Pate embraces challenge, on the golf course or off it

SNOQUALMIE — Jerry Pate played his first real round at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge Friday and came away with a with a 4-under-par 68, one of five golfers in second place, two behind leader Ray Stewart.

That’s probably the least compelling thing about Pate.

Pate, from Pensacola, Fla., will turn 54 in three weeks. He has had shoulder surgery five times. In the ’90s, he served as a color analyst on CBS, ABC and BBC golf broadcasts. He owns and operates a wholesale distributorship for Toro, Echo and Lawn-Boy power and irrigation products that services seven southeastern states.

And between surgeries, broadcasting and running businesses, Pate was away from competitive golf for 15 years.

“I think when you’re younger, you’re doing it for the sport and the money and the game and all the excitement,” Pate said. “When you’re older, you’re just doing it for yourself. It’s a challenge. It’s like, why in the world would somebody go climb a mountain? Guy climbs Mount Everest. God Almighty, you could get killed. But it’s a personal goal.”

Pate isn’t averse to challenging himself. At 45, he returned to school to earn a degree in Administrative Science at the University of Alabama. He and his daughter, Jenni, walked through graduation ceremonies together.

Pate won the U.S. Amateur in 1974, during his senior year at Alabama and immediately turned pro.

It wasn’t that Pate believed he was unsuccessful. He’d won eight PGA tournaments, including the 1976 U.S. Open. He earned more than $1.6 million in the game and much more from endorsements and business opportunities.

But something was missing.

“My daughter challenged me,” Pate said. “She laughed at me and said, ‘You don’t have a degree. You went and played all those pro tournaments when you were a senior and flunked all your classes.’

“Then I went on the Tour and won the Open. Why the heck do I need a college degree?”

Pate came back to the game in 2004, after he underwent shoulder surgery the previous year, which delayed what would have been his Champions Tour rookie year at age 50.

Last year came Pate’s first Champions Tour victory, at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, near Tampa, Fla. He punctuated the victory with a dive into an 18th-hole pond. The dive replicated the dive he launched after his last victory, nearly 24 years prior at The Players Championship at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

On Friday, Pate methodically mowed down the par-72 course at Snoqualmie Ridge. His round was bogey-free. He birdied two of the last three holes. He putted for birdies on every hole.

“I’m hitting lots of greens,” Pate said. “My ball-striking is awfully good. If you putt for a birdie 18 times, you’re supposed to do something, even me. They talk so bad about me on television about my putting, I’m starting to putt better.”

The last comment was in reference to Pate’s putting stats, which list him in the 50s.

As Pate has shown before, however, it’s never too late to learn.

Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com