Fuente: © PGATour.com
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PGA TOUR: Then and Now: Jerry Pate

/noticias.info/ By Lauren Deason
PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator

Then: Jerry Pate played on the PGA TOUR full-time from 1976-1995. During those years, he had eight victories, including a win at the 1976 U.S. Open. Pate was famous for his dive into the lake next to No. 18, after pulling in former TOUR commissioner Deane Beman and course architect Pete Dye, upon winning the 1982 PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

In 1977, Pate won two events, the Phoenix Open and the Southern Open. He’d concluded an All-American career at the University of Alabama in 1975 and played on a winning U.S. Walker Cup team that same year. His interests at the time included waterskiing, hunting and fishing.

Fun Facts from 1977:

Academy Award, Best Picture: Rocky
Notable film releases: Star Wars, Annie Hall, Saturday Night Fever, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Born in 1977: Tom Brady, Orlando Bloom, Carl Pettersson, Geoff Ogilvy, Luke Donald
Died in 1977: Elvis Presley (42), Bing Crosby, Groucho Marx, Charlie Chaplin
President: Jimmy Carter
1977 Masters Tournament winner: Tom Watson
1977 U.S. Open champion: Hubert Green
1977 British Open champion: Tom Watson
1977 PGA Championship winner: Lanny Wadkins

Now: Pate’s on the Champions Tour and earned his first victory at the 2006 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. In 2001, Pate finally received his degree from the University of Alabama, walking in the same graduation ceremonies as his daughter Jenni. He also has two other children and enjoys golf course design, music, charity work, the Boy Scouts and the First Tee.

“One of the most disappointing moments for me in golf was when my kids fussed at me for throwing away my old triple-knit, red and white polyester pants I wore when I won the U.S. Open. When they were in college in the late ‘90s, they said those pants were back in style at some of their parties at night. They thought those pants would have won all the costume awards. To this day, they still tease me about them. Everything in fashion comes around full circle. Once you get over 50, everything you wear is in style.” Pate, as said to PGA TOUR media official Phil Stambaugh in 2006, on fashion during the 70s and 80s notas_de_prensa_archivo