The Clarion-Ledger Monday, October 31, 2016 1G
WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER Rookie Gribble finishes strong, wins by 4 strokes
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2G Monday, October 31, 2016 The Clarion-Ledger
S A N D E R S O N FA R M S C H A M P I O N S H I P SHOT OF THE DAY
HOLE OF THE DAY
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Steven Alker
No. 8 (Azalea)
Cody Gribble
No. 10, 212 yards, 5-iron
Par 4, 417 yards
Tournament winner
Alker, who teed off on 10 instead of 1, made the most of his first swing of the day. His ball hit a couple of feet from the hole and bounced right in for an ace. He went on to score a 1-under-par 71 and finish tied for 35th.
The right side of this fairway was the “hot” side, provided players were long enough to carry the hill in the fairway. The right-side bunker in the left-center of the fairway was a good target. The back left hole location wasn't challenged, as the green fell away from the middle in that corner.
Gribble and his caddie Bobby Hudson played on the golf team together at Texas, and after winning the tournament, Gribble was asked how much of his winnings Hudson was going to collect. “Enough,” he said and smirked.
HOLE-BY-HOLE SCORECARDS HOLE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
OUT
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
IN
Par
4
4
5
3
5
4
3
4
4
36
3
5
4
3
5
4
4
4
4
36
Yards
411
418
571
181
612
482
214
403
421
223
554
449
168
584
330
479
416
505
Par Score
4
4
5
3
4
4
3
3
4
34
3
4
4
2
5
3
3
3
4
31
73-63-67-65-268
-20
T2 Greg Owen
4
4
4
2
5
4
3
5
4
35
2
5
5
2
5
3
4
3
4
33
67-67-70-68-272
-16
T2 Luke List
4
4
6
3
3
4
3
4
4
35
3
4
4
3
5
4
4
4
4
35
71-66-65-70-272
-16
T2 Chris Kirk
4
4
5
3
5
4
3
4
4
36
3
4
4
3
5
3
4
4
4
34
67-70-65-70-272
-16
T5 Xander Schauffele
4
2
5
4
4
4
3
4
4
34
2
4
5
3
4
2
4
4
4
32
67-70-70-66-273
-15
T5 Hiroshi Iwata
4
3
5
4
5
4
3
4
3
35
3
4
4
2
4
4
4
4
4
33
66-70-69-68-273
-15
T5 Lucas Glover
4
4
4
3
4
4
4
4
4
35
4
4
4
3
5
3
3
5
4
35
66-69-68-70-273
-15
T8 Seung-Yul Noh
4
3
5
3
4
4
4
4
4
35
2
4
4
3
5
4
4
3
4
33
67-70-70-68-275
-13
T8 Grayson Murray
4
4
4
4
5
4
2
4
4
35
3
5
5
3
3
5
4
4
4
36
67-65-72-71-275
-13
T8 Graham DeLaet
4
4
4
3
5
3
3
4
3
33
3
7
5
2
5
4
4
4
5
39
66-69-68-72-275
-13
T11 Ryan Blaum
4
4
4
3
5
4
3
3
4
34
3
4
4
3
4
4
4
4
4
34
68-70-70-68-276
-12
T11 Troy Merritt
4
4
5
3
4
4
4
4
3
35
2
5
4
2
6
4
5
4
3
35
70-67-69-70-276
-12
T11 Cameron Smith
4
4
5
3
5
4
3
4
3
35
3
5
4
3
5
4
4
4
5
37
67-70-67-72-276
