There is something special about this young man that tells me we've not seen the last of yesterday's Michael Hill New Zealand Open winner.
Not by a long chalk.
All week at The Hills, the quietly spoken young Texan exuded a "gee shucks" persona as he clinically dealt to one of the toughest golf courses on the Nationwide Tour.
But yesterday, when it all seemed to be slipping away from him as he tumbled back to the field, squandering a six-shot lead after just seven holes, Gates (24) revealed a steely nerve and inner calm that belied his relative inexperience, the sort of determined belief that suggests he will return to the winner's podium many times in future.
Constantly reassured by his diminutive caddy and girlfriend Lauren Johnson, herself a golf instructor, Gates never flinched when it looked like Queenslander Andrew Dodt was going to pull off a remarkable come-from-behind win with just two holes to play.
Instead, Gates clinched the 92nd New Zealand Open by slotting a 1m putt on the 18th green by just one shot, repelling Dodt's last-gasp challenge, courtesy of an amazing cross-green birdie putt from 7m.
Later, once he had been feted at the prizegiving ceremony, had the korowai (Maori cloak) draped around his shoulders by Sir Bob Charles, and cheered off by a crowd close to 10,000 fans, Gates revealed he had predicted to Dodt's caddy that his boss would make that putt.
Suddenly, his own 1m putt to win his first professional tournament and a $NZ153,000 winner's cheque must have seemed three or four times as long as that.
But Gates stuck to his routine of playing quickly, took one practice swing and knocked the ball into the back of the cup.
"I really had to focus," he said.
"I can't say how many three-footers [1m] I've hit in my lifetime, but that's one I'll always remember. I practice them a lot so I just tried to tell myself 'It's another three-footer' and it went in."
Gates, who had led or shared the lead from the first day, seemed to be cruising to an easy win.
With 12 holes left yesterday, he had a six-shot cushion.
But then the wind, which had stayed away all week, gathered intensity and suddenly Gates and Dodt were battling the uncertainties created by a swirling southwester that threatened to blow the leader off his lofty perch.
Birdies at the first, third and seventh were undone by bogeys at the ninth and 11th.
In the meantime, Dodt chimed in with birdies on the 12th and 13th.
Then, at the tricky par 3 16th, it was show time.
Gates plonked his drive into the water race and made his only double bogey of the week while Dodt parred.
All square.
The two men stood on the 17th tee, surveyed a narrow fairway and the huge bunker that guards the right-hand side of The Hills signature hole (The Canyons) and promptly both hit their drives into the glistening white sand, thanks mainly to less-than-perfect swings and that southeasterly which blew their shots off course.
Lady Luck, so often a constant companion to everyone and anyone who plays the game, then had her say.
When all looked lost, Gates was able to hit his ball from the hazard; had it landed just a few centimetres further right it would have been buried in waist-high tussocks; in other words, dead.
Gates hacked it out, over a hill, and the ball landed in a bunker on the left side.
Dodt was better off, closer to the distant green, but then hit his third into a greenside bunker while Gates made the green, albeit a long way from the flag.
Dodt, inexplicably, chunked his bunker shot and played his fifth shot from thick rough above the green.
Gates left his birdie putt almost 3m short, but then knocked his putt in while Dodt walked off the green with a double bogey 7 on his card and now two shots behind with one to play.
"That was the best putt I hit all week," said Gates.
"After not hitting good putts on the previous two holes, that was huge."
Through the back of the green on 18, Gates played a great log wedge to 1m and gave caddy Johnson a quiet fist bump as they walked to mark his ball, a silent acknowledgment of the huge part she had played in his win.
"She was a great motivator," he said.
"She kept telling me, `You've done this your whole life; you've done this thousands of times a day; all the hard work you've put in, just make it pay off now'.
"She helped me, honestly, almost every shot this whole weekend and I couldn't ask for a better girlfriend and caddy."
Gates was adamant he had not felt nervous at any stage of the day, even when Dodt drew level after the 16th, saying he had felt good all the time, but, back in the press tent, he did confess to feeling exhausted.
"It was a great week but it was very tiring, just because of the level of competition and the way I was playing.
"I was really focused.
I used a lot of my energy physically and mentally just staying in the present and trying to focus on the task at hand."
Asked what meant more to him, winning the title - it was his first start in a Nationwide Tour, a feat achieved by only 12 others - or picking up the healthy cheque, Gates offered a third option.
"Just knowing that for this week I was the best golfer here. "The trophies are nice, the cheques help, but just knowing that I was able to play against some of the greatest players in the world and I was the best this week."
There was no fairytale finish from the Kiwi contenders but Josh Geary again showed his talent by claiming equal 9th with a final 2 under round of 70.
Phil Tataurangi was next best to finish equal 16th with a 74 and David Smail, with a 78, dropped to 47th equal at even par.
The event finished with the usual Michael Hill-orchestrated spectacle, a DC3 dive-bombing the 18th green, daredevil Chuck Berry parachuting on to centre stage and singer Tim Beveridge in great voice with stirring renditions of the National Anthem and Now Is The Hour.
Given the uncertainty about the future of the New Zealand Open being held at The Hills, there seemed to be an added emphasis when he sang "When you return, you'll find us waiting here".
