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NORTHERN TRUST OPENFebruary 12, 2014Jason GorePACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA MARK STEVENS: Jason, thank you for joining us. You Monday qualified into your eighth start here at the Northern Trust Open. Talk about your thoughts coming into the week, and then we'll have a few questions. JASON GORE: I try not to have too many thoughts actually. I'm just happy to be here. I love playing here, and it's a special place. I live 30 miles away from here, so it's a major to me but it's nice to be back here, actually liking to play golf again. Four or five years, it's been a rough go, the desire‑‑ I've been working hard but the desire and the love for the game really hasn't been there. It's nice to actually come into this week with a little confidence and a little belief and we'll go tee it up and see what happens. Q. Can you tell us about that, how have you rekindled your desire for the game? JASON GORE: You honestly want to know? I found out I was unemployable. (Laughter). I think just a lot of things have kind of gotten my focus away from golf, and you know, family is one of them, but I kind of figured out that I'm still pretty good at this game, and I can provide a heck of a life for my family and what better way to do it than that, doing something that I love and something that I have loved to do for a long time. And also, making an equipment switch really helped, too. Not that my other company was bad, but I just‑‑ I switched to PING just out of the blue. I've always loved them. I've always played them. It was fun to go out and hit them again. Not going to say that the Magic Bullets aren't pretty darned good, but just fun to hit. It was fun to go out and do things that I used to do and realized why I loved the game. It's just been a lot of fun. Q. Does it feel like you already won a tournament this week? That's a pretty good feel, Monday qualifier? JASON GORE: No, not at all. It was just a step. Q. And your game seems to be trending a little bit; good finish at Fry's.com, you won the Southern California Open and now you're here. JASON GORE: And the Straight Down Fall Classic and the Plantation Pro Scratch. Those are just small tournaments, but it was good to see some momentum going on. It was good to see that I can still hit good shots and hit some putts, and you know, a win is a win. It doesn't matter where it is, as long as it's just a building block to something, something better that's coming along. It's fun to hold trophies and that's why I do this. I love to hold trophies, and I've held a few, but not enough. I just feel like there's some good stuff coming. The love to do it again is there and that's the most important thing. I'm noticing a lot more of my good shots than dwelling on my bad shots. Q. A lot of times when people get in ruts, they say it's somebody, their family member, a kid, a another golfer, somebody says something and the light goes off. Did you have an experience like that? JASON GORE: There was sort of‑‑ at the tail end of it all, I was already starting to really, really love it, and played in the Tommy Bahama Desert Marlin in Scottsdale. And it was the first time I ever met Charles Barkley, which was a treat. I'm sitting there with my best friend who is a recovering alcoholic and watching Charles throw them down, and I don't drink now because of my best friend, Casey. So just listening to him say ‑‑ and he was really the one who said, why would you not want to provide a better life for your family, because that's love, is to provide the better life for them, give them a better life. Not saying money is be‑all, end‑all, but you know, I went through a rough time, and I've got the greatest family in the world, and I'd love to be the rock and the support. I'm just a lucky guy. Now that I love what I do again, things are going well. Q. What was the plan before you Monday qualified and what's the plan going forward this year? JASON GORE: I was supposed to be in Bogotá right now. But I was going to go‑‑ I got full Web.com status, nonshuffleable, so I can play whenever I want out there. But I was going to go to Bogotá, but put it this way, I was supposed to fly out yesterday morning, and I had not packed a thing. It was one of those things; I just had a feeling I wasn't going to go. Q. People talk about how the game can beat you up and a lot of times fans and media don't realize how much. If there were low points, if there were points where it really kind of wore on you the most, what would those points have been? JASON GORE: I think as a golfer, and I can speak for everybody out here, we all have a certain bit of arrogance to us. They call it a belief system but it goes beyond that. You have to have a little bit of chip on your shoulder and I think going out and playing‑‑ on the Web.com Tour, which is a great tour, don't get me wrong, but when you look around and you see all this going on around you, this is where I feel like I belong. It just got a little frustrating. It just got a little‑‑ got a little demoralizing, and it kind of‑‑ it tarnished the arrogance. I figured if I didn't want to, if I didn't want to do it, then why am I doing it out here. I figured missing my kids' lives, that tour wasn't worth missing my kids' lives for. Not saying that it's a bad tour. It's a great place and obviously the gateway to the PGA TOUR now; it's the only gateway to the PGA TOUR. I think once you get a taste of this again, it's going to fire some things up and want to get out there and back out here in a heartbeat. Q. You were kind of joking about not being employable; did you actually explore that? JASON GORE: Yeah, two years ago I applied for the Pepperdine coaching job and got shot down. Apparently I wasn't the guy that was going to further the Christian mission. I'll let you guys figure that one out. Q. When you talk about getting back out here, and this is the big show and everything, I saw you on the range yesterday chatting up with the other players; is that part of why you want to get back out here, be out here with the other guys and competing against them and trying to beat them? JASON GORE: You know, you have a lot of friends here, but you have more acquaintances than friends. These guys, they are colleagues, and you know, there's a lot of great people out here, a lot of great guys, a lot of great people. Unfortunately I haven't seen them in a long time. Just catching up and stuff like that. But the more I realize it, it's not a shake‑hands‑and‑kiss‑baby place out here. It's a go‑do‑work. It was nice to see how everybody was and see their families and catch up a little bit. But today, basically the gun goes off. Q. I know that you've been asked about this many, many times, but how often during this spell did you look back and say if Pinehurst had turned out a little different, how much would it have been