-12
T14 Russell Henley
4
4
4
3
5
4
2
4
3
33
3
4
4
3
5
3
4
4
4
34
69-72-69-67-277
-11
T14 Miguel Angel Carballo
4
3
4
4
5
4
3
4
4
35
3
3
4
3
4
3
4
4
4
32
70-69-71-67-277
-11
T14 Whee Kim
3
4
5
3
5
4
3
5
4
36
3
4
4
4
5
3
3
4
4
34
71-71-65-70-277
-11
T14 Brandon Hagy
4
4
4
3
5
4
3
4
5
36
3
5
3
4
4
4
4
3
4
34
67-68-72-70-277
-11
T18 Ben Martin
4
4
5
3
5
4
3
4
3
35
3
4
4
3
4
3
4
4
4
33
70-72-68-68-278
-10
T18 Andres Romero
5
4
4
3
5
4
3
4
3
35
4
5
3
2
5
3
4
4
4
34
67-69-73-69-278
-10
T18 Kevin Streelman
4
4
5
3
5
5
4
4
4
38
3
4
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
33
63-73-71-71-278
-10
T18 Ryan Brehm
4
4
5
2
5
4
4
5
4
37
2
4
6
2
4
4
4
4
4
34
69-70-68-71-278
-10
T18 Michael Johnson
4
4
5
3
5
4
3
4
4
36
2
4
4
4
5
4
5
4
4
36
74-65-67-72-278
-10
T23 Ben Crane
4
4
5
3
5
4
3
4
3
35
2
4
4
3
5
5
5
4
4
36
71-69-68-71-279
-9
T23 Nicholas Lindheim
3
4
5
3
5
6
4
4
4
38
3
4
4
2
4
4
4
4
3
32
68-72-69-70-279
-9
T23 Nick Taylor
5
4
5
3
4
4
3
4
4
37
3
4
4
4
4
5
5
4
4
37
68-68-69-74-279
-9
T26 Camilo Villegas
4
3
4
4
5
4
3
4
4
35
3
4
4
3
4
5
4
4
4
35
66-72-72-70-280
-8
T26 Mark Wilson
4
4
4
3
5
4
3
5
4
36
3
5
3
3
4
4
4
4
5
35
69-69-71-71-280
-8
T26 Mackenzie Hughes
4
4
4
3
4
4
3
4
4
34
3
4
4
2
5
3
4
4
5
34
68-74-70-68-280
-8
T29 J.T. Poston
4
5
5
3
5
4
3
4
4
37
3
5
4
3
4
5
3
3
4
34
67-73-70-71-281
-7
T29 Steve Wheatcroft
3
5
4
3
5
4
3
3
4
34
3
5
6
3
4
4
3
4
4
36
68-73-70-70-281
-7
T29 Brad Fritsch
5
3
5
3
5
4
3
4
3
35
4
4
5
4
4
4
4
5
3
37
71-70-68-72-281
-7
T29 G. Fdez-Castano
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
4
4
35
3
4
4
2
6
3
4
4
4
34
69-69-74-69-281
-7
T29 Dicky Pride
4
4
5
3
5
4
3
4
4
36
3
5
4
3
5
6
4
4
4
38
66-70-71-74-281
-7
T29 Seamus Power
3
4
5
4
5
4
3
4
5
37
4
4
6
3
7
4
4
4
4
40
65-69-70-77-281
-7
T35 Sebastian Munoz
4
4
5
2
5
4
3
6
4
37
3
5
4
2
5
3
4
4
5
35
67-74-69-72-282
-6
T35 Jonathan Byrd
4
5
5
4
6
4
3
3
4
38
4
4
4
2
4
4
4
4
4
34
66-73-71-72-282
-6
T35 Kevin Tway
3
4
4
3
6
4
3
5
5
37
3
4
4
3
5
3
4
4
4
34
69-70-72-71-282
-6
T35 Steven Alker
4
4
5
3
5
4
3
6
3
37
1
5
4
3
4
4
4
4
5
34
69-72-70-71-282
-6
T35 Jerry Kelly
4
3
4
3
5
3
3
4
3
32
3
4
4
3
5
4
5
5
5
38
68-72-72-70-282
-6
T35 Michael Putnam
4
3
5
3
5
5
3
4
4
36
3
4
5
3
4
5
4
4
5
37
68-69-72-73-282
-6
1 Cody Gribble
The Clarion-Ledger Monday, October 31, 2016 3G
You couldn’t take this win away
CHRIS TODD / FOR THE CLARION-LEDGER
Cody Gribble watches his shot from the 18th fairway on Sunday, the final day of the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson.
