Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 2, 1990 TAG: 9007020084
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Seemingly headed for an early knockout Sunday at Birdwood Golf Course, Grant took the fight to the limit before falling to Hank Klein of Richmond 1-up in 36 holes.
Grant, from Radford, was 6-down after 15 holes but managed to square the match with eight holes remaining.
"I felt like I could win it; I felt like I was gonna win at that point," said Grant, 20, who will be a senior at Virginia Commonwealth in the fall.
Grant never took the lead, however. The players halved five holes in a row before Grant three-putted from the fringe for a bogey at No. 16 in the afternoon round.
That gave Klein a 1-up advantage, which he preserved with par-saving putts of 6 feet at No. 17 and 7 feet at No. 18.
"The putt at [No.] 16 was what did it," Grant said. "I felt like I lost the match right there."
Grant had putted so well to that point that Klein, who also was on the fringe, said he was just hoping to get down in two and remain even going to No. 17.
Even after his first putt stopped well short of the hole, Grant could have saved par by making a 6-footer. But it was the first putt that he will see in his sleep.
"If I get that one close, then I don't have to worry about the second one," he said. "I wasn't trying to make it from the fringe. I was just trying to lag it. What I didn't take into account was that I was going against the grain."
Grant had won two of the last three holes in the morning round to cut Klein's margin to 4-up when the players broke for lunch. Although he played solidly in the afternoon, Grant needed some help from Klein, who had a 6-over-par 42 on the front nine.
"It was the back nine that got me going again," said Klein, 21, who upset defending champion Tom McKnight of Galax in the first round and then won the last six holes to overcome a four-hole deficit in his match with Freddie Von Bargen in the second round.
Klein obviously has a flair for the dramatic, as well as the unusual. Four years ago, he set an unofficial Virginia State Golf Association record when he was penalized 14 shots in State Junior qualifying for riding in a cart for seven holes.
Klein once finished second in the NCAA Division III long-driving contest, but his game is not one-dimensional, witness his first-team All-American selection this past season as a junior at Methodist College in Fayetteville, N.C.
Klein and Grant played together in the Virginias-Carolinas team matches and against one another in a college tournament, and Saturday night they shared a hotel room.
"He was going to go back to Richmond," Grant said, "but we had to be back here by 8 a.m., so I said, `Why don't you just come over and stay with me?' I don't think either one of us got much sleep. He seemed to be tossing and turning as much as I was."
Nevertheless, Grant said he may have been too relaxed to start the morning round. He did not win a hole until No. 11, by which point he was 5-down.
"At that point, I was basically thinking `no blowout,' " Grant said. "When you're 6 down, you can't expect to win."
Grant was playing in front of a sizable turnout of friends and supporters from Radford and his home club, Thorn Spring in Pulaski.
"I'm happy I got this far," said Grant, who had run out of clean clothes and purchased a Birdwood shirt for the final round. "If I could have two-putted [No.] 16, we might still be playing, but you can't dwell on the past. All I know is, I'm so tired that I might not pick up a club for another week."
by CNB