different? How often did you do that? JASON GORE: Actually not once. I mean, a lot of great things came out of that and I learned a lot from it. You can go back‑‑ I definitely would have played it differently, now that I look back, but that's really it. It's over. It's done with. Today's a new day and you know, I think the way handled it, I could have taken it a bunch of different places. I could have just gone off into the abyss and never been heard from again. I could have been disappointed. But I took it as, okay, I can do this. I've tried to take all the positive out of that. You look at the negatives, you get to where I was the last three or four years, you get pretty beat up. Things would have been different for sure, but you know, I did my best. Q. Did you have physical problems in those last three or four years, as well? JASON GORE: I had shoulder surgery three years ago but it was easy. That's the only part of me that doesn't hurt (laughing), 39 years old. No, I'm still physically strong. I'm still healthy. I'm probably as healthy as a 39‑year‑old can be out here who has hit ten million balls. I'm big, I'm strong. You look at the guys who have been in their 40s and playing well out here, they have all been big and strong. You get your Vijays and Stricker is a bigger guy than people think; big, strong, so I've got that going for me, which is nice. Q. So even though you had a lot of respect for the Web.com Tour, it wasn't the type of tour‑‑ the things you said about it, but now going into it this year, is there a different attitude about it? JASON GORE: Yeah, it's just ten percent smaller. Like I said, it's a great tour. I don't want any negative press about it. It's a great place. It's just not the PGA TOUR. And they do that for a reason. They don't want guys getting comfortable out there and being able to make a living. They want guys to perform their best to get out here and make this product stronger. But yeah, I think going into this year, I'm a lot more focused. I'm healthy, both mentally and physically. Mentally being the important one. And I just have to realize that I can still play. Q. Did you overlap at Pepperdine? JASON GORE: No, it was myself and Michael Walton and the year after I finished, they brought in Michael Beard and Jason Allred, so we changed one Jason and Michael for another Jason and Michael. We don't stray too far at Pepperdine. They came in a year or two after I did, but it's good to see half of Pepperdine get in the field. Q. We're going to see Max Homa in here a little bit, I think you've played a little bit with him before? JASON GORE: Since a child, yeah. Q. That's what I was going to ask is how long have you known him. JASON GORE: I've known him probably almost since birth. His dad and I played a lot at Vista Valencia together, so I've known him for a long, long time. He's a super good kid. He's a great golfer and probably a better guy. Because at the end of the day, that's really what matters. But the future is super bright for him and I think once he learns that he can't be so hard on himself, because he's a hotshot stud coming out of college and he thinks he has to be perfect to play out here, and he doesn't. You have to just not be dumb. Q. Is that something you try to do, stay in contact with the Santa Clarita Valley guys? JASON GORE: We get some in games at the country club, yeah, we have him, Nick Delio, another up‑and‑comer who bombs it, and Johnny McGarry who played at Pepperdine and Joe Greiner. We get some great games at the club. It gets pretty hairy, that's for sure. Q. What's it like walking around here and just coming into this place and being out here and playing this course? We all know how much you love it, but was the feeling any different this time coming in based on your last couple years? JASON GORE: It's comfortable. I love it. I love being out here, just knowing what's happened at this golf course is really cool. I was just up there doing putting drills by the Hogan statue for crying out loud. To know what's happened here, like Pebble, to know the stuff that's gone on at Pebble and know the grass you're walking on is the same as Hogan and Nicklaus and Palmer, it's a really special place. But this year, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm going to try and love every minute of it, that's for sure. Q. Did you put together a team of any sort? JASON GORE: Yeah, last year I worked with Mac O'Grady and just like everybody else, I got booted out, I don't know why. But I got one of his protégés that's helping me out. He's a little less harsh, is the word. Got a new caddie this year. My old caddie left me to go to Andrew Svoboda out here. Can't blame him‑‑ he's in Bogotá and I'm here (laughter), just a little stab at the end. (Laughter). He's a great guy but I've got a new guy, Patrick Horstmann; he caddied for Steve Wheatcroft, who is a good friend of mine out here, and Jessica Korda last year. And my old caddie actually posted on Facebook that he is‑‑ he thanked me for everything and said that he was going to work for Svoboda, and 20 minutes later I got a phone call. I asked him a couple years ago if he wanted to work for me, and he's very loyal and wouldn't leave Steve. But I probably shouldn't have said that; Steve would probably be upset with me. But he's a great green reader, which really isn't one of my strengths and he's such a scientific math guy and that's really not one of my strengths. So I figured if he got a little bit of his science with a little bit of my, I don't know, I guess it's a bad word for it, but artistry, because I just see things differently; could be either an unbelievable combo or a lethal combo, one of the two. I can't figure it out yet. But he's been at my house for five weeks and done a lot of work, done a lot of practicing and I think it's going to be awesome. Q. When you were going through the tough times, did you watch the PGA TOUR events and how often would you be in touch with Pat Perez and those guys? JASON GORE: Yeah, I'm still a golf fan and Pat's one of my best friends in the world. For the bad wrap he gets, he's a great guy. He'd do anything for anybody. He's a little fiery, that's all. I like that. I like that in a golfer. But yeah, guys have been good. Obviously life goes on. But yeah, I still love‑‑ still a fan of the game. Just it's me, the way I'm built, I don't know any different. But I definitely got into a little bit more guitar the last four or five years, which has been good. It's been a great outlet and trying to be a better dad and, you know, better husband and just trying to do that. But I think what's so great is the support system at home has allowed me to be a better golfer, too. So got to take my hat off to her and thank her for that. MARK STEVENS: Thank you for your time, good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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