Months after heartbreak, Gribble makes sure win is his Hugh Kellenberger SPORTS EDITOR
It was on the 16th green Sunday when the Golf Channel cameras finally found the Gribble family in the gallery. With his wife and two daughters surrounding him, Bill Gribble looked at the camera, looked at his son Cody and repeatedly said, both to everyone and no one in particular, “There’s still a lot of golf left.” It was a knowing moment, the words of a man who has seen his son lose in one of the most gut-wrenching ways in golf, a sport that excels in its ability to wrench guts, offers. But a few seconds later, it was all over but the raising of the bronze rooster. Cody Gribble calmly sunk a seven-foot putt for birdie, putting the Sanderson Farms Championship in the bag and letting his family exhale with two holes still to play at the Country Club of Jackson. But it hardly mattered. Gribble finished at 20-under, four strokes ahead of three challengers. Gribble played marvelous golf over the last three days — he made one bogey in his last 54 holes and shot a 7-under-par 65 to emerge from a crowded field
and beat out, among others, playing partners Luke List and Chris Kirk in the final group of the tournament. But his last nine holes, where he birdied Nos. 11, 13, 15, 16 and 17 was just terrific. “It was definitely impressive to watch,” Kirk said. The amount of fans following the group just swelled as other contenders fell off, and List and Kirk never did anything to lose the tournament. They just got beat by the 26-year-old PGA Tour rookie who had to keep on telling himself to stay calm because he knows exactly how it feels to lose a tournament on the final hole of the weekend. Gribble was on No. 18 at the Victoria National, a Web.com event, in May when he suffered the bad beat of all bad beats: his approach shot landed on the green to set up a tournament-winning short birdie putt, only to roll backwards through the rough and into the water. Gribble ended up settling for a bogey and lost the Victoria National by one stroke to Seamus Power. “I was in a very good spot to win — put myself in great place on 18, and it didn’t go my way,” Gribble said. “… I still had that feeling that try to stay in the present the whole time. I know I was hitting the ball well and I was putting very well. If I could just lean on that a little bit, I knew I’d have a good chance.” We may have watched a younger golfer mature over these four days. Gribble started the Sanderson Farms Championship with a first-round 73, and keep
in mind that’s three strokes off where the cut ended up being. He had work to do. He was moving too fast, making the kind of unforced errors that can derail a round. “Just small things that I’ve think I’ve really picked up on and even watched,” Gribble said. “I mean, I watched Billy Haas in Napa (California), and I was super impressed by what he does. I think out here for me, you’re learning, you’re learning fast, and trying to keep up.” In that regard, No. 14 may have one of Gribble’s best holes of the afternoon. He was up by a stroke but his tee shot drifted off to the right and forced him into trying to lay up between two sets of trees. Gribble stood over the ball and waggled one time, then another. He moved that club back and forth six times before finally striking, dropping the ball 24 feet away from the pin. He two-putted for par, birdied his next three holes and that was that — Gribble is the third first-time champion in a row and has earned a PGA Tour exemption that, because of how early this event is, effectively lasts for the next three seasons. The rookie that played too quick turned into the PGA Tour champion who played at his own pace over the back nine holes Sunday. It was really something. Contact Hugh Kellenberger at 601-961-7190 or hkellenber@gannett.com. Follow @HKellenbergerCL on Twitter.
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4G Monday, October 31, 2016 The Clarion-Ledger
CODY GRIBBLE GETS FIRST PGA TOUR WIN
CHRIS TODD / FOR THE CLARION-LEDGER
Cody Gribble won with a score of 20-under at the Sanderson Farms Championship, winning by four strokes on Sunday at the Country Club of Jackson.
