Rediscovering the Drive : Gore Enjoys Winning Feeling Again After Extended Drought

The ear-to-ear smile on Jason Gore’s face said it all.

Gore, a Pepperdine senior and Hart High alumnus, overcame a two-stroke deficit to USC’s Chad Wright and withstood a furious charge by Oregon State’s Charles Kingsbaker over the final nine holes Tuesday at North Ranch Country Club to win a thrilling finish in the Southwestern Intercollegiate Championships.

It was the first victory in a college tournament in nearly three years for Gore, whose golf future looked bright after winning Pacific 10 titles in 1993 and 1994 while attending Arizona.

“This is incredible,” Gore said. “I was wondering if I was ever going to win again. I was trying not to think about winning, but it’s hard.”

Gore tied the tournament record with a three-round, six-under par 207 (67-71-69) and won by a stroke over Kingsbaker, who shot a single-round tournament record-tying 64 on Tuesday. Gore finished two strokes ahead of Wright, a Buena High graduate who led after the first two rounds.

Although he succeeded on the course while at Arizona, Gore was frequently homesick.

He finally left Arizona just before his junior year, took a year off from competitive golf and attended College of the Canyons before transferring to Pepperdine two falls ago.

Gore struggled in his first season at Pepperdine, but has found his stroke again this season, finishing in the top 10 in eight of Pepperdine’s 10 tournaments.

Gore, Wright and Kingsbaker--playing together in Tuesday’s final threesome--staged what tournament director C.W. Johnson termed “the most exciting finish in the tournament’s history.”

With nine holes to play, Wright had a two-stroke lead over Gore and led Kingsbaker by six strokes.

But Wright triple-bogeyed the par-four 10th hole after plugging himself in a greenside bunker, blasting out through the green, then three-putting from five feet. Gore parred the hole to take a one-stroke lead.

Wright evened the score at the par-five 15th by sinking a 15-foot fringe putt for birdie. He had a chance to regain the lead on the 16th hole, but missed a two-foot birdie putt.

“I guess I just had a brain cramp putting,” Wright said.

Gore quickly capitalized, making a 24-foot putt from just off the green for a birdie on the par-three 17th hole to take the lead. On the 18th, he saved par by pitching to within eight feet from under a greenside pine tree and then drained the putt to clinch the victory.

Wright could have forced a playoff by making a 20-yard pitch from the rough for a birdie, but left it short and ended up with a bogey.

Kingsbaker, who birdied five of the final nine holes, needed a 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th to force a playoff, but the putt broke off to the right two inches before reaching the cup.

“I was a little nervous on the tees,” said Gore, who bought a driver last Thursday. “But it worked. We play here about twice a week, so I just kept telling myself ‘You’re at North Ranch, not in a big tournament.’ ”

USC shot 853, the second-lowest team total in the 20-year history of the tournament, to win by 11 strokes over Pepperdine and by 12 over Arizona State. Seven of the nation’s top-30 teams were represented.

Other players from the region included USC’s Brian Hull, formerly of La Canada High, who finished with a 215; UCLA’s Brandon DiTullio (Westlake) 219; Arizona State’s Darren Angel (Granada Hills) 225 and UCLA’s Jason Semelsberger (Hart) 228.