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Grisette has 3-shot lead at Forsyth
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Published: August 1, 2009
Uly Grisette's two children were a little upset dad had to take back the massive Forsyth Invitational trophy that he has had for the last year.
As the champion he gets to keep the trophy until the next tournament.
Grisette is well on his way to getting the trophy back after shooting a 68 on Saturday at shaggy Winston Lake.
Despite the slow-rolling greens that had many of the 171 players in the field scratching their putters, Grisette grabbed a three-shot lead after two rounds. The final round will be today at Reynolds Park.
"I managed it pretty well," Grisette said about his second straight 68. "I hit a couple of drivers where it got me in trouble where I made two bogeys. You just can't hit a driver out here that much, but you have 14 clubs in the bag so I wanted to hit it."
Sitting three shots back are Eric Lawhon, the 1998 champion, and Josh Nichols, who are both 4 under. Lawhon fired a 1 over par 72 and Nichols shot 68.
O'Neil Crouch (72) is 3 under, four shots back while Chris Cassetta (73) is five shots back at 2 under. Todd Chadwick (72) and Will Coonen (70) are 1 under, six shots behind Grisette.
Grisette, 42 and a former All-America at N.C. State, put some distance between his closest competitors with an eagle on No. 3 and a birdie on No. 4 to get to 8 under for the tournament. He bogeyed the fifth but parred his final three holes.
On No. 3 Grisette split the fairway on the 447-yard par-5 then followed that up with an 8-iron to within 12 feet. He rolled in the eagle putt, and then made a 15-footer for birdie on No. 4.
"It's a mental challenge to be out here this long on this course," Grisette said about the five-hour round. "The greens look healthy so I'm surprised they didn't mow them down a little. But everybody had to play on them."
Tonya Grisette, who is Uly's wife, said that their two children Uly, who is 13, and Athena, who is 9, have taken turns putting the trophy in their rooms throughout the last year.
"They were a little upset when he packed it in the car to come to the course today," Tonya said.
Said Uly: "They liked that trophy so maybe I can bring it back to the house."
Grisette, who is trying to become the first repeat winner of the 62-year old tournament since Walter Hall won two in a row in the early 1980s, said he doesn't have a number in mind for today.
"My goal is just play as good as I can and not worry about the field," he said. "I know I'll have to play better than I did today if I want to win."
Like a lot of the players Lawhon struggled on the greens but did enough to stay in contention.
"It's the same for everybody," Lawhon said about the slow greens.
Lawhon three-putted his final hole (No. 9) for bogey from about 25 feet.
"I turned a pretty crappy round into a decent round," Lawhon said. "I didn't play very good on my front side, but I ended up with birdie on seven and I eagled eight."
On No. 8 Lawhon rammed in a 25-footer for an eagle on the 479-yard par-5.
"I just whacked it as hard as I could and it went in," Lawhon said about his eagle putt.
Nichols had somewhat of an advantage heading into yesterday's round because of his knowledge of Winston Lake. Nichols, who will play at Appalachian State in the fall, practiced and played a lot of high-school matches there when he was at Salem Baptist Christian School.
"I think that did help me to an extent," said Nichols, who also had the benefit of playing early in the morning when the greens were a little faster.
He wasn't surprised at the slow greens, but did say: "They did seem to be a little slower than usual. But at the same time we are all playing on them so I just tried to adjust."
Nichols played in the Forsyth last year and finished in the top 20, but he's looking forward to the challenge of today's final round.
Part of his mindset for this tournament came from his aunt, Becky Morrison, who gave him some pretty good advice.
"I talked to her on Thursday night and she just said each shot is the start of the tournament and that's what I've tried to do out here," he said. "So those words have really helped me."
Crouch, who is playing in his second Forsyth, will play in the final foursome today along with Grisette, Lawhon and Nichols.
"I didn't birdie the par-5s like I did on Friday," Crouch said. "I did do pretty well on the par-3s today so I was happy with that."
Also within striking distance is Cassetta.
"I wish I could have played better," Cassetta said. "I didn't kill myself with my round but I'm going to have a shoot a real, good low round out there at Reynolds Park."
Notes: Flagge Stanfield, who played early in the day and finished about 1 p.m. was thinking about playing more golf in the afternoon at Reynolds Park. Even though he had already played 18 holes, he said: "I might play some more, it's not that hot out."… There were plenty of comments by the players about the slow greens, but one of the funniest came from James Adams, who was playing in the same threesome with Lawhon. On 9 Lawhon had a long putt for birdie and had to hit it very hard. "I hope you don't need shoulder surgery after that putt," Adams said…. Ralph Gaillard, the head pro at Winston Lake, said that the course was set up to play about 6,200 yards. "Most of the tee boxes are back," he said…. The final foursome will tee off at 1:15 today at Reynolds Park.
John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or jdell@wsjournal.com
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