GORE'S CLASS EVIDENT AT U.S. OPEN.

Byline: DAVE SHELBURNE Golf

What a week it was for Santa Clarita Valley golf, which celebrated - to the growing accompaniment of much of the gallery at the 105th U.S. Open - the play and poise of Jason Gore at Pinehurst No. 2.

Gore, a 1993 Hart High of Newhall graduate who went on to lead Pepperdine to the 1997 NCAA championship, teed off Thursday ranked No. 818 in the world.

By Friday evening, he shared the Open lead, thanks to a second-round, 4-under-par 67 that was the second-best round of the week. Gore's performance Friday lifted him into a three-way tie for first place, and by Saturday night he had secured a final-round pairing with defending champion Retief Goosen.

Almost as important as his final-round pairing was that Gore demonstrated to a national audience what his friends and playing rivals have known for a while now: the 31-year- old Valencia resident is as classy as his game.

After his first-round 67 left him tied for ninth in what often is considered to be the world's toughest golf tournament, Gore hardly could contain his smile as he jokingly referred to himself as a ``Nationwide tour no- name.''

By Sunday morning, Gore and Goosen found themselves ahead of every other player on a course so difficult no one would finish under par. In the span of a few days, Gore had attained folk-hero status among the Pinehurst gallery - as much for his enduring good nature as his superb golf.

Gore arrived at Pinehurst missing clothes and a stereo after his car was broken into en route to North Carolina, but in typical fashion, he was able to laugh off the misfortune and maintain his good humor. Despite his eventual collapse Sunday, when his final-round 84 plummeted him to a tie for 48th place, Gore managed to keep his sense of humor.

Standing on the 17th tee with Goosen, who matched Gore's struggles with a final-round 81 to finish tied for 13th, the lesser-known Gore asked the two-time Open champion and world's fifth-ranked golfer if he'd like to play the final two holes for $10, ``just to make it interesting.''

Goosen reacted with a smile, much the same way Gore had captivated the gallery with his workmanlike performance during a week in which Michael Campbell of New Zealand, who captured the event, and the pride of the Santa Clarita Valley wound up the biggest winners.

``I fought all the way,'' Gore said after his round Sunday. ``I just couldn't stop the bleeding.''

He made it a lot more bearable with his attitude, which had his fans and friends in the Valencia area cheering as much as if he had won the tournament.

``Jason is such a class act, and that was most of what I was thinking about,'' said College of the Canyons golf coach Gary Peterson, who watched Gore play at Hart. ``His whole family just really kind of showed that positiveness.''

Matt Ryan, one of the many standout golfers Hart has produced since Gore, includes himself as one of Gore's fans, although he has never met him formally.

``It's too bad (longtime Hart coach Dennis Ford, who died two years ago) isn't alive to see this,'' Ryan said of Gore's play and poise at Pinehurst. ``He was always referring to Jason as an example of how a player should be.''

Lee Breckenridge, who has coached golf in the Santa Clarita Valley for two decades and worked with Gore while he was at Pepperdine, is convinced Gore will be back on the PGA Tour and challenging for other wins.

``That 67 he shot the second day was incredible,'' Breckenridge said. ``But what I could really see was that he was happy and at peace with himself. I would not have been surprised if he had won the tournament. He'll be back because he's got a big game and a big heart.''

--Local Golfers: Melanie De Leon, the 2003 Daily News Girls' Golfer of the Year and 2004 state junior champion, who has a golf scholarship to Nevada, will play in the U.S. Public Links championship next month in Kansas City, Mo. De Leon advanced as a first alternate from a qualifier at Las Vegas, where she shot a 75. ... Philip Wood of Toluca Lake, playing in the Heartbeat of Hollywood Classic at Calabasas Country Club, had his first hole-in-one, acing the 186- yard, par-3 14th hole with a 4-iron. ... Tom Lee of North Hollywood shot 71-76 to place fourth at the Public Links Association of Southern California senior amateur championship at Buenaventura of Ventura and Los Robles Greens of Thousand Oaks golf courses. Greg Ross of Box Canyon shot 73-75 to share fifth, and Manny Hernandez shot 72-78 to lead area entries. ... Sam Williamson of Ventura, who shot 69-72 to win the competition for players 50-and-over, received a berth on the LPGA's Southwest team in a four-association (LPGA, Arizona, Utah and Colorado) team event that includes four seniors and four mid-amateurs (25 and over) per team. ... Don January won the first Champions Tour (then called the Senior PGA Tour) tournament 25 years ago today, earning $20,000 for a two-stroke victory over Mike Souchak at the Atlantic City Senior Invitational. ``I don't think any of us had an idea of what the tour could be,'' said January, who went on to win 22 tournaments on the 50-over tour that has conducted 775 tournaments since that 1980 opener.

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ON THE GREEN

BY DAVE SHELBURNE