Grady Misses the Mark After Seven-Hole Roll

Any golfer who would give his eye teeth to make just one birdie can appreciate what Wayne Grady did Friday in the Shearson Lehman Hutton Open.

Grady, a 31-year-old Australian, came within a rimmed putt of the PGA Tour record when he made seven birdies in a row on the North Course at Torrey Pines. The streak gave him a round of 66 and a total of 138, five strokes behind the leaders at the halfway point.

Starting his round on No. 10, Grady was one under par through the 15th. He had bogeyed the 11th and birdied the 12th and 14th. Then he birdied the 16th through 18th and first through fourth before narrowly missing a five-foot putt on No. 5 in his bid to tie the record. The ball hit the rim of the cup and wound up six inches away.

Even after his big day, Grady had mixed emotions. Excitement over his run of birdies was tempered somewhat by a shaky finish that cost him a 64, perhaps even a 63. He took bogeys on two of the final four holes.

“I screwed up, and that’s why I’m hot right now,” he said in his Australian accent. “

Still, Grady couldn’t help but be pleased about all the birdies and the round, especially in view of what he had done previously this season. He came here with zero dollars earned, having failed to make the cut in the only two events he had entered, the Hawaiian Open and the Nissan Los Angeles Open.

“Maybe this will turn things around for me,” he said. “My mechanics have been bad.”

Obviously, there was nothing wrong with them during his birdie binge. He said he knew about the record of eight in a row but denied that it put him under any extra pressure. It was set by Bob Goalby in the 1961 St. Petersburg Open, then equaled by Fuzzy Zoeller in the 1976 Quad Cities and Dewey Arnette in the 1987 Buick.

Grady detailed his consecutive birdies this way:

No. 16: “I hit a sand wedge for a six-inch putt.”

No. 17: “A six-iron left me a foot and a half from the cup.”

No. 18: “I two-putted from 50 feet, holing out a one-footer.”

No. 1: “I pitched to about eight feet from the cup and made the putt.”

No. 2: “I hit a sand wedge eight feet beyond the cup and got down from there.”

No. 3: “It was a par three. I hit an eight-iron 10 feet to the right of the cup and holed out.”

No. 4: “Another eight-iron left eight or nine feet away, and I made that putt, too.”

After that came frustration on No. 5.

“I was just five feet to the right of the hole,” Grady said. “I made a pretty good putt, but I just didn’t hit it hard enough.”

Because Grady also birdied No. 14 two holes before beginning his streak, he was asked how close he had come to a birdie on 15, which would have given him a record of nine in a row.

“Not close at all,” he said. “I was lucky to get down in two putts. I made a 10-footer to save par.”

Grady, who was born in Brisbane and lives in Queensland, joined the PGA Tour in 1985. He has yet to win on the tour but has finished second twice and earned $402,003, including a high of $167,497 in his rookie season and $111,536 in 1988.

Although his overall record in the United States is respectable, Grady is somewhat disappointed.

“In my first year, I could feel my game was improving all the time,” he said. “But in ‘86, I was horrendous. I played the wrong ball in the Bob Hope, signed an illegal scorecard in Phoenix and played the wrong ball again in L.A. That set me back five years.

“I’ve been struggling ever since, and I just hope I’m on my way back. The USA is the only place to play.”