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BUICK CHAMPIONSHIP

August 23, 2005

Jason Gore

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Jason Gore for stopping in for a pretournament interview for the 2005 Buick Championship. Jason, making his first start as a member this year on the PGA TOUR.

Welcome back to the tour for your third go around after a battlefield promotion out on the Nationwide Tour. We're happy to have you back here. Talk about how exciting it is to be back on the PGA TOUR.

JASON GORE: It's very exciting to be back. It's always good to come back, especially here, it was a good start for me. Still trying to level things off in life, but look forward to this week, most definitely.

TODD BUDNICK: You've had quite a year. You went from the beginning of the season, when you weren't sure that you could keep playing or not or what to do with yourself, to a great showing at the U.S. Open. So you've taken off, win, win, another couple weeks off and a win, and it's been an exciting year.

JASON GORE: It's been a lot of fun. Hopefully I've become a more matured player and it's just trying to learn something new every day. I know what a boring cliche that is but that's basically the truth.

TODD BUDNICK: You had a great college career, so you know the good golf is there. Walk us through the year, the U.S. Open, all of a sudden you play well, you're in the limelight and then you start to win. Just kind of walk us through each week and what you thought as you were going through the process.

JASON GORE: I started to play better coming into the U.S. Open, and I had to go through both stages of qualifying to get to the Open. Kind of felt like something good was happening.

Once I started playing well at the Open, I realized that I was, you know, able to play at that level, such a high level and such a big stage, and that's important to the brain to be able to see that and be able to know that I can do that. I think that's really just kind of what turned it around.

Q. Out of curiosity, this is basically your third time go around, what do you bring now? Are you more cognizant of what you can do out here, does your mental focus change at all, or is it just getting in the rigamarole of being on the Tour?

JASON GORE: A lot of it has to do with confidence and a lot of it has to do with realizing that you don't have to, and you can't, play perfectly. Golf is great like that. You're going to hit bad shots and you're going to hit some great shots, and you have just got to roll with both of them; never get too up or down on each one and realize, you know, the tee ball the first tee ball on Thursday is just as important as the last putt on Sunday. They all count as one, and as long as you keep that speculative and not let anything get too blown out of hand, and that's just kind of the way I've been looking at it.

Q. With three victories already, you have to be confident but do you look at it as "now I'm at the next level"?

JASON GORE: You know, it's still golf and that's really what I'm trying to look at it as. You've still got 18 holes and you've still got to stand up on the first tee and hit your tee ball and that's just the way it is.

The Nationwide Tour, when I was playing the tournaments on the Nationwide Tour, those were the biggest tournaments that I had ever been in. And this week is the biggest tournament and next week will be the biggest tournament because it's the one we have going on right here. I'm going to try to go out and play golf. And the competition is great out here. It's great on the Nationwide Tour, as well.

You know, this is the most important week of my life right now and just going to try to go out and just keep playing golf.

Q. Your reaction at the Open, did you look at it as, I've proven I can play at this level, just showing the maturity and also the confidence?

JASON GORE: Yeah, I mean at that point after the Open, you know, I didn't play well on Sunday, but I learned something about myself. You know, I didn't walk off the golf course and storm off and break something. I took it for what it was, and I think the crowd at Pinehurst kind of really helped me realize that; that it really wasn't that important. They were still on my side and still showed support. I didn't get booed or anything like that.

It was great, you know to, realize that everything out of that week was positive. That's really the only thing negative was I didn't win the Open, and 155 guys walked out of there and didn't win the Open. It was a wonderful week for me and everything that came out of there was positive.

Q. How have you dealt with the reaction from the fans and media?

JASON GORE: You know what, the way I look at it, if I'm in here talking about it, something great is happening. You guys have been great to me, and, hey, it's a great thing. Still not exactly comfortable with it; it's all new to me. It's been pretty wonderful.

Q. What are the differences between the Nationwide Tour and the PGA TOUR?

JASON GORE: There's a lot of differences. But it's still a very stiff competition. You know, okay, the money is more out here, I think everything is kind of like on a ten scale; the money is ten times bigger; the galleries are ten times larger.

But, you know, competition is competition. You've still got great guys that play here. You've got great guys that play out there. I've never thought of it as the Nationwide Tour as a secondary tour. I just said there wasn't enough room on the PGA TOUR, and I think that's true to a great extent.

I think it's difficult out there because everybody is fighting for your life. Everybody is fighting for their lives. Competition is competition and it's going to be it's going to be brutal wherever you go.

Q. Making a birdie putt or a lay up, is the mindset different?

JASON GORE: Yeah, you just really try not to do anything really stupid, really. I mean, the golf courses are set up out there, sometimes they are not as difficult as some of the golf courses that we play out here. But, yeah, the mindset is just you can't really do anything crazy. You just have to kind of keep going and keep hitting smart shots, which, you know, on an easy golf course or a hard golf course, you still have to do the same thing.

So I just think that's what it is, you know, just guys are out there playing for their lives. They want to rip your throat out. It's the same way out here and it's competition. That's the way it is in any sport, any time.

Q. Talk about decide to go play your way on to the Tour through the Nationwide.

JASON GORE: I don't even know, my goal was to stay on the Nationwide Tour and to get my TOUR card through that way, and it happened, knock on wood, extremely fast. You know, that was just sticking to where I was, what my goals were and what I was trying to do. I wasn't expecting to be in this chair in Hartford, but it happened extremely quick. I guess I made the right choice. I guess I made the right choice.

Q. Because of what happened, is it hard to say no inaudible?

JASON GORE: I'm a Nike guy. I've been with them for six years and I'm just trying to go out and just continue to play golf. That stuff all kind of falls along. I just try to keep doing what I'm doing and kind of let all of that stuff and let all of those chips fall where they may.

Q. Inaudible?

JASON GORE: Phil's not in charge anymore, is he? (Laughter.)

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you for joining us and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts.

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