Jason Gore Quotations

Whenever your phone is ringing off the hook, you know something good happened,

Right before I did it, everything went silent and the next thing I know I'm just watching the ball go through the air. It was probably one of the greatest feelings I've ever had playing football. I don't think it really hit me that I made it until I got inside (the locker room). It's still surprising to me.

I got off to a good start, chipped in on one for a two, and just kind of kept hitting some pretty good shots,

I don't remember what the song was -- probably something by Garth Brooks like 'Friends in Low Places. Everybody does that.

If the coaches let me, I hope I can try a 55- or 60-yarder, ... If I make it, that would be great. I don't know what I would do if I made it. I just want to try something longer than what I've already done.

He's a talker, ... Anytime he really starts, I'll say, 'You're talking again, Lewis.' ... I like him to talk half the time, but I also like him to shut up half the time.

I think it's going to be pretty interesting. I'm pretty nervous about it. Hopefully we've got a good sound mixer or something like that -- or a good bartender.

It has been awhile so it feels good to be back up there. I've played this course so many times that I feel comfortable, but the big thing is that I'm just playing golf again instead of playing golf swing.

I was wondering if I was going to be able to get formula for my child, wondering if I was going to be able to afford it and wondering if I was going to be able to make a house payment,

I was always one of those kids who had a nice stereo in my car.

I was a little worried when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, going into a new year. That's what makes golf a great game. You're only as good as the last shot you hit. You move on from there, and hopefully get off to a good start this week, see what happens.

It felt like six miles, ... I had to go up and down two elephants and through the windmills. It was the best putt I ever hit in my life.

I thought it was a pretty good chip shot, but it just ended a little short,

Maybe I'll make it $6 -- adding interest.

That was something my husband wanted and used to say, 'You can play golf, but you're absolutely going to graduate college.'

That was pretty cool, wasn't it? ... It was a good day. I was trying to get a decent round in after playing so shabby yesterday. I thought, 'this is cool stuff.'

You just gotta sometimes think you're not going to go down like that, and you just gotta fight to the end,

When they called me out, I was just surprised because normally they don't ever go for a field goal if we're not too close,

We probably stole a few and left a few out there, ... That's kind of what you have to do in alternate shot.

Yeah, I don't even know what I'm doing here, actually.

We were all in a groove today. The whole group played great. You get in a good groove when you see a lot of birdies made. I had good feelings coming into this week.

What are my expectations? ... I expect to be on the tee in the last group of the U.S. Open tomorrow at 3 o'clock -- I hope that's the last tee time; I hope it's not 2:50. I expect to put the tee in the ground and put the ball on it and hit it out there somewhere and go find it. And go play golf.

What's happened since the U.S. Open just means I'm doing my job a little bit better.

We didn't know what it was at first, ... We thought it was asthma because after I ran for extensive periods of time I would pass out, but before that I would go into shock because I didn't know what was happening and I would start breathing heavily and hyperventilating.

I spent most summers here and my uncle, John Kovach, was a teaching pro at Manor Valley Golf Course (in Export),

Sometimes you just have to dig a little deep. Hopefully I will learn a little from this and still become a better player.

Sometimes you just have got to get it right.

Sometimes, you have to bear down and just say you're not going to go down like that, ... Sometimes, you have to dig a little deep.

After the first couple of months I was kind of depressed, but after that I started looking at it as something I've got to deal with, ... Since then, it's been a motivation for me to do my best. People look at it and they're like, 'Man, that's not good because you played receiver and you were really good at it,' but I just use it as motivation because all I can do is kick. If that's all I can do, I'm going to be the best at it.

So this is really where I kind of grew up playing golf.

This game has done so much for me, both good and bad,

As Retief said, it's not life or death. No one died. No one lost a finger. Sure I was disappointed, but the entire week was a wonderful experience that I learned from, and that's important for the brain.

It's just been an incredible run, ... and hopefully it's not just a hot streak.

It's a very special place to me, ... You try not to forget where you came from. In 1997, they had enough faith in me to give me a spot. ... It means the world to me.

I took two weeks off before I went to Omaha and won there, now I've taken two weeks off again, ... Maybe it's time to do it again.

It's been a good thing to have played here so many times. I'm more relaxed than everybody else.

It's been a lot of fun. I'm still trying to level things off in life, but I look forward to this week, for sure.

It's been a while, but it's pretty comfortable to sit here and to play with such a professional as Freddie is, ... He's such a great cheerleader and makes me feel so comfortable out there. I was pretty nervous.

It's been all so overwhelming, and it really hasn't sunk in yet,

It's been pretty cool, ... I can't even describe it. It's amazing, but you try not to be shocked by it, because you always believed you could do something like that.

It's pretty incredible now to be a PGA Tour winner. Wow, that's cool just talking about it.

It's pretty incredible, ... Around May-ish I was wondering if I could get formula for my child, if I was going to make a house payment, and now look. They just handed me a check for $792,000. It's amazing where a little perseverance and grit and maybe a little ignorance can take you.

The next time I'm in this position, at least I'll be better prepared to handle it.

That's one of the things that really helped me get over the U.S. Open, ... I walked off the golf course and was able to pick him up, and all the other things didn't matter.

I've even had people come up to me and say, 'I started playing golf because of you,' ... I'm always like, 'Gosh, I'm sorry.'

It was a great learning experience, and I took that learning experience back to the Nationwide Tour and had a little bit of success.

It's where you want to be. It's only what you make of it, and it's still golf tomorrow. It should be exciting.

It's tough any time you put yourself in that position, especially as a Nationwide Tour guy,

I'm going to hammer out a lot on the West Coast. It's definitely a dream of mine to play there. I pretty much watched videotapes falling asleep, watching Augusta, for a long, long time.

I kind of went out there and I shagged balls after he gave a lesson, then I'd go to him and he'd give me a lesson and then I got to shag them again, ... That was a lot of work.

I learned something about myself. You know, I didn't walk off the golf course and storm off and break something. I took it for what it was. The only thing negative was I didn't win the Open.

I'm hoping I can find somebody to splice it back together someday.

I'll probably go out and get my butt kicked by Annika and just go straight back down the tubes.

Hopefully, you take this as a stepping stone. I think that's what I'm going to try to do, put it in the pocket and keep on going.

I don't (know if) I was very good at it. But I enjoy doing it. It's of one of those things that I'll do it on a certain occasion, but if it's for a great cause like this, it's going to be a lot of fun.

Hopefully I've become a more matured player and just trying to learn something new every day.