Go Birds and birdies: Retired Eagles great Jason Kelce takes his swings, advice at PGA Tour pro-am

Jason Kelce flubbed his pitch shot from the thick rough next to a green on the ninth hole — on a round that featured more “Go Birds” chants than birdies — and muttered a common refrain from most weekend golf warriors:

“Hey, that’s why I’m an amateur,” Kelce said.

Kelce could have crowd-sourced some golf tips from the scores of fans that followed him hole after humbling hole on Wednesday during a rare PGA Tour stop in the Philadelphia area.

The retired Philadelphia Eagles center has tried in his first year of retirement to up his golf game and lower his score, taking the task of trying to get it in the hole as seriously as he did opening them as he once did on the offensive line. Kelce posted a video of his swing on Reddit this week and asked readers — anyone from pros to casual players — for advice on how to get better.

“Jason Kelce here. Now that I’ve hung up the cleats, I’m trying to get serious about my golf game,” he wrote. “I’ve uploaded 6 different angles of my swing from a session yesterday. Looking for any tips you can give me — especially on my backswing and follow-through.”

Kelce said the early feedback was “crazy.”

“Some of this stuff is like stuff other pros have put out and it’s kind of generic stuff that everybody can use,” Kelce said. “But there’s been some stuff so far that’s been like, ‘Holy cow, I never thought about it like that.’ So I’m excited about that.”

Kelce — who retired following the 2023 season after a 13-year career spent entirely with the Eagles, played his role as man of the people to perfection during a pro-am ahead of the Truist Championship. He took time to answer questions from 14-year-old Benji Panzer, a middle school student who had credentials as part of an area sports broadcasting camp. Panzer asked Kelce about his “New Heights” podcast that he tapes with his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

“The ability of players to connect with fans directly has never been greater,” Kelce told Panzer.

Kelce connected with plenty of Eagles fans, signing everything from aluminum beer bottles, T-shirts, golf balls and all types of Eagles memorabilia. He accepted gifts, too, including a Kelly green Eagles beer koozie. One fan who called himself T-Shirt Phil — did we mention the tourney was near Philly? — said he wanted to introduce Kelce to Phillies slugger Nick Castellanos.

The 37-year-old Kelce — who with wife and social media star Kylie, welcomed their fourth child Finnley “Finn” Anne Kelce in March — refused to name his favorite golf course in the area but seemed to enjoy the fast greens his first time at Philly Cricket’s Wissahickon Course.

“The course is in great shape,” he said. “It’s gorgeous. All the guys we played with agreed.”

“The guys” included PGA pros Stephan Jager and Shane Lowry.

One unspecified member of the group sliced a ball into the crowd and struck the left hand of 25-year-old spectator Hudson Mokrejs, of Elverson, Pennsylvania, who needed an ice pack on his reddened wrist.

“We were talking beforehand like, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be great to get hit by Jason Kelce’s ball?’ And then he shot it over the green,” Mokrejs said. “I was talking and all of a sudden I hear, ‘Look out!’ I turned and it just smacked me in the hand. I covered my hand. I didn’t spill my drink. I had a Transfusion. Classic golf drink, you know what I mean? Chugged that real quick to get me healthy.”

Kelce noted the serene golf atmosphere made for more “Go Birds” chants more than the popular “E-A-G-L-E-S” chant that punctuates the Eagles’ fight song.

“It’s just so quick,” Kelce said. “The ‘E-A-G-L-E-S’ you’ve got start in halfway through. Someone’s got to get it going.”

He can expect to hear more of them on the course on big-time golf events in the area.

The 2026 PGA Championship will be held at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square and the 2030 U.S. Open is at Merion Golf Club.

“Philly is an unbelievable golf hub,” Kelce said. “There’s a lot of fans in the game. There’s a lot of incredible courses with a lot of history to it.”

Who knows? Thanks to social media, Kelce the amateur golfer just might get good enough to take some swings when it counts.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf