How Hilton Head’s Jonathan Griz, 16, delivered under pressure to win SC Amateur
Winning a championship in any sport requires successfully answering the challenge while the pressure is on. Jonathan Griz did just that in capturing the 89th South Carolina Amateur last weekend at Columbia Country Club.
In prevailing in the state’s top amateur golf competition, Griz delivered in a big way three times over the final seven holes. And he needed that to triumph over a final group composed of guys who know a lot about winning.
Griz, at 16 the youngest State Amateur champion, won over his fellow final-group competitors Kyle Bearden (2018 State Mid-Amateur champion, U.S. Mid-Amateur participant); Christian Salzer (2015 junior champion who plays at N.C. State); and Tyler Gray (2019 State Amateur champion who plays at Coastal Carolina).
Shots to remember:
▪ On the par-5 12th hole and tied for the lead, Griz drilled a 3-iron from 252 yards to within three feet to set up an eagle.
▪ On the 245-yard par-3 14th, after a poor chip cost him a bogey on No. 13, he struck a 4-iron to within eight feet and made the putt for birdie.
▪ On the par-5 15th, after Salzer rolled home an eagle putt to pull even, Griz regained the upper hand by sinking a birdie putt from the fringe.
“I hit a high cut to a back left pin on No. 12,” Griz said in recounting the shot that opened a three-stroke lead. “I had a good yardage, and the ball fed down to the pin.”
Bearden, who shared a cart with the champion in Sunday’s final round, shook his head and laughed at the memory of Griz’ shot on the 12th.
“He hit it, watched for a moment and started to fix his divot,” Bearden said. “I told him, ‘You might want to look up; that thing might go in’” for a double-eagle. “Then he made that tee shot on 14.”
On the short par-4 13th, Griz pulled his iron off the tee into a bunker, blasted long, chipped poorly and two-putted for bogey. Salzer made birdie to pull within one stroke.
Griz took two clubs to the 14th tee, sized up his options and selected his 4 iron.
“The hole’s a bit downhill and I had been hitting my irons well,” he said. “I thought I had the right club.”
He did.
Bearden again: “He’s 16 and absolutely kills the ball off the tee. I get it out there pretty good, and he flies by me by 20 yards.”
Griz, from Hilton Head Island, is coached by his dad Paul, has committed to the University of Alabama, hones his game at Colleton River Plantation and this year will be taking both high school and college courses at a technical college — in what would be his junior year in high school.
His final 5-under-par 67 at the Columbia CC course that played at more than 7,200 yards stirred memories of his final 64 that won the prestigious Bobby Chapman Junior at the CC of Spartanburg in 2018. He has qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur and been earned junior player of the year honors from both the South Carolina Golf Association and the Carolinas Golf Association.
Gray, from Lugoff, saw his chance to become the first back-to-back State Amateur champion since D.J. Trahan in 2001-02 disappear on the fateful 12th. His second shot with a 3-hybrid buried in the bank of the pond that guards the green and he had to take an unplayable lie. A foot higher and he might have been putting for eagle, too.
“I had plenty of club,” he said, “but I might have caught the ball a hair thin.”
Salzer, from Sumter, kept the heat on until he double-bogeyed the par-3 17th. Bearden, from Barnwell, set the tournament record in winning the 2018 S.C. Mid-Amateur, and his 3-under-par 33 on the back nine Sunday would have been good enough to win a lot of tournaments.
Griz “hits it so far and has great control,” said Bearden, 30. “He’s got a lot of game and he’s a great kid. He played great.”
That he did. And at the moment of truth, he answered the challenge.
Chip shots. Isabella Rawl (Lexington) outdueled Chloe Holder (Williamston) for the girls’ title, and Charlie Kennedy (Richmond, Va.) edged Gene Zeigler (Florence) for the boys’ crown in the Beth Daniel Junior Azalea at the CC of Charleston. ... Long-time Grand Strand pro Gary Schaal, a former president of the PGA of America, and Sherri Turner, an All-America player at Furman before joining the LPGA Tour, have been selected for induction into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame. ... Of the nine players with Palmetto State connections in the U.S. Amateur, Trent Phillips (Inman/Georgia) and Turk Pettit (Clemson) qualified for match play. Both suffered losses in the round of 64. ... Kevin King (Bluffton) teamed with Johnny Elam (Charlotte) to win the CGA’s Carolinas Senior Four-Ball title in Southern Pines, N.C.