Cody Gribble hopes to stay hot at Shriners Open

When you look at Cody Gribble’s golf resume, he almost seems like the perfect person to win the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

He’s young (26). He’s strong off the tee and solid on the green. He is relatively unknown. But that was before Sunday when he won the Sanderson Farms Classic in Mississippi for his first PGA Tour win.

Usually, the Shriners Open champ is in the winner’s circle for the first time. It happened last year with Smylie Kaufman. It was that way with Ben Martin in 2014. Same for Martin Laird in 2009. Even Tiger Woods used the tournament to launch his pro career when he won at TPC Summerlin in 1996 when it was the Las Vegas Invitational.

So maybe Gribble was a week ahead of schedule with his win in Jackson. But he comes to town with lots of momentum and if he’s putting well, who’s to say he can’t go back-to-back?

The former University of Texas golfer who was a member of the Longhorns’ 2012 national championship team and was a teammate of Jordan Spieth’s was given a sponsor’s exemption into the Shriners Open after he had earned his PGA Tour card with his play on the Web.com Tour as a top-50 performer. He’s going to play in Las Vegas rather than take the week off and bask in the glow of victory.

“It was an unbelievable experience,” Gribble said Sunday following his first professional win which was worth $756,000 and 300 FedEx Cup points. “My opening round was 73 and my tempo was a little fast. I wasn’t hitting the ball great.

“I was telling Bob (Hudson) my caddy, and Randy Smith, my teacher I’ve got to learn to slow down and if I can do that and mainly just eliminate the errors, I think I’ll have a good shot.”

Gribble did just that, making the cut after shooting 63 on Friday and then put up a bogey-free round of 65 on Sunday to win.

“I think I learned from the tournament in Evansville, Indiana, on the Web (Tour) where I was in a very good spot to win but I made bogey at 18 to lose by one,” Gribble said. “I knew 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 had a good chance.”

Last year had been a bit of a roller coaster ride for Gribble. He had a couple of top-10 finishes, including the second-place finish in Indiana and tied for fifth at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship Sept. 25 in Columbus, Ohio. But he missed more cuts (15) than he made (9).

“When I made the cut, I played great,” he said. “But there were a lot of ups and downs this year. I think a lot of that had to do with my driver. I finally found a driver that just kind of clicked in Columbus and my putter got hot at the right time.

“I’ve also put a lot of work in with my wedges in the last year and a half and to see that really pay off the way it did is something I’ll hold for a long time.”

And with two top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour early in the 2016-17 season (he tied for eighth at the Safeway Open last month), Gribble hopes to maintain a hot hand in Las Vegas. It’s his first time playing the Shriners Open and he’s going to face a different course — a desert course with fast greens — than the one he won on Sunday. But his game is in such great shape right now, it shouldn’t matter.

“I think out here for me, you’re learning, you’re learning fast and trying to keep up,” Gribble said.

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.