As for hitting his driver better, it’s been a matter of trial and error. But he’s taken some cues from CU teammates Michael Baird and brother Pat, both strong drivers of the ball, and he said eliminating errant tee balls has saved him about five shots per round.
Even in the fall of this season, Grady had experienced both ends of the spectrum in competition. He shot a 70 in his first tournament of the year, yet also posted an 89 — the highest number by a Buff this season — at the Pepperdine tournament.
But after the winter break, Grady has been a model of consistency, with only one round above 71. His six spring rounds have been 69-69-69-75-71-69; that means all but one of his scores have been under par — “a pretty amazing statistic,” according to Edwards. “The power of believing in oneself is one of the most important things in all of sports, and Jim has that.”
Edwards said Grady came to him in January and told him about his new approach and commitment for his final semester at CU. One part of that was taking a strict shot-by-shot approach, which has made a big difference when all the strokes are added up.
“Things can be a little overbearing when you look at a tournament and see that you finished 30 shots behind the winner,” Grady said. “But if you break it down, that’s only one out of every seven or eight shots that you have to improve on against the guy who won.”
The result of the new mind-set has been, instead of finishing those 30 shots behind the tournament winner, Grady has been 10 and four shots back of the champion in the first two spring events.
“He specifically came to me in early January and told me what he was going to focus on and that he wanted to be held accountable for that,” Edwards said. “He wanted to get the maximum out of this semester and see how good he can be.”
Though Jim Grady’s commitment and improved play have clearly made a difference, the fact that brother Pat set a high bar with his play has helped spur Jim on. The two Gradys are competitive and enjoy beating one another on the course, and using that as motivation has also played a positive role for the older sibling.
“He’s kicked my butt in golf, and some say having your little brother beat you must be embarrassing,” Jim said. “But him improving so much has helped me.”
Though Pat is redshirting this season, that doesn’t mean his presence isn’t still felt. He plays in CU’s qualifiers and by all accounts has won a great majority of them this season.
Pat’s redshirt year brings mixed emotions from Jim. On one hand, Pat not competing has opened up a spot on the travel team. On the other, Pat’s absence eliminates some possibilities.
“It would be kind of cool to go to a tournament and see the same last name up there pretty high on the scoreboard,” Jim said.
