PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Junior Jonathan Griz birdied five of his first eight holes at the Sawgrass Country Club on Saturday and shot 5-under-par 67 to lead Alabama to the first-round lead in The Hayt, a college golf invitational hosted by the University of North Florida.
The Crimson Tide, 18th in the latest Scorecard ranking, stood atop a leaderboard with an impressive gathering of top-10 teams and players. Alabama is 9-under, four shots ahead of No. 28 Duke. No. 14 South Carolina and No. 9 Virginia are tied for third at 2-under, Charlotte is 1-over and defending champion and No. 8 North Carolina and No. 4 Texas are tied for sixth at 2-over.
Griz overcame a few stumbles mid-round and birdied the par-5 18th to finish with a one-shot lead over senior Luke Sample and junior William Love of Duke, junior Justin Matthews of Charlotte and senior Nathan Franks of South Carolina.
Crimson Tide junior Dominic Clemons shot 69 to tie for sixth and senior Connor Brown posted a 70 to tie for ninth. Griz is Alabama’s only top-50 player at No. 47 in the Scorecard rankings and Clemons is the only other Tide player among the top-100, at 88th.
Senior David Ford of North Carolina, the No. 1-ranked player by Scorecard, shot 69, No. 3 Tommy Morris of Texas shot 75 and No. 5 Daniel Bennett of UT shot 71. Both are juniors.
The host team is 10th at 7-over. Sophomore Filippo Serra led the Ospreys with a 70 to tie for ninth and junior Justin Ross, playing as an individual, shot 72.
North Carolina beat Alabama by four shots in last year’s Hayt. Alabama has won the tournament twice, in 2007 and 2008.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Alabama’s Jonathan Griz fires a 67 to lead Tide to the top in The Hayt
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