Just because the golfers in the championship flight of the Lawrence Amateur Golf Association’s city tournament don’t slice their drives, that does not mean they don’t slice each other up with their tongues. Quite the contrary.

My intention was not to make multi-time city champion Conrad Roberts the object of endless verbal assaults when several years ago I called him “the Tiger Woods of Lawrence,” but that’s what happened. (For the record, it was a golf reference made before Eldrick “Tiger” Woods became romantically linked with a wide array of bashful porn stars, diner and cocktail waitresses, etc.)

Kit Grove, who presents a serious challenge to Roberts’ perch, remembers Roberts telling him on the course, “Please stop saying that. It’s not funny.” Grove’s retort: “OK, want me to call you Eldrick?”

The ribbing might have wiggled through Roberts’ thick skin, but the pressure of the big event never does. Woods, er, check that, Roberts has won the past six city tourneys he has entered, leaving the area’s best golfers shaking their heads.

“I mean, you gotta play bad one year in only a 36-hole tournament,” Grove said. “It’s kind of amazing because we’ve got quite a few pretty good golfers in Lawrence. You’d think one year he might not have it and somebody else puts two good rounds together. So be it, and you shake hands at the end. I mean, he’s on a pretty good run.”

This could be the year somebody finally defeats Roberts, and Grove could be that somebody. Grove finished fifth last year, and that was with a 10 on No. 18 at Alvamar Country Club.

The two players’ time as golfers at Kansas University overlapped for one year, when Roberts was a red-shirt transfer and Grove was playing his final season. For much of the time Roberts was adding to his trophy case — at some point if his dominance continues, shouldn’t the trophy be named after Roberts? — Grove was coaching the men’s golf team at KU, one season as an assistant to Ross Randall, five (2008-2012) as his successor.

“To be honest, initially, any time you move on from something you were passionate about and poured your heart and soul into it … last summer was tough,” Grove said. “The longer I’ve been out of coaching, I realize I miss coaching so little. I do miss the personal relationships I developed with some of the players.”

He said he doesn’t miss studying up on NCAA rules and in some cases trying to figure out how to reach the modern golfer.

“I don’t know if it’s the ESPN generation, everybody gets a ribbon for participating or what, but there does seem to be a little more entitlement,” Grove said. “Not everybody’s a superstar. When I was growing up, if my T-ball team only got across the plate twice and the other team got across it 14 times, they won. We all knew it, and we still went out for pizza and orange soda after the game. We live in an unbelievably competitive society. That said, so many parents have become, ‘You can’t hurt Timmy’s feelings.'”

Grove said he has known his replacement, Jamie Bermel, for years and considers him a friend and a good fit for the job.

“I think Jamie will do a good job,” Grove said. “He’s tough, no-nonsense kind of guy. You know what? You need that now.”

The distance on losing his job makes Grove all the tougher competing in the tournament that starts today at Alvamar public and concludes Sunday at Lawrence Country Club. Grove wears loud shorts and has tee shots to match. His short game is polished, his putter lethal. He plays most of his golf at Lawrence Country Club and is quite familiar with the slickest greens in town.

Grove, who tees off at 10:10 a.m. today with Roberts, Tyler Cummins and Will Gantz, knows he will need to be at his best to emerge from such a competitive field as champion.

“It just bores you,” Grove said of Roberts’ consistency. “And he’s such a good iron player. Drives it straight, hits his mid-irons so consistent. Very little curve to his golf ball. He’s a guy who just wears you out.”