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84 LUMBER CLASSIC

September 13, 2006

Jason Gore

FARMINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA

LAURY LIVSEY: We would like to welcome 84 Lumber Classic defending champion Jason Gore into the media center. You've had an interesting season, some injuries and some consistent play and some inconsistent play. Talk a little bit about your season.

JASON GORE: I think you summed it up perfectly. It's been pretty inconsistent. I've shown signs of being a decent player and I've shown signs of quickly making my way back to the Spanos Tour. But it's part of the learning process out here, and I think I favored my elbow injury, probably played a little bit more than I should have. Next year I'll know to take time off and get healthy, but now I'm back to 100 percent, and just if I can get my first round scores to be Friday, Saturday and Sundays, that would be good, and I might be back here in this room on Sunday.

Q. After such a whirlwind year last year, to do what you did from the Open on, you use that as kind of a building block, but is it tough, I don't want to say emotionally, to recapture that? You just don't throw a switch on.

JASON GORE: Yeah, you kind of can. You just really have to get out of your way and do it. I've been struggling trying to be something I'm not, and that's the worst part. I mean, I talked to Dr. Waddington about this, and he said you played pretty well last year just going out and having a good time instead of trying to be something that I'm not. I've just been trying to go out and be a, quote unquote, winner on the PGA TOUR, play like one of those guys and not be myself and shrug off some stuff that happens out there. I've been pretty hard on myself, and that's no way to play good golf.

I think that's just what I'm working on, just trying to go out and have a good time and understand that the bad shots are going to happen and the great shots are going to happen. If you don't let either of them get to you too much, you can go along and be able to concentrate on the shot you're hitting right now.

Q. So that's what you're trying to be?

JASON GORE: That's what I was trying to be. Now I'm just trying to be me again. Maybe that's why I always play better in September. It takes me that long to get it through my thick skull.

I'm going to tee it up tomorrow, and the only thing I can really control tomorrow is my first tee shot, and I'll find that one and hit the next one and go from there. The most important shot you have the most important shot you've ever hit in your life is the one you've got right now.

Q. You also talked about trying to play through your elbow. Is that partly, looking back on it, a fault of the success you had? I'm on the Tour now, there's an event next week, I've got to go play, and not backing off and having to learn to say, you know what, I don't have to go out and do it?

JASON GORE: Yeah, I'm one of the weird guys that I actually love my job. I adore it. I don't think there's anything else in the world I'd rather be doing. So I'm one of the guys that would go home, and instead of actually sitting down, the first thing I'd do is go home and play. I figured if I'm going to go home and play, I may as well play out here for trophies. Probably not the smartest thing, a little stubborn in that sense, but I love doing what I do. If I wasn't playing golf for a living, I'd be selling insurance or something like that, but I would find a way to get it done.

Q. Was there almost any guilt to yourself involved in, I've worked so hard to get here, I'm here, there's a tournament next week, all I've to the to do is show up and play with the big boys and do my thing?

JASON GORE: Every Friday afternoon when I was going home, there was some guilt involved (laughter). I love to compete. That's what I do. It didn't always work out and I wasn't able to compete at my fullest, and if you can't compete at your fullest out here, you're toast. I mean, there's so many great players now. You have to be 100 percent both physically and mentally to be able to play out here with the big boys. That's what I wasn't doing. I was competing at 40 percent mental and 0 percent physical. 40 and 0 doesn't add up to 200 if I'm adding right. It's no way to compete out here with the best players in the world.

Q. You played a lot right out of the chute this year, right, at the start of the season? Have you thought about what you'll do next year?

JASON GORE: Yeah, I probably won't play till September next year (laughter). It's difficult for me to not play right out of the chute. I'm a California guy; we got married at Pebble; we live in LA; I grew up playing Torrey Pines; went to college at University of Arizona, which is in Tucson. And then I don't know why I played Phoenix, just because Pat Perez suckered me into doing it, and then played two tournaments in Hawaii. I was fortunate enough to play in Mercedes after winning here, and if you're there for one week, you've got to stay for two. The next thing you know I played eight in a row, and it's like you know, it's not that bad because I'm home for one week and stay in my own bed. I stay with people we know in Pebble, and I'm at familiar places and I have my own automobile. The West Coast is pretty easy for me. I will not do that next year, put it that way.

LAURY LIVSEY: How about just being back here and the good memories? Does it come flooding back?

JASON GORE: This room brings back some good memories, that's for sure. You know, it does. This is just a very, very special place. I've looked forward to coming back all year, and it saddens me to think that this might be the last time.

It's frustrating for me to think that because this tournament this golf course, this family, this tournament deserves a golf event. You know, it's kind of funny to think that there are two golf tournaments for next year that don't have a sponsor, and this is a tournament that has a sponsor and no golf tournament. It's kind of frustrating to think about. They put so much effort into making this the best event on Tour, and like I've said this a million times before, but the people who work so hard for this, they make every player feel like he's the most important guy in the field. That's pretty difficult to do, and they've achieved it with flying colors, and it's just kind of frustrating to see hopefully I'll be wrong with this, but this might be the last year. Hopefully the Hardies, the great family they are, they'll find somebody to have some sort of event and be able to share this great area with the world.

Q. You touched on it a little bit right then, that with the climate today where they're looking for sponsors and they have one here, you used the word frustrating. Is it just kind of strange when you heard about the demise, what was your reaction, and is it any different now?

JASON GORE: I think they were kidding. That's the first thing I thought. I'm like, there's no way. They've done so many things to this resort and to this golf course, for this tournament, and for it not to be here anymore, it is frustrating.

I'm sure those tournaments have sponsors now. That's information from a little ways back.

I think this whole area was built for this golf tournament, and it deserves to be here. This could be a staple in the greatest tournaments on our Tour. It's one of the great tournaments of the PGA TOUR. Hopefully it does work out and we'll get a golf tournament back here or they'll get a golf tournament back here, and we'll just kind of look back at this someday and laugh and they'll welcome us back with open arms. I'll tell you what, I'll be the first person signed up, that's for sure.

Q. Aside from the fact of winning your first event, looking back, was it pretty cool that you did it on a sponsor's exemption and so few guys have done that?

JASON GORE: That was pretty special. You know, I think Adam Scott was the last guy to do that before. You know, just to be able to come in and prove that that was a good pick for them, not to make Tom Baxter look like an idiot (laughter), it was special to do, especially here. I have a lot of deep roots from the Pittsburgh area, and to have my first tournament win come at this tournament at this golf course my cousin Rob was telling me about Nemacolin for five years, you've got to go up there, you're going to love it there, it's the greatest place on the earth, and then to come up here and win here was pretty fairytale ish, that's for sure. I have a feeling I'll be back here to spend a little time, especially if I go visit my family.

LAURY LIVSEY: Jason, thanks for your time.

End of FastScripts.

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