Champions Insider: Pate still has the drive to compete

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Jerry Pate first played in the Dominican Republic 35 years ago. This week, he's back for his third start of 2010.

Jerry Pate is feeling better and stronger, and he's got a solid grip on his golf game. The combination makes this week's return to the Dominican Republic something he's looking forward to with some excitement.

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Pate's first exposure to the Dominican Republic came in 1974 when, as the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, he was on a team representing his country at the World Amateur Team Championships at Casa de Campo. Pate combined with Curtis Strange, Gary Koch and George Burns to win the Eisenhower Cup.

"It was the first really big golf event in the Dominican Republic," Pate said. "Hord Hardin, a past president of the USGA, was our captain. He became chairman of Augusta National Golf Club. I met Pete and Alice Dye. The Teeth of the Dog was an unbelievable golf course and it was an unbelievable experience for four young guys. I was 21, Curtis might have been 19, Koch was 22, Burns 25."

Pate's stellar final-round 70 helped the U.S. beat Japan by a couple of shots. Pate's fondest memory was his tee shot at the long par 3 16th.

"Into the wind, to this little piece of a green that stuck out over the Caribbean," Pate said. "I hit a 1-iron to 10 feet and made 2. Gary and Curtis were behind the green cheering me on."

Pate has made regular visits to the Dominican Republic in the years since and this week returns for the Cap Cana Championship at Punta Espada Golf Club on a sponsor exemption.

"My game is pretty good," Pate said. "Even with all the surgeries, I've always able to come back and hit the ball pretty well. I changed my putting style last fall, went to a claw grip, and my putting has really improved tremendously. I'm excited about it."

As he should be after a difficult 2009 Champions Tour season saw him endure more physical ailments. Towards the end of last summer, Pate was experiencing dizzy spells, then numbness on one side of his face and issues with balance.

"All kinds of weird things were happening," he said.

Initially, the diagnosis was shingles but the symptoms persisted until Lyme Disease, an inflammatory disease spread by a tick bite, was subsequently identified. After two months of treatments with anti-viral drugs, Pate returned to health.

"You know what? I popped right back up," he said.

With his health intact, Pate is looking to return on a full-time basis to the Champions Tour in 2011 after having only conditional status this year. Pate is a successful businessman and an award-winning golf course designer but his heart still belongs to the competitive side of the game.

"I'd like to have a good couple more years right here," he said. "My swing is as good as ever, I'm putting good, my short game is terrific. Now I have to get out here amongst them and get the ball in the air, get out here to play and compete."

As a regular on the Champions Tour from 2004 to 2009, Pate won twice. The first victory came in 2006 at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, where he birdied the final hole to win. Pate won again in 2008 at the Turtle Bay Championship. The other high-water mark in his Champions Tour career was a T2 at the 2005 Senior PGA Championship.

Pate, 56, played on the PGA TOUR for a decade beginning in 1976, the year he won the U.S. Open with a memorable 5-iron shot to the final green at Atlanta Athletic Club, out of the rough, that left him a two-foot birdie putt. He won eight times and finished sixth on the money list in successive years, 1980 and 1981. In 1978, he lost a playoff for the PGA Championship to John Mahaffey at Oakmont Country Club and the next year was runner-up at the U.S. Open to Hale Irwin at Inverness Club.

Pate also won the first Tournament Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in 1982, playing the final seven holes in 4 under with birdies at the island green 17th and 18th holes. Ironically, at the 18th, he repeated his heroic 5-iron shot, his orange ball again finishing 2 feet from the hole.

Despite all the physical problems and the operations -- five times on the left shoulder alone -- Pate continues to strive for improvement by working hard on his game and his conditioning, and takes nothing for granted. When he hears that after all his injury problems over the years that maybe he deserves a couple of breaks in that regard, Pate doesn't buy it.

"You don't ever deserve anything," he said. "You have to earn it. I chuckle inside when I hear people say, 'Gosh, you've got so much talent.'

"I can tell you it's been a lot of hard work, I've had a lot of great instructors and compassionate instruction. And each day I try to improve on what I do. I don't get tired of trying to get better, even if it's just trying to be a better person."

Champions Tour Insider notes:
• Capa Cana is the first of four international events in 2010. The Champions Tour will visit Quebec for the inaugural Montreal Championship, June 28-July 4; Carnoustie, Scotland, for the Senior British Open in July and the inaugural New Songdo City Championship in Korea in September.

• Gene Jones is the only player to finish top 10 in each of the first two years at Punta Espada. He finished fifth last year and T9 in 2008.

Champions Tour Insider Vartan Kupelian is a freelance contributor for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.