Recent success invigorates Gore
About three months ago, Jason Gore woke up after a restless night and decided he didn’t like his job. Golf wasn’t fun anymore. Long road trips and small paychecks just weren’t cutting it.
“I was wondering if I was going to be able to get formula for my child, wondering if I was going to be able to afford it and wondering if I was going to be able to make a house payment,” Gore said.
Today, Gore woke up a champion. He won the 84 Lumber Classic Sunday by just a single stroke, but the victory, his first on the PGA Tour, was worth $792,000.
The past 90 days have been a blur. Gore has shaken more hands and answered more phone calls than a politician during an election year since he his improbable U.S. Open run at Pinehurst No. 2.
With 18 holes to play, Gore was tied for second place. But Pinehurst fought back, and Gore labored through a final-round 84 to wind up in a tie for 49th.
The experience, however, helped stoke a fire in the rotund 31-year-old. Three victories on the Nationwide Tour followed, with them coming an instant promotion to the PGA Tour.
After making two of three cuts, Gore received a sponsor’s exemption to play in the 84 Lumber Classic. This time, Gore rose to the challenge, first by taking the lead with an eagle on his eighth hole, then by holding off Carlos Franco with a 90-foot putt that set up a 22-inch tap-in to save par on No. 18.
Gore wouldn’t be where he is today were it not for the women in his life, his mother, Kathy, and his wife, Megan Ann.
Eight years ago, on the day his was to leave for his first professional golf tournament, Gore’s father, Sheldon, died of a heart attack at the age of 54. Until that moment, 1997 was shaping up to be the best year of Gore’s life
While at Pepperdine University, Gore was a member of an NCAA championship team, won the California State Open and also the California State Amateur Championship. Then, he represented a victorious United States’ Walker Cup team in match play against an International squad.
Three weeks after the Walker Cup victory, Gore’s father was buried.
The tragedy left Gore empty, and he struggled to find his identity. He left school to try his game on the Buy.com Tour, where he made just three of eight cuts.
Sometime shortly thereafter, Gore’s mother intervened and helped him deal better with the death of his father. With the support of his mother and wife, he was headed back to Pepperdine.
“It took a lot to go back,” Kathy Gore said. “And he had been playing golf, so by playing golf, he lost his scholarship. But he did go back. He paid for his own college and together we put him through the last year and he did it. He hung in there and he graduated and he has his degree.
“That was something my husband wanted and used to say, ‘You can play golf, but you’re absolutely going to graduate college.'”
The trying times didn’t stop there. During his two previous stays on the PGA Tour, Gore has finished no higher than 18th, and has lost his PGA Tour card twice. He has been around long enough to see the Buy.com Tour become the Nike Tour, before changing sponsors again to its current one, Nationwide.
Gore finally had enough earlier this year, struggling with a career that seemed to be going nowhere and getting there fast. He wasn’t sure he wanted to try to qualify for the U.S. Open, but again, the two most important women in his life stepped forward.
“Both of us. We both … she did it from her side and he talked to me and I said, ‘After all you’ve been through you’re going to give up now?” Kathy Gore said. “And he says, ‘But mom …’, and I said, “Hang in there. You’ve got to hang in there. Just like in college. You have to go back and give it one more try.’
“Like is like that. If you don’t do it the first time, you have to go back and try it again. And he did. He graduated college and he graduated to the PGA Tour.”
Gore finished in a tie for second at a regional qualifier for his spot in the U.S. Open, and thus, his Cinderella story began.
On Sunday, Gore’s victory at Mystic Rock earned him a two-year PGA Tour exemption. His mother, who graduated from Turtle Creek High School and now lives in Monroeville, was in attendance, as was his older brother, Ron. Megan Ann was at home, in Van Nuys, Calif., taking care of the couple’s 11-month-old son, Jaxon William.
After Gore was presented with the 84 Lumber Classic trophy, he dedicated the victory to his wife, saying, “This is for you, honey.”
Also present were thoughts of his late father. Eight years ago to the day, Gore watched his father get buried.
“I’m always thinking about him,” Gore said. “It’s funny how things come full circle.
“It’s amazing where a little perseverance and grit, and maybe a little ignorance, can take you.”
Dave Stofcheck can be reached at dstofcheck@heraldstandard.com.