Griffin nurses one-shot lead
Lanto Griffin readily admits he didn’t have “your typical country-club kid” upbringing. His parents were “counter-culture” folks, hippies if you will, which helps explain his name. It seems Lord Lanto was their “spiritual master.” The 31-year-old Griffin is, to be sure, the only Lanto ever to start a PGA Tour event. On Sunday at the Golf Club of Houston, he’ll be trying to become the first Lanto to win one, too.
“Never met another Lanto,” he admitted, laughing. “I’ve accepted it and we have good laughs about it. It’s been a solid name, a good conversation starter.”
The former Virginia Commonwealth University golfer is 11-under par through 54 holes after fashioning a sparkling 65 Saturday — despite having earlier double bogeyed the final hole of the second round, which he couldn’t finish Friday because of a twohour-plus suspension of play caused by a rain and lightning as a cold front roared through town.
While Griffin’s second try at 18 late in the afternoon resulted in only modest improvement, his closing bogey came after he had birdied six of the previous eight holes on the back nine to complete a round that might be the most consequential he has played in the nine years as a professional golfer.
At 17, he had holed out from a bad lie in a stand trap, which he called “by far the best bunker shot I’ve ever hit. Honestly, when I looked at it, we were just trying to get a 15-footer (for par). I told my caddie, ‘Let’s not get cute, just give ourselves a look.’ It came just perfect. Obviously, I didn’t expect it to go in, but that was a big bonus.”
Regarding the aforementioned double, he said: “It was just cold and windy this morning and (the hole) played tough. I was frustrated and kind of (angry), but I turned it into a positive. It freed me up pretty good. It’s a really hard hole. Honestly, I hit two really good shots. Just the wind got it and it landed on a hill and barely went into the water. It wasn’t like I choked it off or anything.
“My game is the best it’s ever been for sure,” he added. “I’m playing really smart and my short game has improved a ton. That’s always been my Achilles heel.”
Griffin also recalled a meaningful conversation he had with a guy named Greg Norman at a recent pro-am dinner “that really stuck in the back of my mind. (Norman) made the comment that he doesn’t look at the guys that are winning and missing three cuts. He looks at the guys that are finishing 10th, 15th, 20th consistently. It’s been a goal of mine this year. You don’t have to be a hero necessarily to have a good, solid week.”
That has been his style this season. He’s the only player with four — and soon-to-be five, barring a total collapse — top-20 finishes.
Note that the champion’s check will be for $1.35 million. Griffin’s earnings over 32 previous Tour starts — two way back in 2011, 26 more in 2018, when he missed 13 cuts to lose his card, and four this season — add up to $837,333. He finds himself on unfamiliar turf, to say the least, having never led a Tour event through three rounds … or perhaps ever.
But it stood to reason an obscure player like Griffin or the 30-year-old Mark Hubbard, who’s alone in second place after a 69 got him to 10-under, might wind up on top this fall, considering nobody ranked higher than 37th (Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, who missed the even-par cut) teed off as Houston reclaimed a spot on the PGA circuit after an 18-month hiatus.
Of the 11 players within three shots of the lead, only Peter Malnati and Austin Cook have even a single title. The 36-hole leader Malnati is one of three players a further shot back at 9-under after lurching erratically to 73, which included bogeys on two of his first three holes and two of his last three.
Beau Hossler, who lost a playoff to Ian Poulter in the most recent Houston Open that would have ended his career championship drought, put up a 68, while 22-year-old Brandon Wu, the stroke-play medalist at the 2019 U.S. Amateur, fashioned a 69 to join Malnati at 9-under. Six players are tied at minus-8, including firstround co-leaders Cook and Talor Gooch.
Presumably because of his parents’ ethos, Griffin has never eaten red meat — save for pepperoni on the occasional pizza — but he insists he led a normal life as a kid, playing all sports. Fortunately for him, he said, he wasn’t good at any of them except golf, a sport he became “addicted to at 13,” routinely playing 45 holes every Saturday he could.
But, truth be told, he wasn’t that exceptional at golf, either, failing to win a single college title.
“Mentally,” Griffin conceded, “I just wasn’t comfortable in the lead.”
Yet now here he is, 18 holes away from claiming a lifetime Tour exemption and a free pass into both the Masters and The Players Championship, the latter held practically in his Jacksonville (Fla.) Beach back yard every year. As much as he’s enjoying his relentlessly steady play of late — he has finished between 13th and 18th in his previous starts — Griffin admits holding up the trophy Sunday would be even more satisfying.
“It’s tough out here when you’re missing cuts and not playing well,” he said. “But, yeah, winning is life-changing. Everybody knows what it gets you.”