Tag: Jonathan Griz

Former Oklahoma star Max McGreevy tames winds to take early lead at Club Car Championship

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Curtis Thompson, the older brother of LPGA star Lexi Thompson, spoke for the field when he said, “We’re not living the dream. We’re chasing it.” Thompson and Stuart Macdonald shot 6-under 66s in Thursday morning’s opening round of …

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Curtis Thompson, the older brother of LPGA star Lexi Thompson, spoke for the field when he said, “We’re not living the dream. We’re chasing it.”

Thompson and Stuart Macdonald shot 6-under 66s in Thursday morning’s opening round of the Club Car Championship at The Landings. The tournament is being played on the Deer Creek course.

But Thompson and Macdonald and the rest of the field are chasing former Oklahoma All-America Max McGreevy, who shot a seven-under 65 on the wind-swept course to take the lead with the afternoon starters yet to go off when he finished.

Crowd favorite Shad Tuten, a former All-America at Armstrong State before it was merged with Georgia Southern, turned in a solid 67 to share fourth place with Matthew Short.

Kris Blanks, a former assistant pro at the Landings Club, carded a one-over par 73. Blanks played in last October’s tournament, then known as the Savannah Golf Championship, but he missed the cut.

Jonathan Griz, a 17-year-old high school junior from Hilton Head, carded an even-par 72 to put himself in a position to make the cut.

Griz, who last year at age of 16 became the youngest player ever to win the South Carolina Amateur state championship, got into the tournament by being the runner-up at Monday’s qualifier at the Georgia Southern course in Statesboro.

Kris Blanks blasts out of a bunker on the 9th hole during the first round of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Club Car Championship at the Landings Club in Savannah, Georgia. (Photo: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News)

After playing at even par on the front, Griz shot five-under on the back nine to finish second and earn himself a spot in the field. Although graduation is a year away, he has already committed to play at Alabama.

The other amateur in the field, 16-year-old Reed Lotter of Savannah, shot an opening round 1 over 73 and is T-108.

Roberto Diaz, who won last week’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open for his first victory in his 194th start as a professional, let a good round get away from him down the stretch and finished at 2-under 70.

“I’ve not been getting off to a good start,” Tuten, who missed the cut last week, said. “The plan was to get off to a good start and I did.”

Tuten had a group of followers and he rewarded them with an eagle on hole No. 7, which was his 16th of the day.

“You want to play well even if you’re playing without anyone following you,” he said. “But for me to have people watching it motivates me.

“I live for this tournament. It’s a huge deal for me to come out here and have fun. Everyone here makes you feel great. I’m in a comfort zone and it helps me to perform better playing in front of friends and family.”

Tuten said the weather was ideal at the beginning but that the wind started picking up and gusting around his seventh hole and it never let up.

“It was like playing two golf courses,” he said. “This is not a bomber’s course which suits me. I just tried to stay steady.”

In talking about his round Thompson uttered what every player loves to say: “When I won in Chicago…”

Thompson turned pro in 2014 and earlier this season he won the Evans Scholar Invitational for his first win in his 103rd start.

“There was a lot of wind,” Thompson said, echoing the thoughts of nearly all of the early finishers. “I didn’t expect the wind when we started. It was really calm.

“We had four or five holes straight into the wind and all you want to do there is make par,” Thompson said. “Then we went downwind and that’s when you try to make some birdies.”

Thompson hit mostly three-wood off the tee and hit 13 of 14 fairways which enabled him to turn in his best round at Deer Creek. He was 15th at last fall’s tournament.

“I’m just trying to do what I did when I won in Chicago,” Thompson said. “I’m not forcing anything. Today I had great ball striking and putted well.”

[lawrence-related id=778095268,778095278,778095295,778095270]

Jonathan Griz got back in the winner’s circle at North & South Junior

When Griz got his hands on the Putter Boy trophy at Pinehurst, it busted a winless streak dating to August 2019.

Jonathan Griz never really changes his routine when it comes to preparing for a tournament start. And facing Pinehurst, especially, why would he? Griz calls the strength of his game his wedge play, particularly from about 130 yards and in.

“The biggest thing about playing Pinehurst No. 2 is just positioning yourself in the right areas with your approach shots because you can hit a ton of great approach shots that feed off greens or you hit a great shot and it rolls off the green,” Griz said.

The 16-year-old’s week at the North & South Junior revolved around birdie looks. Put yourself in the right positions, and the opportunities are there. Griz did it.

“I didn’t make all of them, but I made enough to win,” said Griz, who lives in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Griz had rounds of bookended rounds of 70 and 71 at Pinehurst No. 8 with a second-round 66 on No. 2. That day included six birdies. He won the tournament at 7 under, which was four better than runner-up Clayson Good.

Scores: North & South Junior

When Griz got his hands on the Putter Boy trophy, the iconic piece of hardware Pinehurst hands out to its North & South winners at all the various age divisions, it busted a winless streak dating to August 2019, when Griz won the Nike Junior Invitational.

“I’ve been working hard to win again,” he said. “I haven’t won since August of 2019, so I’m had a little bit of a drought, you’d say. It feels so good to get back into the winner’s circle.”

With the title, Griz rises to No. 63 in the latest Golfweek Junior Rankings, and he hopes he’ll keep on climbing. The home-schooled high school junior has committed to play for Alabama beginning in the fall of 2022. By the time he gets there, he hopes to be the No. 1 junior in the country.

Griz will spend part of the next two years attending classes at Technical College of the Lowcountry, where he’ll knock out some dual credits. He’s almost certain he’ll major in accounting in college with a golf back-up plan of being a CPA, like his dad.

Before the summer is over, Griz will make a handful of American Junior Golf Association starts – he’s at the AJGA Junior at Oldfield in Okatie, South Carolina, this week – and continue doing laps around his home course, Colleton River Club in nearby Beaufort, South Carolina. He also plans to play the Carolinas Junior Boys Championship at the end of July and the South Carolina Amateur in August.

Griz does more than show up at local events. Earlier in the spring, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, he and another local junior Savannah Hylton started calling hospitals and redirecting money for canceled spring golf tournaments to the medical force. The money instead went toward snacks and supplies organized into goodie bags with hand-written thank-you notes. It was part of an AJGA charity initiative called Leadership Links.

Griz gives credit to Hylton for the idea, but he took to heart the message that prompted the idea.

“She was talking about what kind of legacy she wanted to leave behind from (the pandemic),” he said. “She was the one who came up with doing that and talked me into doing it.”

Griz has a history of raising money for charity through golf. Most recently he did it to play in two charity tournaments hosted by golf buddies. Jackson Van Paris hosted the Carolinas Cup – which was the last time he played Pinehurst No. 2 – and future Alabama teammate Canon Claycomb hosted the Mason Cup. Griz believes it’s his responsibility to devote his time to things like that.

“Golf has given me so much and I just want to be able to give back because that’s what’s really most important to me,” he said.

When Griz and Hylton showed up to area hospitals to deliver their cards and goodie bags, healthcare workers were thrilled.

“They’d never really had two kids do that for them,” he said. “A few of the people said it made some of the doctors cry.”

[lawrence-related id=778054330,778054310,778051406,778042850]