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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 10, 2017

Cody Gribble

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Q. Overall thoughts on your first PLAYERS?
CODY GRIBBLE: Awesome. I mean, you know, I was here two years ago for the Web finals, and I love the Valley Course, and I walked over here and definitely walked 18 and 17. It's such a great track. I mean, it's going to be hard, though. I think the wind is going to be up. New greens. They're super firm. You know, it's a ball striker's course. You've got to hit the fairway. If you can hit a lot of fairways, you'll have a great week.

Q. It seems from the winners in the past, it's not really a course that favors any specific style of game; is that fair?
CODY GRIBBLE: Yes and no. I mean, I think all the winners here are -- I mean, have gone on and won majors. I mean, these are like the cream-of-the-crop players that are winning on this course. I mean, I think it holds value that if you're going to win this tournament, you're going to go on and do great things. I think to win on this course, you have to be a great ball striker and just as good a putter. I think that's kind of where it stands for this week.

Q. Are there any similarities, obviously both Pete Dye courses, but any similarities between Dye's and this one?
CODY GRIBBLE: On the Valley Course you're talking about?

Q. Yeah.
CODY GRIBBLE: A little bit, obviously grass, greens. I think this course has much more hazards and a lot more trouble off the tee and around the greens, but still, I think it's a great course, and obviously similar grass, but I think it's still a hell of a course over there.

Q. I know you played with Jordan yesterday. Who else did you play with, and what did you take away from playing with those guys?
CODY GRIBBLE: I played with Ryan Palmer and Jason Bohn. It was good, and I learned a lot. Just kind of pin placements, where to miss it, where not to miss it. There's a lot of holes on this course that it's actually -- you can see that it doesn't have -- it looks like you can miss here and you can't miss there, but it's pretty straightforward. Like I said, I think it all starts from the tee shot. As long as you can get the ball in the fairway, you're going to give yourself plenty of opportunities at the greens. There's places to miss it around these greens. There's always at least one spot where you can't miss it, so you've just got to err when you can and take your medicine when you miss the fairway.

Q. Probably one of the biggest crowds of the year as far as being in one single area on 17 tomorrow. What do you think that shot will be like when you have to step up to that green?
CODY GRIBBLE: Yeah, it'll be nervous, but you can't think of it like all the players. I've already hit a shot on 16 in Scottsdale, so I know the feeling. It's not going to -- you can't think about all the -- you're thinking about your shot. It's 145 yards. Yeah, there's water all around. It's tough for sure. I'm going to do my best not to look at the water. But you're looking at 145 yards max. Usually that wind is going to be down, so it's going to be gap wedge or pitching wedge.

Q. I was going to say, there's kind of some similarities almost between that 16th hole there as far as just the crowds and everything.
CODY GRIBBLE: Yeah, for sure. I think it's obviously more penal just because there's water all around it, but the same green, it's a little turtleback green on 16 in Scottsdale, and the same type of fans. You take all the fans, all of them away, and it's really an easy hole for both times. All you're worrying about is worrying about yourself and how you're going to get the ball close to the pin.

Q. How is the game feeling heading into this week?
CODY GRIBBLE: Good. The last two months, month and a half, it's been a little bit of a struggle, but it's been getting closer and closer, and had a really good week this past week. A couple things I still want to work on, still speed of the greens, and I think that kind of gets better as the day goes on just because the greens will speed up a little more getting closer to Thursday. And just around the greens, just work on that. But ball-striking is great and driving it well. A couple little things with the wedges around the greens, but other than that, I feel real confident.

Q. I know you're a guy that doesn't like to play too many weeks in a row. How do you manage the schedule as a rookie?
CODY GRIBBLE: That's a good question. I mean, honestly, it's funny, going from -- being two years on the Web --

Q. Where you feel like you have to play every week.
CODY GRIBBLE: You had to play every week. There's no option. It's nice having the luxury of picking your schedule and picking your times off. But you know, once I start getting rolling here, I don't know. I'll let it go. I'm still 26 years old. I can go six, seven weeks in a row if I had to go six, seven weeks in a row. Once I start playing a little better, then I think this push can be great. I think I'm going to have a really good week this week the way I'm hitting it off the tee and putting it. You never know how long it will go. But I like to go three weeks max for tournaments.

Q. How special is it to be in this field? It's very difficult for a rookie to even get in this field just because of the qualifications, like Ollie is top 35 in the FedExCup right now and he's not in the field, for example. How special is it for you to be one of those guys?
CODY GRIBBLE: Yeah, very much so. Playing this fall and kind of getting hot when I needed to get hot, just being able to win out here on TOUR, it brings so much confidence to you that you know you can do it and you belong out here. I'm not saying that Ollie deserves to be out here. I think he's very capable of competing out here. I think all the guys that graduated should be here. But you know, it is what it is, and they will be here, and I'm just lucky that I was able to get in this year.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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