Stephenson’s Gartrell stepping down after 33 seasons as coach

Stephenson’s Ron Gartrell, whose 243 football victories rank second all-time in Dekalb County Schools history, has retired after 33 seasons as a head coach. He told his coaches and players on a Zoom call Monday evening.

“It’s been running through my mind so much that I just felt like it was time,” Gartrell said. “After watching things change tremendously over the years, I’ve been truly blessed to be able to run a program the way I want to run it. We’ve been able to build the type of program we wanted to build.”

Gartrell started Stephenson’s program in 1996 and built it into a state power. Stephenson has won 10 region titles, most recently in 2018 and 2019, and reached the state quarterfinals or better seven times.

Brooks Koepka hit one of his worst tee shots of the day that barely cleared the water on the 15th hole. That turned out to be the start of three straight birdies that led to a 6-under 66 and a one-shot lead Friday in the Workday Championship.

In some respects, that’s how his recent surge has been.

Coming off a pair of missed cuts, Koepka won the Phoenix Open to end an 18-month drought. And now he’s starting to hit his stride with the first major of the year creeping up quickly.

Koepka hit a chip 9-iron to 6 feet for birdie on No. 15, nearly holed his wedge on the next hole and then birdied the par-5 17th with a splendid bunker shot across the ridges and down the slope to tap-in range.

He closed with a bogey by avoiding a deceptive pin near the water on the closing hole at The Concession. Koepka, who finished at 11-under 133, had a one-shot lead over Cameron Smith, Billy Horschel and PGA champion Collin Morikawa, who made up ground quick with six birdies over his last 10 holes.

“Usually I can never find my game until The Players. That’s kind of when it starts to feel like it’s coming around,” Koepka said. “But the fact that it’s here a little bit early is nice.”

Koepka spent most of his offseason with trainer Derek Stone in San Diego, saying he has not spent more than about 25 days at his home in South Florida since August. It was all about getting his left knee healthy, and his game looks as good as his health.

A dozen players were separated by five shots going into the weekend of this World Golf Championship, which moved from Mexico City this year because of COVID-19 circumstances and is providing a vastly different test.

Players have gone from mile-high altitude to flat Florida, with fairways lined with water hazards and palmetto bushes and greens with wild slopes and contours.

Even with a 71-man field, the difference between first and last was a whopping 22 shots.

Morikawa matched the low score of the tournament with a 64. The other 64 belonged to U.S. Open champion Bryson Dechambeau, who was 13 shots better than the opening round.

“It’s just a tale of golf. You can have both ends of the stick,” Dechambeau said.

“I didn’t play terrible yesterday; I just didn’t get anything going my way, especially on that back nine. Had some bad mistakes, and that’s what happened. I made some good putts and good strokes today that just luck went my way today.”

Defending champion Patrick Reed had three straight birdies to start the front nine after he made the turn, the last one coming after he topped a 3-wood in the fairway into a bunker, and blasted that out from 142 yards to 4 feet.

And then he had two bogeys, hitting his drive into the water on No. 5 when his left foot slipped, and hitting into the water on the par-4 eighth with a shot he feared would be a little long and instead came up woefully short.

Reed was three shots behind.