Gore gets back to winner's circle with 4-stroke win in Miami
Miami, Fla. – He’s baaaaack. Jason Gore fired an even-par 71 Sunday and cruised to victory at the Nationwide Tour’s Miccosukee Championship. Gore pulled away from the field to win by four shots and collect his first win anywhere since the 2005 season.“It’s a hard way to make an easy living. A lot of people play for money but I love trophies,” said Gore. “Trophies shine!”
The victory is the seventh for Gore on the Nationwide Tour, giving him more trophies than anyone in the Tour’s 21 years.
“This one ranks among the best,” he said, trying to figure where to put it on the list. “It’s just been so darn long. It never gets old. It doesn’t matter where or when you win.”
Just as important as the trophy, Gore collected $108,000 and vaulted from No. 124 to No. 39 on the money list with only two weeks to go in the year. He has enough now to qualify among the top-60 players for the season-ending Tour Championship in two weeks.
“It’s been a rough year,” said the champion. “That was really the goal this week, to just make enough to keep playing.”
Gore, who had made only 10 cuts in 18 starts and had one top-25 finish this year, was far from perfect during the windy final round, but he was as good as he needed to be.
“I was just trying to play good golf because 80 was right around the corner,” said Gore, who started the day with a two-stroke lead. “You slip up a couple times and some big numbers come quickly. It was brutal.”
Windy conditions and difficult pin positions turned Sunday into a battle for survival. Suddenly, birdies were tough to come by and Gore knew it.
“It wasn’t out there today and I knew somebody had to get extremely hot with a putter to catch me,” he said. “I knew somebody was going to have to play really good to catch me and I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
Gore’s early lead evaporated with a pair of bogeys to open the final round at the Miccosukee Golf & Country Club.
“That might have been a kick in the head,” he said. “That might have been a good thing. I said to myself, ‘this is not going to be given to you.’”
Two birdies in his next three holes helped him regain the lead, though with little margin for error. Hearn was the only one to put any real pressure on the leader. The former Wyoming Cowboy reached 15-under with a chip-in birdie at the 10th to cut Gore’s lead down to one.
“David looked over at me and stared me down,” said Gore. “He might have just been looking at me after I told him ‘nice shot.’ David’s a great friend and I’ve known him a long time. Sometimes you take things out of context and use them to your advantage. I knew that I was going to work my butt of to make sure nobody was going to catch me.”
A bogey at No. 12 dropped Hearn two back, but still within striking distance and the only real challenger left on the course.
Gore put pressure on the field by continuing to make pars in mid-round. He reeled off seven in a row until an 8-foot birdie putt found the cup at No. 13, putting him a 17-under and up by three.
“It was fun to be in that battle,” he said. “It was fun to be in that arena. It seemed like it was going to come down to whoever blinked first.”
Then it happened. A pulled tee shot on the par-4, 13th sailed through the trees and out of bounds and resulted in a triple-bogey for Hearn, a 31-year old Canadian. The lead for Gore was suddenly up to five and the only question left to answer concerned the winning margin.
“I kind of figured after David made triple that I was okay,” said Gore. “I didn’t want to let down. It wasn’t time to let down yet.”
Gore continued to drive to the finish and it wasn’t until the 18th hole did he find out exactly where he stood. Gore’s five-shot margin went to four when he failed to get up and down from over the green for par.
It didn’t matter, they still gave him the trophy.
Fourth -Round Notes:
* Jason Gore’s win today is the eighth of his career and his seventh on the Nationwide Tour. His seven wins are the most by any player in Tour history. Gore breaks a tie at six wins with Sean Murphy, Matt Gogel and Kevin Johnson.
* Jason Gore is a perfect 5-for-5 when holding a 54-hole lead in his career. He previously won the 2002 Oregon Classic, 2002 Albertsons Boise Open, 2005 Scholarship America Showdown and 84 LUMBER Classic (PGA Tour) while leading after three rounds.
* This was Jason Gore’s first top-10 finish since a T7 at the 2009 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee on the PGA Tour 15 months ago.
* The first-place check for $108,000 increases Gore’s career total to $998,463.
* Jason Gore might be considered THE man to beat at next week’s inaugural Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open. Gore has a track record of winning consecutive starts. He won back-to-back weeks in 2002 at the Oregon Classic and the Albertsons Boise Open. He also won back-to-back weeks in 2005 at the National Mining Association Pete Dye Classic and the Scholarship America Showdown.
* Here is how Jason Gore stood following 54 holes in each of his previous six Nationwide Tour wins.
Event Score Pos. Standing Final Rd. Score Result
2000 New Mexico Classic -10 2nd trailed by 1 shot 66 -14 won by 3
2002 Oregon Classic -17 1st led by 2 shot 71 -18 won by 3
2002 Albertsons Boise Open -13 1st led by 3 shot 73 -11 won by 2
2005 Nat’l Mining Assn. -13 T2 trailed by 1 shot 68 -17 won by 1
2005 Scholarship America Shw. -11 1st led by 1 shot 67 -14 won by 4
2005 Cox Classic -15 T4 trailed by 4 shot 63 -23 def. R. Tambelllini in playoff
2010 Miccosukee Champ. -16 1st led by 2 shot 71 -16 won by 4
*The last (and only) time Jason Gore held/shared the 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour came at the 2005 84 LUMBER Classic:
Event Score Pos. Standing Final Rd. Score Result
2005 84 LUMBER Classic -12 1st led by 2 shot 70 -14 won by 1
* Kevin Kisner, winner of the Mylan Classic near Pittsburgh, locked up a spot on the PGA Tour next year with his tie for second this week. Kisner was No. 17 on the money list but the additional $52,800 moved him all the way up to No. 10.
* Scott Gutschewski’s T2 also gave him a boost up the money ladder. He moved from No. 27 to No. 18 on the list.
* David Hearn rolled in an 18-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to move into a tie for 4thplace. He earned $23,625 and moved up four spots from No. 30 to No. 26 on the money list.
* It’s déjà vu all over again for Australia’s Won Joon Lee, who finished T4. Lee began the week No. 65 on the money list and in need of a good finish this week or next to reach the Nationwide Tour Championship. His payday moves him up 15 places to No. 50. Lee came into this event last year at No. 73, tied for second and moved up to No. 47.
* David Branshaw (T23) earned enough money this week ($5,580) to become the 20th player in Tour history to top the $1M mark in career earnings. Branshaw had pocketed $996,982 in his years on Tour and needed only $3,018 to reach that total.
* James Hahn, No. 25 on the money list, finished T23 this week and fell back two spots to No. 27.
* With only one full-field event left on the 2010 schedule, here is a comparative look at how the 25thplace on the money list has changed the past few weeks:
Tournament Player at #25 $ total $ increase
Utah Championship Brian Smock 136,080 ---
Albertsons Boise Open Brian Smock 140,357 4,277
WNB Golf Classic Nate Smith 153,054 12,697
Soboba Golf Classic Scott Gutschewski 162,042 8,988
Chattanooga Classic James Hahn 167,820 5,778
Miccosukee Championship Chris Nallen 185,293 17,473
* Six of the top-10 leading money winners are not competing this week: No. 1 Jamie Lovemark, No. 2 Chris Kirk, No. 5 Hunter Haas, No. 6 Martin Piller, No. 8 Kevin Chappell and No. 10 Bobby Gates. Lovemark and Chappell received sponsor exemptions in this week’s PGA Tour event, the Frys.com Open in San Jose, Calif.
* There is one full-field event left on the 2010 schedule – the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open next week. The season ends with the top-60 money winners competing at the Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island, Oct. 25-31.
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