Playing at his home course, Davis Bryant fires 65 and shares first-round lead at Inspirato Colorado Open; Coloradan Pat Grady leads amateurs despite very rough finish
By Gary Baines – 7/25/2024
Davis Bryant estimates he’s played a thousand rounds of golf at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, home of the Inspirato Colorado Open.
And on Thursday, it showed.
The 24-year-old former Colorado State University golfer, coming off a victory at the Wyoming State Open (his first win as a pro) and a fifth place at the Waterloo Open (making an albatross in the process), continued his torrid play in round 1 of the tournament contested every year at GVR.
Bryant sank a 20-foot birdie putt on his final hole of the day — No. 9 — to shoot a 6-under-par 65 in windy conditions, good for a share of the first-round lead in the 60th Colorado Open. The $250,000 tournament, which features a $100,000 first prize, continues through Sunday.
Regarding how often Bryant has played GVR, he noted, “There’s times (as a kid) I would go out in the morning and I’d go play with random people, grab lunch, then I’d go back out.
“It’s just a comfort thing, knowing how the holes play, knowing some spots where you want to putt from. All the hole locations, I’ve obviously seen everything you can see. But it does play different (during the Colorado Open) — it gets firmer, the greens get faster. I never play the greens this fast, ever. Some of the putts are a little different so you’ve got to read them a little differently.
“But where some players might be uncomfortable on a tee shot, I’ve probably had that tee shot 50 or 75 times before in that situation, that kind of pressure. As I said: It’s a comfort thing.”
The former CGA Player of the Year, who turned pro following last year’s U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills, made seven birdies and one bogey on Thursday. He’s tied for the top spot with Paul O’Hara of Scotland, who made the cut and finished 75th in last year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour. O’Hara matched Bryant’s seven-birdie, one-bogey day.
Bryant extricates himself from a bunker on his ninth hole Thursday.
Among those sharing third place, at 66, is 2020 U.S. Amateur champion Tyler Stafaci of Davie, Fla., along with MJ Maguire of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Christian Chapman of Victor, N.Y.
In all, 46 of the 144 players in the field shot in the 60s on Thursday, despite the wind, which kicked up shortly after 10 a.m. and remained a factor for the remainder of the daylight hours.
Bryant, a two-time Southwestern Amateur champion, has been on quite a roll in recent tournaments. Over the Wyoming State Open, the Waterloo Open and the start of the Colorado Open, he’s gone
64-62-64-67-62-67-65. For those keeping track, that’s a 64.43 scoring average over that seven-round stretch.
“I’m very pleased,” the Aurora resident said. “I feel like I’m command of my golf ball. I’m putting really well still. I feel pretty comfortable with where my game is at. I executed well and got some putts to drop. I made some putts with some length (three of more than 20 feet), which was nice.”
Bryant doesn’t hide the fact that being in contention at the Colorado Open is particularly meaningful, given he basically grew up at the course. His dad, Matt, who is caddying for him this week, is the longtime PGA general manager at GVR. And Davis’ mom, Julie, is the tournament director for the Inspirato Colorado Open Championships, the COO of the Colorado Open Golf Foundation and the executive director of the First Tee GVR. She watched him for his back nine on Thursday.
“I could tell people it’s not extra special, but it is,” Bryant said of competing at GVR. “I want to play well, I want to represent my home well and the people that have supported me from around here. One of the starters that’s been here for 20-some years watched me for the front nine today. It would mean a lot to have a good week, and we’re off to a good start.”
Bryant, along with numerous other Coloradans, is bidding to become the first player who grew up in the state to win the Colorado Open since Jonathan Kaye in 2017. Kaye split his time between Colorado and Arizona as a young man. Zahkai Brown, the 2013 champion, was a full-time Colorado resident growing up.
Former Colorado Open runner-up Jake Staiano opened with a 67.
Speaking of Coloradans, several are within two or three strokes of the lead after Thursday’s opening round.
Bryant’s fellow former CSU golfers Jake Staiano of Englewood (67) and AJ Ott of Fort Collins (67) are among them, along with Colorado PGA professional Tristin Goodwin of Englewood (67), two-time champion Derek Tolan (68), Griffin Barela of Lakewood (68), Dillon Stewart of Fort Collins (68), Jim Knous (68) and Pat Grady (68). Staiano eagled the par-5 12th on Thursday, while Ott went bogey-free and Goodwin made five birdies.
AJ Ott is two off the lead after his Thursday 67.
Knous — a former PGA Tour player who was born and raised in Colorado, attended the Colorado School of Mines and now works for Ping and lives in Cave Creek, Ariz. — has played in less than a handful of rounds since finishing 28th in the PGA Tour’s WM Phoenix Open in February. He carded five birdies and two bogeys on Thursday.
