Van De Griff leads Ira Templeton Chattanooga Open with 64

The number 64 has been good to James Van De Griff this year.

Van De Griff, the former UTC golfer and now an assistant professional at Knoxville’s Holston Hills, is, at 30, enjoying his best season as a pro. After four years of toiling on the mini-tours without much success, he went to work for head pro Chris Dibble at Holston Hills two years ago. Because Dibble likes to play tournament golf, he lets his assistants play and practice too. Van De Griff has put in some time on those great greens at Holston, and the work has paid off this year.

In April, Van De Griff shot 66-64 and won the Harold Eller Pro-Am at Old Hickory. Next, he shot 64-65 to win the Nissan Pro-Am at Millstone.

If that pattern holds, Van De Griff will be holding the trophy in the Ira Templeton Chattanooga Open at Creeks Bend on Tuesday afternoon. He opened play with a 6-under-par, you guessed it, 64 on Monday, taking the early lead of players who were able to complete their round before play was halted for the day.

The winner’s check would help Van De Griff pad his lead in the Tennessee PGA Section money list. He’s earned $4,600 for the year, nearly $1,100 more than second-place Santiago Cavanagh of Ridgeway Country Club. A good portion of that cash came in the Tennessee Open at Nashville Golf and Athletic Club two weeks ago. Van De Griff played in the final group, one shot behind the leader, but tailed off and finished fourth among pros and 12^th overall. Still, he had given himself a chance to win.

Van De Griff is familiar to the Chattanooga golf scene. He was a stalwart on the UTC golf team, and during his junior year in 1996 won the Signal Mountain Invitational. After graduation, Van De Griff went to work for Zeb Patten’s Chattanooga Golf Center. After about a year, Van De Griff got the itch to play competitive golf, so after securing some sponsors, he set out for the mini tours.

Much to Van De Griff’s disappointment, life on golf’s back roads didn’t suit him. Nor did he play well, losing money for four straight years. The last year, afraid that he put too much pressure on himself spending his sponsor’s money, Van De Griff took out a loan and bankrolled himself. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

“As far as ball striking goes, there’s not a lot of difference out there,” Van De Griff said. “There’s some that are better than the rest. I think for me, I had a hard time adjusting to life on the road. I never seemed to get the most out of my game out there. I think if I went and did it again, I’d have much more success than I did back then. I’m 30, and those four or five more years of maturity have done a lot for me.”

Van De Griff loves his job at Holston Hills, and appreciates Dibble’s willingness to let his assistants play tournament golf.

“Chris is a great guy to work for,” Van De Griff said. “He loves to play just as much as I do. He plays in as many tournaments as he can, and therefore lets his assistants do the same. Certain golf pros don’t play many tournaments and it kind of goes for the assistants, too.”

Van De Griff says the difference between his game now and two or three years ago is putting. He proved that on Monday, when he was a birdie machine at Creeks Bend.

Van De Griff started out making 4 at the par-5 first hole, but then hit a five-hole drought during which he sprayed the ball around, missed a few greens and had to scramble to save par, much less make birdies.

All that changed after he hit his tee shot at the par-4 7^th hole to within three feet and rolled in that putt for birdie. He proceeded to birdie Nos. 11, 13, 14 and 15, his longest putt coming at 15, when he rolled in a 20-footer. Only back-nine bogeys at No. 10, where he “dead-fatted” his tee shot, and No. 16 kept him from going really deep.

“I hit some close shots today,” Van De Griff said. “It was fun during that stretch of birdies. I don’t know what it is about shooting 64. I just hope it holds true for me tomorrow.”

In the Senior Division, Mark Houser of Kingsport shot a 65 and took a one-shot lead over Neil Spitalny of Chattanooga and George Newbeck of Maryville.

Spitalny opened with a 31 en route to his 66. Chattanooga Larry McGill shot a 69 and was in a tie for fifth.

[Note:  due to a 4-hour rain delay several groups in Regular division will complete their first round on Tuesday morning]