Sanderson Farms Championship goes to 26-year-old from Texas TYLER CLEVELAND THE CLARION-LEDGER
ody Gribble hadn’t ever won a tournament on the PGA Tour. In fact, he’d only played in one before this weekend. But you never would have known it the way the 26-year-old Texas grad approached the tee box on the 505-yard 18th hole at Country Club of Jackson Sunday afternoon. And you certainly wouldn’t know after watching him pipe his drive 320 yards down the right side and then hit a workmanlike 174yard shot into the green to set up a routine par. But that par put the cap on a final day 65 and a four-round score of 20-under par, which was more than enough for Gribble to claim his first PGA Tour win. “I was making (my caddy) Bob speak a lot,” Gribble said, still grinning with one hand on the Sanderson Farms trophy. “I knew I was in a good spot, and I knew I was playing well. It’s hard not to sit there and look up at the scoreboard and see where you’re at and see what you’re doing. “But I was talking to Bob about anything — about our game last night, about Charlie Strong, about the Cubs in the World Series, anything. We were just trying to keep my mind off the situation as much as possible. That “situation” was his position atop a tight field on championship Sunday. Chasing him were players who had already shown a proclivity for going low — guys like Luke List and Chris Kirk, both four years Gribbles’ elder who had turned in a pair of 65s on Saturday. Both had their moments Sunday too, but neither could take advantage of Gribble’s mistakes, frankly because there weren’t many of them. The Dallas native played a bogey-free round, despite missing five out of 14 fairways. He hit 15 out of 18 greens and scrambled for par on all three he missed. And that wasn’t the best part of his game Saturday. “He was holing his putts,” List said. “And that’s really what it takes to win a tournament on a Sunday like this one.” And while Gribble played near-flawless golf, the rest of the roughly 20 golfers who entered Sunday with a chance to win faltered. Greg Owen, who finished tied with List and Kirk for second at 16-under, birdied six holes but bogeyed the par-4 eighth hole and the par-4 12th. His playing partners didn’t fair any better. List recovered from a bogey on the par-5 third hole with an eagle at No. 5, but only found one birdie on the back nine. Kirk turned in a bogey-free round but couldn’t get anything going. He was even through the front nine and birdied a pair of holes on the back but couldn’t get enough putts to drop. And if Owen’s 68 wasn’t good enough, List and Kirk’s 70s definitely weren’t going to be good enough to beat Gribble either. “I think Chris and I had similar rounds,” List said. “We didn’t play poorly, but we just couldn’t get anything going on the back, at least not the way Cody did.” “Yeah, I felt like I rolled a bunch of putts right over the edge on the front nine,” Kirk added. “I got aggressive on the back and started putting a little too much pressure on my putter. Obviously I was trying to go deep and win a tournament, and it just didn’t happen today.”
C
CHRIS TODD / FOR THE CLARION-LEDGER
Tournament champion Cody Gribble (left) and his caddy Bobby Hudson celebrate on the 18th green on Sunday, during the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson.
“I was talking to Bob about anything — about our game last night, about Charlie Strong, about the Cubs in the World Series, anything. We were just trying to keep my mind off the situation as much as possible.” CODY GRIBBLE TALKING ABOUT HIS CONVERSATIONS WITH CADDY
But it did happen for Gribble, who continued the tradition set by guys like Kirk, Peter Malnati and Nick Taylor of young players getting their first win at Mississippi’s only PGA event. When it was all over, a reporter asked what made him so comfortable at Country Club of Jackson over the past four days. He talked about the Bermuda grass and how it helped him chip and the work he’d put in with his swing coach, Randy Smith. “But really that, and just the Southern hospitality,” he said. “Great food, great people. Reminds me a lot of home.”
The Clarion-Ledger Monday, October 31, 2016 5G
DELAET, MURRAY FALL SHORT OVER FINAL ROUNDS
CHRIS TODD / FOR THE CLARION-LEDGER
Graham DeLaet hits an iron to the 8th green on Sunday in the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson.
