He demonstrated this when he won the annual North East Valley Invitation singles in Dunedin yesterday.
The Auckland bowler beat two-times winner Shannon McIlroy (Nelson) 25-24 in a nail-biter at the North East Valley green.
Grantham (38), an Air New Zealand aircraft welder, has been mentored by Rowan Brassey and Danny O'Connor, who played with Unkovich early in their international careers.
Unkovich always liked to attack and believed in taking the initiative early if an end was going against his team.
Grantham does not have the powerful drive of an Unkovich or O'Connor but he believes in the same principles and went on attack early when an end was going against him.
On the 24th end he drove the jack to the ditch with his second bowl.
"If I miss with my second bowl I can correct it with my next bowl," Grantham said. "I didn't want to leave it until my last bowl. If I'm going to attack it has to be early."
Grantham won the New Zealand singles title in Dunedin five years ago. This is his second major win in the city.
"I like the Dunedin greens. I always feel confident playing on them."
Grantham had the jack on his radar early in the game and his draw bowls nestled close to the target as he took controlto lead 12-2 after 12 ends.
He was outdrawing McIlroy at this time but never felt that he had the game won.
"I knew he would come back at me when he found his line and weight," Grantham said.
McIlroy (24), a painter and decorator, started closing the gap when he scored three, three and one from the 18th to the 20th ends to reduce Grantham's lead to three shots, 15-12.
"I got a bit nervous then," Grantham admitted. "I just had to compose myself and carry on."
The lead fluctuated after that with Grantham having a seven-shot edge when he led 19-12 after 22 ends. But it was reduced to three shots three ends later and only two shots separated the pair when Grantham led 21-19 after 27 ends.
Grantham played the shot of the game on the next end when he drew the shot on the backhand with his last bowl when McIlroy had four shots on the head.
Had McIlroy kept the points he would have led 23-21 and would probably have won the game.
But it was not yet over as McIlroy scored five shots from the 30th to the 33rd ends to draw level at 24-24.
On the final end Grantham drew the shot with his first bowl and added a second shot with his next. McIlroy missed with two drives and Grantham won the $5000 winner's purse.
In the semifinals, Grantham beat Andrew Kelly (Christchurch) 25-13 and McIlroy beat Greg Ruaporo (Waikato) 25-20.
Colin Wheeler (North East Valley) won the plate event when he beat former New Zealand representative Andrew Curtain (Canterbury) 21-11 in the final.
