Hart’s Gore Links 3 Matches With Under-Par Scores

The toughest putt Hart High golfer Jason Gore has made in a long time was not long at all. The degree of difficulty was not particularly high. A gallery was not watching his every move.

It was a two-footer with a slight left-to-right break. Yet plenty of pressure was placed on Gore’s shoulders by the person whose reflection stares back at him from all those water hazards.

Depending on the stakes, one day’s tap-in is another’s twisting, curling snake.

“It was a slick little thing,” Gore said. “I’m not gonna say it was ho-hum.”

Not ho-hum. Just a two-footer . . . for a birdie . . . and a seven-under-par 29.

Gore sank the putt, applying the final touches to a scorecard-scorching week of red numbers. Gore, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior, shot a cumulative 13 under par in three dual matches spanning 36 holes.

The hailstorm of birdies started March 23 at Antelope Valley Country Club. Gore shot a three-under 69 and followed that two days later with a three-under 33 over nine holes at Sandpiper Golf Course in Goleta. At one point, Gore was five under through eight holes at Sandpiper, considered a difficult public course. As ominous black clouds gathered, Gore double-bogeyed the ninth hole.

“It started raining right as the first group finished,” Gore said. “I was just thinking, ‘Good, let’s get out of here.’ ”

Two days later, his score was practically out of this world. In a match against San Gabriel at Almansor Golf Course in Alhambra, a relatively easy layout that measures 2,600 yards from the championship tees on the front nine, Gore was infallible.

Gore birdied holes four through seven and finished with seven birdies and two pars. Somewhere in the midst of the birdie barrage, his coach, Dennis Ford, flagged him down from an adjoining fairway.

“Usually he tells me when he’s going great or going bad,” Ford said. “He didn’t say anything. I guess he didn’t want to mention it.”

Gore barely recalls the exchange.

“He waved and I waved back, I think,” Gore said. “That was about it. I was off in my own little world, I guess.”

Little doesn’t really apply. A long hitter, Gore was shredding Almansor in typical fashion: Rip his driver off the tee, hit a pitching wedge, make a putt.

On the sixth hole, a 475-yard par five, Gore cut the corner of a dogleg with a towering drive that carried 270 yards over a stand of trees. He hit the green with a nine-iron and two-putted for birdie.

“I just kept hitting the driver and chipping it close,” said Gore, who will play at Arizona on a full scholarship.

Bad chips lead to putting yips. Gore (rhymes with score) recently has been playing around with a flip shot in which he opens the club face on one of the three wedges he carries to add height to the ball’s trajectory. It paid off.

“The ball drops on the green like a butterfly with sore feet,” he cracked.

Finesse has its place, Gore has learned. There was a time when he would have played differently under similar circumstances.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last four years, it’s that you can’t be afraid of shooting a low number,” he said. “You can’t be afraid of making a mistake.

“Mistakes happen when you’re being cautious. Just go out and play.”

The voice of experience. Early last month, Gore was six under for 10 holes at the par-61 Vista Valencia Golf Course. He played the final eight holes at one over to finish with what he termed a disappointing 56.

There would be no deflation at Almansor. On the ninth hole, a 315-yard par four with a water hazard bordering the left side of the fairway, Gore hit a one-iron off the tee to within 75 yards of the flagstick. He then stood in the fairway with a wedge in hand and fretted over the forthcoming shot.

Twenty-nine. Think of it.

“The toughest shot of the round was that wedge,” he said. “I didn’t want to skull it over the green or have to make a 10-footer. I wanted to stick it close so I wouldn’t have to think about it.”

Turns out that two feet was makable enough for Gore, who has won or shared medalist honors in 10 of Hart’s first 11 matches. He is a cumulative nine under par for the season for Hart (11-0).

Once he floated into the clubhouse, Gore learned that his 29 had tied a course record. He was asked again and again to recap the round. He had trouble.

“Honestly, I really didn’t hit the ball that well,” he said. “I couldn’t even really tell you how I did it.”

Others in his foursome undoubtedly could. One of San Gabriel’s players, who had played a superlative round in his own right, was acutely aware of Gore’s accomplishment.

“The funniest thing was their No. 2 guy,” Gore said. “He kept saying, ‘I was four under for the day and lost by three shots .’ ”