Gritty Gore finds himself in the hunt at Torrey Pines
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
SAN DIEGO -- Jason Gore had just come out of the scorer's trailer on the final day of q-school last December.
Minutes earlier, he had three-putted the 108th hole to fall two shots shy of earning his PGA TOUR card. Gore hoisted his English Bulldog puppy, an adorable wrinkled mass of fur named Brooks, on his shoulder and patiently answered every prying question.
Two months later, Gore again faced the media Friday after signing his scorecard at the midway point of the Buick Invitational. This time, though, the affable Californian was in a much better place -- although Brooks was nowhere to be found.
Gore had just birdied his final hole to shoot 69 on the North Course at Torrey Pines. He was five strokes off the lead held by Camilo Villegas and in a tie for sixth with Mathew Goggin, Bubba Watson, Harrison Frazar and Luke Donald.
Not bad for the proud man who suddenly finds himself writing for sponsors exemptions after finishing 134th on the PGA TOUR money list last year.
"It's only after 36, still only halfway through, but it feels better, for sure," Gore said with a smile. "I think in the offseason I tried to make a commitment. I'm tired of being average. I think I'm better than that.
"I got in the gym, started working on my golf swing. I just don't want to be middle of the road anymore. ... But it's what you've got to do. If you don't, someone's passing you. This is just 36 holes of pretty gritty golf for me."
And Gore knows gritty.
The Pepperdine grad was a mainstay on the Nationwide Tour when he qualified for the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. He was robbed on the way to North Carolina but persevered and found himself in the final group with Retief Goosen on Sunday.
So what if he shot 84 and tied for 49th? Gore made a ton of fans that week and capitalized on the confidence he gained by winning three straight Nationwide Tour events to earn an instant promotion to the promised land.
Once he got to the PGA TOUR, Gore won in his fourth start at the 84 LUMBER Classic -- completing a magical three-month run. The man who had begun the season ranked 688th in the world ended the year ranked No. 88.
Gore is one of the nicest and most down-to-earth people you'd ever want to meet. He didn't cop an attitude that disappointing Monday at q-school, and he has faced adversity over the last year with the same straightforward approach.
Gore knew something was wrong last May at THE PLAYERS Championship. His heart was racing and he was covered with sweat even though the Florida humidity had hardly reared its ugly head. Gore thought he was going to faint.
"Crazy stuff," he recalled Friday. "It wasn't a pretty sight."
Gore had only played four holes at TPC Sawgrass but he had no choice but to walk off the course and withdraw as he had done three weeks earlier at the Shell Houston Open. It was the middle of a stretch during which Gore also missed seven cuts.
The doctors weren't quite sure what was wrong. He was told everything from thyroid cancer -- "I wanted to smack the lady who was my doctor, just the way she said it," Gore said -- to the eventual and correct diagnosis of Hashimoto's disease.
Gore will be on medication for the rest of his life to control the disease in which your immune system begins to attack your thyroid gland. He said it took several months to get the dosage correct but now it's a "wake-and-take thing," and he feels fine.
Gore ended up playing in 33 events last year in a spirited push to keep his PGA TOUR card. He had three top-10s but his earnings of $779,664 left him out of the all-exempt 125 and made the 2009 season a bit of an uncertainty.
"That's golf. That's life and golf," Gore said. "You just have to fight through it. ... I've got a lot of great things in my life. That's why I'm trying to make the commitment to be better and just try to make every day a little more productive than the last."
The sponsor's exemptions into the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer and the FBR Open didn't bear fruit as Gore missed the cut in both. He didn't need an invite for next week's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Gore dearly wants to play in the Northern Trust Open 20 minutes from his Valencia, Calif., home but he has yet to get the call. Should he remain in the top 10 when the Buick Invitational is over, though, he'll have earned his way into the field.
"I'm just concentrating one week at a time," Gore said. "I know that sounds boring and stupid but ... I'm in San Diego right now and we'll see what happens. But it does feel better to actually see something good come out of it."
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