Seconds before the plane came down, Riegel said, the pilot told his
passengers he would land on the grass next to the runway.

Shouldn't have gone for the grass if there was pavement available.

You may well be right, and that is my prejudice as well, since current
recommendations do seem to favor the pavement--except for seaplanes.
However, this topic has been a favorite subject hangar flying sessions since
before I was born; and will most probably continue as long as there are
aircraft with retractable wheels.

The part that botheres me is that I can recall nothing in this thread, or
any link given, which actually stated the aircraft type or the position of
the undercarriage as known to the pilot. So there is reason to suppose that
this entire debate occurred without most of the contributors having any idea
what they were talking about. (Rant omitted)

BTW, a brief search, based on the pilot's name, determined that the aircraft
was N-1068B, a Mooney M20A. The preliminary report stated that damage was
minor, there were no injuries, and the description was: "ACFT LANDED GEAR
UP, HONDO, TX."