Gore Keen to Add Tour Booty to Spoils as Amateur

Jason Gore’s year has included victories in Hawaii and Pebble Beach, a part of an NCAA championship, a large role in a Walker Cup title and enough hardware for a John Madden commercial.

And it has included an ignominious defeat in his final match as an amateur by Robert Gerwin, who won on the 16th hole of their match in the U.S. Amateur with a double bogey.

And it included Gore’s breaking down, then, sobbing on the shoulder of Adam Hill, his caddie, at Cog Hill in Lemont, Ill.

What he would like it to include is making some money at the game he has played so well as an amateur. When he’s not plotting out the three classes he needs for his psychology degree at Pepperdine, Gore is writing letters, seeking a sponsor’s exemption to any PGA Tour event that will give him one.

Two weeks ago, he envisioned “U.S. Amateur champion” on his resume to open doors to sponsors who would promote a newly minted pro. Losing in the second round muffles the process, unless you are Robert Floyd, who made it to the third round, lost, turned pro and was welcomed in the Greater Milwaukee Open as the less-than-famous son of Raymond Floyd, a famous father. (Floyd shot a one-over-par 72 in his pro debut Thursday.)

“I write, ‘Please let me in,’ ” Gore says.

Ahead lies a December graduation from Pepperdine and PGA Tour qualifying school along the way. And ahead is a chance to see if some lessons have really taken hold.

“I’ve learned some things this year,” says Gore, who is from Valencia and spent time at Arizona before moving on to Pepperdine. “I’ve learned about myself and the game. I’ve learned that golf is just a game and you’re supposed to have fun with it. And sometimes you learn more from losing than you do from winning.”

And from the U.S. Amateur loss?

“I don’t know, but it’ll be something,” Gore says.

One thing will probably be that it’s difficult to play at the highest level when you’re exhausted. Gore has played tournament golf all year, covering thousands of miles from coast to coast and Hawaii.

“I don’t blame that for my play in the Amateur,” he says, but acknowledges that he’s tired.

It’s something he’s going to have to deal with next year on the PGA Tour, should he find success at Q school.

Until then, he can go to class and ponder his trophies, remembering when he was so pumped up at representing the U.S. in the Walker Cup that he drove a ball 340 yards.

And remembering when he was so disappointed at losing in the Amateur, that it seemed like the world was ending.

BACK TO THE POUND

September begins the PGA Tour’s dog days, when most of the names scale back in anticipation of golf’s silly season, that series of made-for-TV events paying the kind of money that keeps accountants hopping.

Events such as the Shark Shootout and the Skins Game.

Without a Tiger Woods, who won two events during last year’s dog days, many of the players focus on the money list. The top 125 can play again next year, and the others go back through trial-by-qualifying-school and other such indignities.

Going into this weekend’s Greater Milwaukee Open, No. 125 is Lanny Wadkins, who is exempt for life anyway as winner of the 1977 PGA Championship, before they scaled back the PGA exemption to 10 years.

No. 126 is Michael Christie, who made it onto the regular tour after being No. 2 on the Nike Tour in earnings last season and needs to pick it up a notch to avoid being dispatched back to the minors.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Seve Ballesteros campaigned hard--without luck--for more captain’s choices than the two he has for Europe’s Ryder Cup team, largely because he wanted protege, main buddy and Spanish countryman Jose Maria Olazabal available to play at Valderrama.

Six months ago, it looked as if the only way Olazabal would be able to play in the Sept. 26-28 matches in his homeland would be on a pass.

And then he got hot--or, at least, less cold--and he plays at Munich this weekend as the 11th-ranked player on the European list, $14,300 behind 10th-ranked Miguel Angel Martin, also a Spaniard. And Martin has an injured hand that probably will keep him from playing in the Ryder Cup.

So, if Olazabal can play well enough at Munich to keep Ireland’s Padraig Harrington [ranked 12th, $49,400 out of 10th] at bay, Ballesteros gets to have his cake and eat it too.

Olazabal will be an automatic qualifier on the European team, and Ballesteros can make Nick Faldo and Jesper Parnevik captain’s choices. Because they play on the U.S. PGA Tour, they can’t qualify via the points list for the European team, but as captain’s choices they can give the young European team experience and depth.

GREAT ADVICE

Raymond Floyd looked as if he had just given birth, or made the cut at the Masters or the U.S. Open by one shot, when he stood, wrinkled and wrung out, next to son Robert after the second round of the U.S. Amateur.

Young Robert had slopped around the back nine at Cog Hill without finding a fairway, but had chipped in on No. 18 to beat Tommy Biershenk, 2 up.

Raymond was toting Robert’s bag, on advice of Jack Nicklaus, who had told him he could find few greater joys in life than caddying for his son, as Nicklaus often has done for his.

Said Raymond, “The next time I see Jack, I’m going to grab him by the throat.”

IT (EVENTUALLY) COMES AROUND

Bud Bradley had helped recruit Al Geiberger to USC after beating him in the U.S. Juniors at Los Angeles Country Club in 1954.

Geiberger went on to become an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour and 10-time winner on the Senior PGA Tour. Bradley went on to become a stockbroker.

And, now, the British Senior Amateur champion.

In August, Bradley, who plays at Wilshire Country Club, shot 69-74-73, one over par over the Coxmoor and Sherwood Forest courses at Nottingham, England, and beat Richard Coogan by two strokes in the medal-play event for his first national title in 43 years.

In September, Bradley, 60, will play in the Canadian Seniors--he lost in a sudden-death playoff last year--in Halifax and the U.S. Seniors in New Jersey in an attempt at a Golden Grand Slam.

SCHOLARSHIP

When Colleen Walker won the LPGA Star Bank Classic in Ohio, she collected the $82,500 first prize and also a $100,000 bonus posted by the event for any winner who has also won another LPGA event in 1997.

“That $100,000 just put Tyler through college,” said Walker, whose son is 10 months old.

Figuring the cost of education when Tyler is a freshman in 2015, she’s going to need a bit more and that’s available through the new Lilly Legends Series, which will pay $125,000 to the top 40-and-over player on the tour. Walker leads Betsy King, 219-216, in points that are awarded for full-field tour events.

JUST IN TIME

LPGA officials were scrambling to make sure the Fieldcrest Cannon Classic in Charlotte could be played Sept. 25-28 after the tournament’s promoter, Del Wilber and Associates, closed its doors.

Up to the plate stepped Raycom Sports, a television production and marketing company in Charlotte.

SHORT PUTTS

The most expensive round in U.S. public-course golf will cost even more on Oct. 1 when Pebble Beach raises its greens fees from $275 to $295 for players not staying at the resort. Carts are $25 and a caddie is $45.

The West Coast leg, an orphan of the PGA Tour, is about to become more lucrative, according to Golf World, which reports that Bank of America is about to shower $500,000 on each of the eight stops, including the Nissan Open, making the minimum West Coast purse $1.5 million.

The Southern Area Fostercare Effort will hold a golf tournament Sept. 22 at Cypress Golf Course in Los Alamitos. Cost is $150 per golfer. Details (714) 939-5556. . . . Portland Golf Club in Oregon has been chosen as site of the 1999 U.S. Senior Amateur. . . . The PGA International Golf Show is Sept. 8-10 in Las Vegas. . . . Lamda Omicron Chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity will hold its 11th golf tournament at Montebello Golf Course on Monday. Details (213) 293-0770. . . . The 12th San Pedro and Peninsula YMCA “Kids to Camp” Golf Classic will be Monday at Rolling Hills Country Club. The entry fee is $175. Details: (310) 832-4211.