100TH WESTERN OPEN

July 3, 2003

Jason Gore

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Jason Gore for joining us after his 5-under 67. Jason, funny enough, you and I chatted on the range last week and you said you were happy with the way you were hitting the ball but you just weren't scoring well, and sure enough, here you come out today, first round, nice job. Talk a little bit about your round today.

JASON GORE: Like I kind of told you yesterday or last week, I've been hitting it real good, and some of the swing changes I've made with my coach have started to feel really comfortable. It's just been so close to playing really good, and so I just kind of had to be patient and trust what's going on and trust that everything is going to turn around, and it's starting to.

Q. You had a great year on the Nationwide Tour, graduated here for this season, but you had your best start in your first event, T-20, and then missed three cuts in a row but now have made four of the last five.

JASON GORE: I've had a little streak. We'd rather not talk about that. It's golf. It's just lack of trust I think is what I went through. Once you start missing a couple, then it's just -- it snowballs from there and it's no fun. I think it's what they call a slump.

Q. No bogeys for you today. That played big. You're only one of two players this morning to make it around the course, and it looks like the wind is going to be a bigger factor for the guys this afternoon.

JASON GORE: I was the last tee time in the morning so I got some wind today, too, but I hit it really solid and it didn't really affect it.

Q. Jason, what part of your swing was not to your liking? How are you changing it and how long is this going to take?

JASON GORE: How much time do you have? I kind of used to take it inside and come over the top and drive into it coming this way, and I just tried to level off my golf swing and tried to take away a lot of the moving parts. Dan Hernandez and I worked pretty hard in the off season to try to rid that out of my golf swing just to make it more simple and more repeatable.

Q. An easy process or no?

JASON GORE: It's never an easy process. It's just how hard you work at it. Some people it takes two years, other people it takes 30 minutes. I guess it's how easy it is for you to comprehend and how hard you want to work at it.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go ahead through your round today, Jason. You had the first birdie on No. 5. Just walk us through your strokes on that.

JASON GORE: I hit driver down the middle and hit 6-iron about 35 feet, lipped out for eagle. That was an easy two-putt there.

No. 9, I hit driver, and I think I hit it left in the trees and it kicked out. I hit 4-iron my second shot and then hit 8-iron out of a divot to about 10, 12 feet, made that.

10, I hit 3-wood and then had 76 yards and just had lob wedge in there about six feet.

11, I hit a driver, 5-iron on the front edge of the green, two-putt.

13, I hit a driver, 5-iron from 181 to about two and a half feet.

TODD BUDNICK: How much of a confidence boost is that, first round, you're two off the lead? I know it's early, but with what you've been doing, how much of a confidence boost is this for you with a 67?

JASON GORE: Any time I can go out and feel like I hit it real solid today, it's -- I just feel like what I'm doing is correct, and any time I can feel like it's there, then it's going to be easier tomorrow to do or it's going to feel like it's easier tomorrow to do and to trust it and go from there.

Q. We talk about the pressure of a Major. What about the pressure of being on the Nationwide Tour just trying to get here or pressure going through Q-school, something like that? Is it almost suffocating at times?

JASON GORE: Yeah, because if you don't make it it's not just a week, it's a career. It's a year. I felt it last year when I won one of our Majors. Boise was on the Nationwide Tour, probably our premier -- it is one of our premier events, and to win at that golf course under those conditions, it's just a good feather in the cap, I guess you could say. I feel like I can take experience that I had out there. It's a great tour. It's run well and there's a lot of good players. It's different from out here, but you can expect -- it's ten times different. Everything is ten times bigger out here, from the checks to the people to the tournaments, and that's just what it is. Any time I think you can get a win under your belt, whether it be a Mini-tour event or a Nationwide event, it's always good and you can take it to the next level.

Q. How much does technology drive those tours? You've probably heard Tiger talking about advantages because of equipment and that sort of thing.

JASON GORE: I don't know, I just switched to a new ball and it's a lot longer than the one I was playing. I think technology, I mean, it's a sign of the times. Companies have to continue to make money. If they make one good club 15 years ago and they don't make a new one, nobody else is going to buy it. I definitely think the equipment is getting better. I think golf swings are getting better. I think we're getting better athletes. I'm 6'1", 240. I should have been a fullback, but I think you're getting bigger, stronger athletes out here playing ball because it's a cool game. It's not considered a yuppie sport anymore. We can thank Mr. Woods for that.

Q. There's never been a time when you kind of scratched your head and looked at something and said that doesn't look right? What he's hitting there, he shouldn't be able to hit that far?

JASON GORE: Equipment-wise, I believe in the integrity of the players, and I think if they do have a driver that's not conforming, I think they would take it out. I just think that this is such a traditional game that if it is, it's a fluke. I don't think anybody is deliberately trying to cheat. There might be something out here that's not correct, but I think if the players knew that it was, I think they'd get rid of it. I don't think that anybody is out here deliberately cheating. I think golf is too clean of a sport to consider somebody taking steroids or -- it's just a gentlemen's game. It's a classic game. It's something that we all hold dearly to our hearts. We know a lot of history about it, and I think if anybody knew, it would be out of the bag in a hurry.

Q. Why weren't you a fullback? Did you play football?

JASON GORE: My mommy wouldn't let me.

Q. Did you ever play?

JASON GORE: No. I got kicked out of flag football for being too big when I was like 12 years old, and that was about it.

Q. How many times in competition have you seen or suspected somebody cheating?

JASON GORE: Rare, maybe -- you mean with my buddies at home or out here? My buddies at home cheat all the time, but out here, I don't --

Q. Or in AJGA, college golf, whatever.

JASON GORE: I would say probably none. Out of somebody blatantly cheating -- I mean, I'm sure somebody has whittled around or moved a ball closer from a marker or something like that, but laying an egg or something like that, I think it's zero.

Q. It just sounds like you guys are real proud of your game.

JASON GORE: Yeah, there's a lot of tradition in our sport. This sport is sacred to me. I can probably speak for a lot of people. It's sacred to me and I respect what it's all about. Every other sport, you know, they get a penalty called on them and they're arguing with the refs. We call them on ourselves. It's the right thing to do. If somebody moves a ball or something like that, and it was on accident, they'll call it. I think that's the great thing about our game.

Q. What was your ball changed from and to?

JASON GORE: I went from the Tour Accuracy TW to the One ball, the Nike One.

Q. How much extra are you getting?

JASON GORE: It's good. It's a really good ball. It's 30 yards probably on my driver. I think all results are different, and everybody is different, but it was a good 20 to 30 for me.

Q. Doesn't that hit you like this just doesn't seem fair? I know everybody is doing it, but isn't there a part of you that says how am I hitting it 30 yards longer?

JASON GORE: I think with me it was the fact that it lowered my ball flight and it wasn't losing energy going up in the air, which is what the other ball does. It might be ten yards, five yards core-wise, it might be harder, but for me if it flattens out the trajectory, that might be where I'm getting it, the change in trajectory and why I'm hitting it so much farther.

I think that's part of the new equipment thing. People are getting fitted into equipment so much better now, drivers and shafts. They've got the launch monitors out there, two or three of them every week, and people just are fitted better. There's more knowledge about fitting of golf clubs.

TODD BUDNICK: Thank you, Jason.

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