The Christchurch bowler won the three-man final at the Dunedin Bowls Stadium at the weekend with 31 points ahead of Coryn Huddy (Dunedin) on 24 and Timaru rookie Travis Cook on 10.
Kelly (29) went on to win the national title last year and will defend it in Wellington in September.
Kelly, a structural engineer, has been a regular in the Black Jacks 10-man squad over the past seven years but has not been able to break into the top five for the Commonwealth Games or World Bowls.
He has skipped his fours to national championship titles in 2012 and 2014.
Kelly has a firm grip of the tactics needed to win a Shanghai event with three bowlers on the green.
''The key is to get a fast start and put early points on the board,'' Kelly said.
''Once I get the lead I like to be conservative but make sure the points keep ticking over.''
Kelly did this in the final by scoring 19 points on the first five ends to take a big lead over Huddy on eight and Cook on five.
Six points are available on each end: three for the shot bowl, two for second shot and one for third.
Kelly scored a point on the sixth and seventh ends and then expanded his lead with four shots on the eighth end, to lead by 10 shots from Huddy.
Huddy (38), a third-year bowler, and was playing in his first Shanghai event. Huddy reduced the lead to five shots with a four on the ninth and five on the 10th end.
Travis (44) showed promise by reaching the final in his first PBA event.
Dunedin's Elliott Mason beat twin brother Oliver 9-4, 11-1 to reach the final of the ranking singles, but he will have to wait until next month for the final.
Because of the record entry of 58 bowlers there was not enough time to complete the event on Monday.
Dunedin's Andrew McCallum beat Lance Ibbotson (Owaka) 8-7, 8-4 in the quarterfinal but he will not play his semifinal until next month.
Kelly and Roger Stevens (Winton) will play their quarterfinal when they are in Dunedin for the regional PBA on July 28.
