Jason Gore is rejoining the PGA Tour.
Not as a player, but as the Senior Vice President, Player Advisor to the Commissioner in a move that was announced Friday by PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. Gore will serve as a player advocate who will continue to strengthen the relationship between the tour and its membership.
“We are thrilled to welcome the Gores back to the tour and know Jason’s work will have a profound impact on our efforts to continually serve our players and elevate our organization,” Commissioner Monahan said in a memo. “The addition of his perspective and experience in conjunction with our team’s existing knowledge will contribute greatly to this next chapter of the tour’s success.”
Gore won on both the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour during a two-decade playing career. His seven wins on the Korn Ferry Tour are the most in that circuit’s history. That includes three wins in 2005, the same year he won the PGA Tour’s 84 Lumber Classic and played
in the final group of the U.S. Open. He also was a member of Pepperdine’s NCAA title team in 1997 and represented the United States in that year’s Walker Cup.
Rory McIlroy, a Player Director on the PGA Tour Policy Board, is calling the addition a welcome one.
“Jason can take ideas from players and maybe articulate them better to Jay and his executive team and the board,” McIlroy said. “He’s a player advocate. He wants to do everything as well as possible to make the players as happy as possible, and it’s a good addition.”
Gore comes to the tour after three years at the United States Golf Association, where he was the Managing Director, Player Relations, a role that was created to open the lines of communication between players and the association. McIlroy credited Gore with improving the players’ relationship with the USGA, saying it had done “a complete 180” and that Gore had played a “massive” part in the improvement.
USGA chief executive Mike Whan called Gore “everything you hope for in a teammate – knowledgeable, helpful, dedicated and fun to be around.”
“He believes deeply in the direction of the USGA, but the pull of his ‘brotherhood’ in the PGA Tour ranks was very strong and Jason knows this is the right decision, at the right time for him (and for golf),” Whan said in a statement to USGA staff.
Reporting directly to the Commissioner, Gore will spend his early days in his new role assisting the Commissioner and the tour’s senior leadership in developing long-range, player-focused strategies that align with the unique needs of the tour’s players. Monahan called the move “an important part of our evolution in further integrating our players into the business of the tour.”