Former PGA Tour player Jim Knous started with a 68 on Thursday.
An ‘If Only …’ Round for Amateur Pat Grady: There are so many formidable golfers who play the game full time in the Colorado Open field, so who was at the top of the leaderboard around midday on Thursday at GVR?
None other than a 38-year-old certified public accountant.
Pat Grady, a former University of Colorado golfer and a two-time CGA Player of the Year, was 7 under par through 16 holes on Thursday and held a two-stroke advantage. Alas, the fact that the former pro no longer focuses solely on golf for a living showed down the stretch of round 1, which is why you don’t see Grady’s name at the top of the scoreboard after round 1.
Grady was having a magical round through 16 holes. Not only had he made five birdies — and no bogeys — but he holed out from 132 yards for eagle on the par-4 11th hole. “It was crazy — a pretty cool shot,” said Grady, the low amateur (and sixth-place finisher overall) in the 2008 Colorado Open.
Pat Grady leads the amateurs despite his double bogey-double bogey finish.
But there was a reckoning of sorts on the 17th and 18th holes, where he posted back-to-back double bogeys, which dropped him from 7 under to a 3-under 68 total. That’s still a very solid round, particularly for an amateur, but when he thinks of what might have been …
Asked if he was comfortable sitting at 7 under through 16, Grady said, “No. I’m two kids and a CPA. I don’t play ever for like six months of the year. Then I come out here and have a weird deal.”
The “weird deal” was the result of trying to manufacture two shots off the tee — unsuccessfully — on 17 and 18, combined with two three putts.
He tried to hit a chip 6-iron into a hard wind on the par-3 17th — instead of a hard 7-iron — then had to chip on before three-putting. And on the par-5 18th, into that same strong wind, his tee shot went into the native grass on the right. He made it onto the back edge of the green — with the pin near the front — in 4, then three-jacked again.
“I think the problem is if you don’t play a lot, you have to only hit one shot,” Grady said. “If I was a 24-year-old pro, and it’s a gale-force wind into me on 17, I can chip a 6-iron. But as a 38-year-old accountant, you’ve got to just hit a hard 7 because you don’t have that (chip 6) anymore. The same thing on 18. I tried to finesse a 9-iron in there (for his approach) and tried to finesse a driver off the tee. You’ve just got to only hit one shot. So that’s what I’m going to go for tomorrow.
“It’s so stupid. You think you can hit the shots you used to hit. If you hit it one time a summer and it’s under pressure … that’s what happened.”
The good news is that despite his double bogey-double bogey finish on Thursday, the Westminster resident is in 15th place overall and is the low amateur after round 1.
“I had a lot of positives — hit a lot of good drives, had a lot of solid play throughout,” he said. “If I can just keep that going and not make the dumb mistakes .. I’ll be super happy if I have four 68s, right?
“My goal was to not have expectations (coming in). That’s probably why I played good today. If I can continue to not have expectations, and just try to hit the one shot, I think I’ll be OK.”
David Duval hugs son Brady before Thursday’s round.
Duval Opts for Home Game: Cherry Hills Village resident David Duval could have been in the midst of a trip to the British Isles for last week’s British Open and this week’s Senior British Open. Instead, he opted to tee it up in his home state along with his son, Brady, with whom he finished second in the nationally televised PNC Championship in December.
“That’s the big reason, right?” the former world No. 1 said of his reasoning. “But also, I’ve been here (in Colorado) for over two decades — so support Colorado golf. The fact that they put up the largest first prize in the country for a state open, I feel like as a touring professional, if I’m here and they want me to play, I should play to support it, you know?”
The 13-time PGA Tour winner opened with a 2-over-par 73 in his second straight year competing at GVR. Brady posted a 72. Brady played his first year of college golf at Coastal Carolina last season, but said after Thursday’s round that he plans to compete — as an amateur — in PGA Tour Q-school in the fall.
Duval pitches to the 18th green on Thursday.
Meanwhile, David Duval has been playing considerably better of late on PGA Tour Champions, with three top-16 finishes since June 1, including a third place.
“I’m playing well,” the 2001 British Open champion said. “I played well today. It was a tough day. I had a few funny things happen, which it does in this wind. But all in all I’m happy with what I did. Not so happy with the score itself, but I know I played better than that.”
Notable: Michael Block, the 2014 national PGA Professional Championship winner who finished 15th in last year’s PGA Championship, never got anything going in round 1, finishing at 2-over-par 73. … Defending champion Turk Pettit, the 2021 NCAA individual champion, opened with an even-par 71 after finishing at 21 under for four rounds last year. … The top 60 players and ties after two rounds will make the cut and advance to the weekend.
For all the results from the Colorado Open, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com