Advertisement

Gore Beats the Pros, Closes Out Open With 64

Share

Jason Gore of Valencia shot a final-round 64 and made up a six-stroke deficit Friday to win the California State Open at Indian Wells Country Club.

Gore, who won the California Amateur Championship last Saturday, is the first amateur to win the California State Open since Greg Trompas in 1973.

He won by three strokes over third-round leader Steve Jurgensen of Newport Beach.

Gore passed on a first-place prize of $10,400 so he can retain his amateur status and remain eligible to represent the United States in the Walker Cup, amateur golf’s version of the Ryder Cup.

Advertisement

He is ranked 20th in the latest Golfweek amateur rankings, but after a third-place finish at the NCAA championships and his two recent victories he is playing as well as anybody.

The United States Golf Assn. announced eight of the 10 Walker Cup selections Friday and Gore was not on the list. The final two selections are expected to be announced following the U.S. Public Links Championship on July 14-19.

“The Walker Cup will mean a lot more to me than the check,” Gore said.

Close to home: Matt Pesso, a Royal High graduate who signed with the recently cut Cal State Northridge baseball program, said he probably will play at Moorpark College next season.

“I think I’m just going to take a year there to get bigger and stronger,” Pesso said. “I don’t think I want to go away to school yet.”

Pesso said he is being recruited by Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Oregon.

Goal-oriented: Kristin Kiley-Boynton, a goalkeeper who backstopped the Grant High girls’ soccer team to City Section titles in 1993 and 1994, said she probably will return to the sport this season as a walk-on at Cal State Northridge.

Kiley-Boynton has attended Valley College for two years and played women’s basketball. However, she anticipates being in goal for the Matadors by August.

Advertisement

“I got sick of soccer and went to basketball but the offers I had to go on, they just didn’t work out,” Kiley-Boynton said. “I need to finish up my [Associate in Arts] degree this summer and then I can go to Northridge.”

As a senior at Grant, Kiley-Boynton posted 16 shutouts and a 0.80 goals-against average, earning second-team all-region honors from The Times. She has not played competitive soccer in two years.

Moving on: Chatsworth High middle blocker Chris Wilson has accepted a partial volleyball scholarship to UC Irvine.

The 6-foot-4 Wilson led the Chancellors in blocks the past two seasons and was a two-time All-City Section 4-A selection.

*

Robert Drescher, a midfielder-defender who helped the Buena High boys’s soccer team advance to the Southern Section Division II semifinals last season, will play at Santa Barbara City College.

Drescher was All-Channel League and second-team All-Southern Section Division II last season.

Advertisement
Advertisement