TYLER CLEVELAND THE CLARION-LEDGER
f anyone needed a reminder how cruel a game golf can be, just watch the tape of Graham DeLaet’s effort on hole Nos. 11 and 12 Sunday. The 34-year-old Saskatchewan native went for the green with his second shot, but fell about 10 yards short and ended up in the water. No big deal, right? He could still have taken his drop, chipped on and made his par putt. Problem is, when he lined up to hit his chip, he got what golfers refer to as a “case of the yips,” missed the green altogether and ended up four inches further from the hole than when he started. He finally got on the green with his fifth shot but missed his putt and ended up with a double-bogey 7. He went into the hole with a share of the lead and left it two strokes back. DeLaet bogeyed the next hole as well — again, a bad chip — and never recovered, eventually finishing in a three-way tie for eighth. Grayson Murray, the 23-year-old from Raleigh, North Carolina, who held the 36-hole lead going into the weekend, didn’t fare much better. He carded a 67 on Thursday and a 65 on Friday but shot a 72 on Saturday and 71 on Sunday to finish tied for eighth at 13-under.
I
Jent, Sanderson happy with tournament Sunday was the sixth straight day of sunny skies over the Capitol City, and perhaps no one in Jackson was more happy to see it than Sanderson Farms Tournament Director Steve Jent. Mississippi’s only PGA Event had a big crowd Saturday and an even bigger crowd on championship Sunday. Last year, Century Club Charities raised $1.1 million. Jent said it was still too early to tell how much the tournament would be able to award to its charities but said the attendance has been excellent. “What a difference a year and this weather makes,” he
said. “We’ve had great crowds out here. Even (Saturday), when I thought the football games would pull people away, the weather really brought people out. And for a championship Sunday, it’s amazing how many people are out here.” The crowd that watched Cody Gribble tap in his final putt was large ... and loud. It stood in stark contrast to last year, when a small group of onlookers watched Peter Malnati win the tournament playing lift-clean-and-place on Monday afternoon. “This has been a wonderful week for the tournament,” Sanderson Farms president Joe Sanderson, Jr. said. “We’ve had a splendid golf course on which to conduct a tournament. … And then we had a marvelous competition the four days of the tournament. “I could not be more pleased with the way things went.”
“What a difference
Owen’s steady game
would pull people
Aside Gribble, few players played as consistently as 44-year-old Englishman Greg Owen. He closed Sunday with a 4-under-par 68 and finished tied for second in his fourth start at the Sanderson Farms Championship. His previous-best finish at this event was a tie for 22nd in 2014. He hit 15 out of 18 greens Sunday and birdied three of his last six holes. “It’s been a good week,” Owen said. “I played really solid this week. For having two weeks off and coming in, just working a little bit on some fundamentals with my coach, it’s been a really, really good week.”
Quick hits Lucas Glover’s tie for fifth place was his first top 10 since the 2015 Wells Fargo Championship. He has yet to miss a cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship in four starts. In his seventh start in Mississippi’s tournament, Ole Miss grad and Brandon native Jonathan Randolph finished tied for 65th. In defense of his Sanderson Farms title, Peter Malnati posted rounds of 71, 70, 71 and 75 to finish 1-under par and tied for 68th.
a year and this weather makes. We’ve had great crowds out here. Even (Saturday), when I thought the football games away, the weather really brought people out. And for a championship Sunday, it’s amazing how many people are out here.” STEVE JENT SANDERSON FARMS TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR
6G Monday, October 31, 2016 The Clarion-Ledger
PHOTOS BY CHRIS TODD / FOR THE CLARION-LEDGER
Luke List (right) gets a fist bump from playing partner Chris Kirk after List chipped in for birdie on No. 5 on Sunday. They were the leaders entering the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Grayson Murray blasts out of the bunker on the 5th green.
Lucas Glover watches his approach shot from the rough on No. 9.
Michael Johnson watches his putt on the 8th green.
Seamus Power and his caddy line of the putt on the 5th green on Sunday.
The 9th green gallery watches a threesome in action on Sunday in the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson.
Power chips onto the 5th green on Sunday.