.

"I felt the effects early this year and finally Carol was like, ‘This is not normal.’ You know, I can't get out of a chair, can't get out of bed. It's time you go find out what's going on."

"The guy’s never, you know, really been sick, ever, you know?" said fellow golfer and Wisconsin native Steve Stricker. "Then you throw this thing on him and all the other things that their family’s been going through, you feel for him."

After visiting Mayo Clinic and extensive testing with a homeopath, Kelly found out he was positive for Lyme – something that could be affecting his rheumatoid arthritis.

"I've gone on this chemo drug, methotrexate. Small levels compared to what normal chemo patients take," he explained. "It's just kind of a first line of defense trying to get those white blood cells that are killing you from the inside, they're eating healthy tissue."

However, Kelly has not stopped battling on the course – and don't expect him to take it easy on rheumatoid arthritis either.

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"There ain't no (expletive) quit in me, OK? You can bleep that one out all you want. I'm not going to quit. I've gotten down on myself fairly hard because my body's not responding to my brain, things like that," said Kelly. "There's a little disconnect going on and that bothers me, but there's still the fight. As long as there's a fight left to be fought, I'm going to be in the mix, I'm going to be in the middle of it."

One sign Kelly is winning the fight: He's changed part of his lifestyle, like enjoying good wine.

"That was a good seven-and-a-half weeks of being dry, too. I didn't think I could do that one, either. Nobody thought I could do that one," he said. "Again, you do what you have to do. It's one of the things I have to do."

Once he is inside the ropes competing, there are small adjustments Kelly is still getting used to as well.

Jerry Kelly

"I'm used to in tournament mode just thinking of what I want to do and my muscles will actually cooperate, connect with my brain, let my autonomous system kind of take over and it comes out. There's a bit of a disconnect there right now. That's what I have to fight through," he said.

For the three days in Madison, Kelly fought like the champion he is and has always been. Meanwhile, another fight continues.

"As anybody knows that gets any kind of a diagnosis, you go through a little bit of an anger phase, and that's either going to make you fight or flight. It's going to make me fight," Kelly said. "I've just got to find my way mentally through that kind of situation, not get down on myself and really get it done."

Kelly thinks he may have had this issue for a while because of blood test results that he looked back at from 2008 and 2013. In the meantime, he will continue to try to play through his treatment.