GORE GETTING INTO SWING OF THINGS PGA WIN MIGHT NOT BE SO FAR OFF FOR FORMER HART STAR.

Byline: Dave Shelburne Staff Writer

The Can't-Miss Kid from the Santa Clarita Valley tees up in the Greater Milwaukee Open on Thursday, years removed from his sensational amateur career and still chasing his first PGA Tour victory.

But, at age 29, Jason Gore is getting closer.

The progress might not show in the PGA Tour statistics, where the former Hart High of Newhall and Arizona and Pepperdine college standout has only once finished as high as 20th and enters this week ranked No. 163 with $120,293 on the tour's 2003 earnings list.

However, Gore has turned a corner in the past nine weeks, ending a streak of eight consecutive missed cuts with a season-best-equalling 67 in the second round of the May 11 Wachovia Championship to start a stretch in which he made five cuts in six starts through last week's Western Open.

``I've had a little streak,'' he said after getting five birdies in a bogeyless opening round of 67 at the Western Open.

He's enjoying it and also enjoying some hard-earned rebuilt confidence, which has accompanied the slow but steady progress of his rebuilt swing.

``It's just lack of trust I think is what I went through,'' Gore said of his three-month stretch of missed cuts. ``Once you start missing a couple, then it just, it snowballs from there and it's no fun. I think it's what they call a slump.''

By contrast, the past six weeks of modest success qualify as a serious surge, even if most of it has been achieved in relative obscurity as Gore strives for improvement among the middlemen of the 235-man-deep PGA Tour.

He has nearly tripled his season earnings during that run, which has been topped in placement by a tie for 36th at the Byron Nelson Classic and topped on the scoreboard by three 67s - the most recent coming in the Western Open.

Gore had 10 birdies in the first two rounds of that 100-year-old former unofficial major near Chicago and entered weekend play in sixth place. A quadruple bogey Saturday dropped him back in the pack en route to an eventual tie for 50th, but Gore and swing coach Dan Hernandez can find plenty to be positive about from last week and the past two months.

``We've made some pretty large swing changes, starting in November, December,'' said Hernandez, the former head pro at Valencia Country Club. ``It takes some time to get our goals, swingwise, and I think it's starting to work out.''

There are plenty of Gore's former junior golf, high school, college and Buy.com Tour (now Nationwide Tour) rivals who won't be surprised if the good-natured, long-hitting 1997 U.S. Walker Cup team member works things out all the way to a PGA Tour victory someday.

``I thought he would have had it by now,'' said Gore's high school coach, Dennis Ford, who watched Gore lead the Indians to four consecutive Foothill League championships before going on to Pacific-10 Conference individual titles as a freshman and sophomore at Arizona.

Gore's most memorable amateur season came in '97, when he led Pepperdine to its first NCAA team title, nearly won the NCAA individual title and then won State Amateur, State Open and Pacific Coast Amateur titles and helped the U.S. win the Walker Cup.

Six years later, in his second trip to the PGA Tour, Gore continues to refine his game. This time, he is playing not just with a swing that is simpler and more repeatable but also the confidence of having won back- to-back tournaments on last year's extremely competitive Nationwide Tour, which has been called the world's second toughest professional golf tour.

Gore's second of the consecutive victories - his third overall on that tour - was the Boise Open, considered to be one of the Nationwide majors.

``It is one of our premier events,'' Gore said, ``and to win at that golf course under those conditions, it's just a good feather in the cap. ... 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.''

Gore seems to be finding his groove on the highest level. There are the occasional slips - three holes worth nine strokes over par last week - but also plenty of hint of improvement during his surge: sub-par rounds during six consecutive tournaments, five rounds in the 60s during that stretch and paychecks - available only to those who make the cut on this tour.

``I've been hitting it real good,'' Gore said, ``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 ... trust that everything is going to turn around, and it's starting to.''

Dave Shelburne, [phone]

dave.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Jason Gore, who enters this week ranked No. 163 on the PGA Tour, is in the midst of a stretch in which he has made five cuts in six starts.

Matt Cilley/Associated Press

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