Once a self-proclaimed golf gypsy, John Grund is more a permanent denizen of the golf world these days. That’s not to say the San Rafael resident does not feel the stirrings of his competitive spirit still lurking just below the surface.
After more than 30 years in the game, however, Grund, 57, can honestly say he has struck a balance, replacing a live-to-golf mentality with a simpler golf-to-live style.
Grund, a PGA teaching pro at Peacock Gap Golf Club, who teed up alongside such greats as 1995 U.S. Open champ Corey Pavin, Tom Pernice and Steve Pate during his playing days at UCLA, is one of 14 club pros comprising the Northern California senior professional team which will take on the Nor-Cal amateurs in the Staedler-Jetter Cup team event this week at Poppy Hills Golf Course on the Monterey Peninsula.
Grund finalized his spot on the club pro team last week by placing eighth in the Northern California Senior Open at El Macero Country Club in Davis.
“I wasn’t even going to play in the Senior Open,” Grund said. “But I got to looking at the list and realized I was eighth and in order to sew up a spot on the team, I needed to play.”
So, as he has done so many times in the past, Grund did what he needed to do on the golf course.
“I don’t play much social golf anymore and I don’t tee-up nonchalantly,” Grund said. “I do work on my game and stay in shape. I have played a lot of tournament golf in my life. I like to be competitive, but playing golf is not my top priority. I am a golf instructor and a coach now.”
Grund serves as assistant golf coach for both the boys and girls teams at the Branson School and is also a consultant for the Dominican University golf teams.
There was a time, however, when competitive golf was all-encompassing in Grund’s life.
After graduating from UCLA in 1981 with a degree in political science, and then serving as an assistant coach at the university for a couple of years, Grund set off in quest of golf’s ultimate goal.
“In my 20s, golf consumed my life,” Grund said. “My objective was to go to tour school and get a tour card. My whole sense of purpose was to get a card.”
Grund came close, reaching the finals of tour school a couple of times, but never quite landed the golden ticket.
In the meantime, Grund played foreign tours in Canada, the South Seas and South Africa.
“In those days, playing in South Africa was kind of like going on safari,” Grund said. “There was no instant communication highway like today, so I’d set off on the weekend and tell friends and family I’d contact them on Tuesday or something like that.”
As the years passed, Grund returned to Southern California where he was born and raised and developed a side-business called Grund Guide, a company that manufactured yardage markers, one of the first of its kind. It was successful and helped pay the bills as he kicked around the mini-tours in Southern California, where he was a four-time metro player of the year.
“Competitive golf was important — there was a sense of bigness there,” he said. “But it was difficult, what I call ‘desirable difficulties.’ It makes you miserable at times, but long-term there are bonuses that come with it. You learn to look at difficult situations and create a positive out of them. That’s what makes you a better player and a better person.
“In those days, I would wake up every morning and find a way to get the job done.”
Eventually, Grund put competitive golf on the back-burner. He worked for several different clubs in Southern California as a teaching pro before moving to San Rafael in 2008.
Where once earning a tour card was “end game” for Grund, these days his perspective on competitive golf has come full circle.
“I look more for the quality of experience. That’s how I have to look at it because it’s not my job,” he said. “A lot of my friends are still playing. They are golf warriors. I’m a golf pro.”
Don’t think for a minute, however, Grund is taking the Cup lightly. The pros have defeated the amateurs each of the last two years — Grund was on the winning cup team in 2013 — after the amateurs had put together a rather lengthy winning streak at the event.
“We have all been doing this for a long time. It’s important to represent your self and the team well,” he said. “We still got some game and we’re feeling pretty confident.”
And according to teammates, Grund certainly still has game.
“John is always real consistent,” said Nor-Cal club pro teammate Shawn McEntee, who makes his fourth consecutive appearance on the Cup team. “He hits the ball really straight and he is a really good putter. He has a great short game and basically doesn’t do anything wrong on the course.”
McEntee, a teaching pro at Chardonnay Golf Club in American Canyon, says the club pro team has picked up their game in the last few years.
“We won this the last three years after losing for five years in a row,” McEntee said. “Lately, we have tried to step it up a little bit — changed our tune after guys started getting the word out that we’re getting beat up a bit here.”
There’s no doubt Grund will allow his deep-rooted competitive side to emerge for the two days of the tournament.
But then it’s back to business as usual and his true passion in the sport – coaching and teaching.
“For most of people, they’re just looking to enjoy their round of golf,” Grund said. “They just want to get out of the bunker and get into the hole – or just get it out of the bunker.”