Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406140079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I can just hear 'em now," Grant said. "All those guys are going to be wondering `Who in the hell is that guy?' "
Well, for starters, the 24-year-old Radford native is the first Southwestern Virginian in recent memory not named Snead to qualify for an U.S. Open.
"I always dreamed of one day playing in the U.S. Open," Grant said. "Now, I'm going to get that shot. It's pretty unbelievable when you think about it."
Grant, in his second year as an assistant professional at Flossmoor Country Club in Chicago, overcame long odds to make the exclusive field. He was one of 90 players out of 6,010 non-exempt entries across the country to survive local and sectional qualifying.
"Another assistant here at the club and I were sitting around one day and somebody said, `Let's try and make the U.S. Open,' " Grant said. "We just thought it would be something cool to try and do."
Grant shot a 72 on May 23 at Chicago's Balmoral Woods Golf Club to earn one of 11 spots out of 111 entries in a local qualifier.
In sectional qualifying this past Monday at Chicago's Barrington Hills Country Club, Grant shot rounds of 69 and 70 in a field of 44 to win one of three available Open spots.
"I just happened to hit my peak at the right time. I'm playing really well, but I'm not sure why. I'm putting better than I ever have," said Grant, who turned professional in 1991 after a stellar collegiate career at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Grant acknowledged that teeing it up in the U.S. Open in front of thousands - millions, counting television audience - will be a once-a-lifetime experience.
Oh, he's played in an Open before. The Greater Blacksburg Open, that is, which he won in 1990.
"Since qualifying, I've been having a hard time keeping my mind on the stuff here at the club I need to be working on," he said. "I'm going to have to take in an awful lot in just a couple of days. But if I can stay relaxed and somehow block everything out, everything should be all right."
Grant is leaving Chicago today for Pittsburgh. He is scheduled to play a practice round Monday with 1993 Masters runner-up Chip Beck.
"All this really hasn't hit me yet. Maybe when I get there, it will," said Grant, runner-up to Richmond's Hank Klein in the 1990 Virginia State Amateur.
While his goal is to simply make the 36-hole cut - "I'm taking enough clothes for the whole week," he said - Grant confessed to harboring Walter Mitty-like dreams.
"I'm not saying I'm going to win it, but I do think there's a chance," Grant said. "If you qualify, obviously, you have the talent to win the tournament.
"Yeah, it would be a huge, huge upset. But I'm looking at this as about the same thing as John Daly winning the PGA [in 1991]. Hey, you never know what's going to happen. Anybody can get hot for a week."
\ NIKE STOP: Professional golf's top minor league, the Nike Tour, stops in Richmond this week for the 1994 Nike Dominion Open.
The $200,000 tournament runs Thursday through Sunday at The Dominion Club, a par-72, 7,020-yard Curtis Strange Signature course.
Organizers are hoping to draw some pros who failed to qualify for the U.S. Open.
Scott Gump ($96,660) and former PGA Tour pro Tommy Armour ($84,069) head the Nike money list. The top 10 Nike money-earners get automatic exemptions on the PGA Tour in 1995.
Hanging Rock teaching pro Chip Sullivan earned a spot in the field through a qualifier in Richmond on Thursday.
\ SAND BLASTS: Hanging Rock duo Billy McBride and Chip Sullivan combined for a 9-under 62 to win the Middle Atlantic PGA's Southern Chapter Pro-Assistant Championship by two shots Monday at Jefferson Lake Golf Club. McBride and Sullivan each won $491. . . . Hidden Valley's Dot Bolling and Holley Updike shot 146 scratch to win the recent Ameristaff Women's Two-Ball Classic at Forest Park in Martinsville. . . . Updike, Joan Bennings, Spring Cho and Jack Tuttle shot 16-under Wednesday at Hanging Rock to win the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce captain's choice tournament.
by CNB