Gribble erases struggles, grabs share of lead
G ARDENS, FLA. PALM BEACH Nothing was going right for lefthander Cody Gribble heading into the Honda Classic.
He had missed the cut in his past four starts and five of his past six. He had no idea where the ball was going once it left the club face. And the Champion Course at PGA National Resort & Spa isn’t known as a soothing tonic for a struggling golfer, always ready to punish the slightest miscue with water hazards populated by alligators coming into play on all but four holes and a three-hole stretch called “The Bear Trap” for its potential to scar anyone’s scorecard.
So naturally Gribble grabbed a share of the lead Thursday on a relatively calm day.
“Been awhile since I’ve seen iron shots come off the club face the way they did today. Great step in the right direction,” Gribble said after a 6-under-par 64 that places him atop the leaderboard alongside Wesley Bryan.
Two-time major champion Martin Kaymer and Anirban Lahiri each shot 65. In a large group at 66 were Rickie Fowler and Ian Poulter, and defending champion Adam Scott came home with a 68.
For Gribble, it was the latest example of the ups and downs in the world of professional golf. He was an amateur star and the top dog of the golf team at the University of Texas as a junior when Jordan Spieth came to the Longhorns. Gribble says the two heatedly competed at everything, and they led the Longhorns to the 2012 NCAA title.
While Spieth left for the PGA Tour after his freshman year and won two majors two years later, Gribble, 26, took a longer route to the best tour in the world, playing on the Latinoamerica and Web.com tours. In fact, he played the Web.com Tour’s final stage of Q-School on the Champion Course in 2015, finishing eighth to earn his card.
After graduating to the PGA Tour, he won the 2016 Sanderson Farms Championship in October in his second event as a member.
While the win gave him a twoyear exemption on the PGA Tour and made for a healthy deposit into his bank account, it didn’t give him a big head. The rookie knew he had to keep putting in the hours on the range, putting green and course.
“Honestly, I think you’ve got to limit your expectations,” he said of his win. “I’ve got to try to keep (expectations) lower and just kind of work. I need to be worried about my line and my next hole is going to be 10 (Friday), making sure I have the right line tomorrow for the first shot.”
Gribble has been working hard with his coach, Randy Smith, trying to limit drawing the ball too much. Whereas last week when he missed the cut in the Genesis Open and said he didn’t know how he was going to hit his irons onto the greens, Gribble hit all 18 greens in regulation in the first round, becoming the first to do so in tournament history. Still, after the round, Gribble said he had a long way to go to get his swing and ball flight right on a more consistent basis.
“I’m swinging a lot better than I was a couple weeks ago,” he said. “It clicked today, but it could be lost again tomorrow. You never know. It was a great start and hopefully I can build on it.
“I had a rough couple weeks and was really struggling. Still got a few things to work on, but I played well. But I could go out and shoot 75 tomorrow, and I won’t be talking to you all for a while.”