Achieving the Dream
LEFT, Lanto Griffin at the 2008 VSGA Amateur Championship. RIGHT, Griffin shakes hands with Brinson Paolini after the championship match at the 2009 VSGA Amateur.
Griffin is locked in now— between the ears and with his game. He’ s not being overly technical or trying to change his swing every week.
“ I don’ t practice as much, I don’ t have to grind as much, I’ m having a hell of a lot more fun, and I’ ve got more money in the bank.”
STARTING IN FAMILIAR TERRITORY Griffin’ s first start as a PGA Tour member came at the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif., in late September, where he missed the cut.
Ironically, Griffin was born a couple hours away in Mount Shasta. He lived there for the first 4 1 / 2 years of his life before his family moved to Blacksburg.
“ After we felt a few earthquakes, we felt it was time,” said his mother, Julie.“ We loved living in California, we owned our own business— a health food store— and my husband Michael said this is kinda crazy, we just need to move closer to family.”
The family’ s home was near the old municipal course in Blacksburg.
“ That’ s where Lanto started golf,” Julie said.“ He spent the whole summer, he would go about 8 o’ clock in the morning and come home for lunch and then go back until about 6 when they closed.
“ The man who ran the golf course told my husband,‘ you know, your son loves golf and he’ s good at it.’ And he said,‘ Why don’ t you talk to [ then-Blacksburg Country Club pro ] Steve Prater about some golf lessons... he works with kids.’”
Prater, currently the teaching pro at Roanoke Country Club, still remembers the day a young Lanto showed up in the BCC clubhouse.
“ He asked if he could be in my junior program,” Prater recalled.“ And he wasn’ t a member at the club.”
Michael Griffin passed away from brain cancer in May 2001 when Lanto was 12.
“ That’ s when Steve called me and said that he would like to offer Lanto full membership and he can just play golf as much as he wants,” recalled Julie, who recently retired as a Montgomery County elementary school teacher.
“ And that was the most incredible thing for Lanto because he lost his father that week and golf just became very important to him. A very safe place, a lot of very nice people who were very helpful to him. It became like a second family.
“ Lanto spent a lot of time at Steve Prater’ s house. And Lanto decided he just
“ I don’ t practice as much, I don’ t have to grind as much, I’ m having a hell of a lot more fun, and I’ ve got more money in the bank.”
Lanto Griffin wanted to be like Steve Prater, he wanted to be a golf pro.”
Until this day, Prater remains Lanto Griffin’ s primary golf teacher.
“ Lanto has meant so much to me,” Prater noted.“ Him getting on the PGA Tour completes a lot of hard work. To see one of them go all the way like he has is just an amazing feeling.”
Griffin bought a two-bedroom condo in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. in January. He does all his non-tournament golf work five minutes away at TPC Sawgrass, which has one of the world’ s top practice facilities.
He works there with TPC pro Todd Anderson, who also coaches Tour winners Billy Horschel and Brandt Snedeker. His caddy is Chris Nash, a 34-year-old Texan who was on the bag for his Nashville victory.
“ We won the second week out,” Griffin noted.“ He has helped me a lot. He’ s just a real even-keeled guy, doesn’ t get too excited and he has no ego... so no matter how frustrated I get with him for something he might do, he doesn’ t fire back. If I’ m down, if I make like two bogeys in a row, he’ s like‘ man, we’ ve got this!’”
Griffin said that the biggest difference between the PGA Tour and the Web. com is an extra zero on the paycheck.
“ The fun stuff is just about to begin, honestly,” he said.“ You go from playing where a 20th-place finish might get you $ 6,000 on the Web tour and it makes you $ 60,000 on the PGA Tour.
“ It’ s pretty crazy to think about how much money we’ re playing for... it doesn’ t really make a whole lot of sense to me, but I’ m all right with it!”
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