VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP

March 18, 2023

Cody Gribble

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead)

Quick Quotes

Q. Way to hang in there. Got off to a good start birdieing the 1st. Rest of the front nine a bit of a struggle but you hung in there and obviously the birdie at 16 and 17 were big. How challenging was it out there today?

CODY GRIBBLE: It was tough. But I hit a lot of great shots. With this wind I mean actually Johnson said it on TV last night, talking about how swirly these winds are out here and it's true. I missed a few shots just over the green and kind of one jumper on 6 that hit a bad chip to make bogey. But didn't really do anything wrong hit a lot of great shots. Got to make putts. Didn't make any putts today like I did yesterday. So if I can make some putts tomorrow and just kind of keep hitting fairways and greens and kind of doing all the right things, we'll see.

Q. What's the key for you on a day and a round like this as you go through the round?

CODY GRIBBLE: I mean, you're just one shot at a time, as cliche as that sounds. But just trying to just grind it out. I mean fairway, green, get your par, try to give yourself a really easy look at par. Where you got a 1-footer or 2-footer where you can just tap it in. But I still need to work on my putting, my speed isn't that great. But it's close. It's really close.

Q. You come in off a top 10 in Puerto Rico, obviously you're 163rd on the FedExCup list. Playing out of the past champions category. You get in a situation like this, I mean it's hard not to think about what could happen but how do you approach tomorrow's round?

CODY GRIBBLE: You just got to know that I'm doing a lot of the right things. I'm going to get in some more tournaments the rest of the year, just you know the process, right. It's just hitting the ball really well, hitting a lot of greens, giving myself a lot of look for birdies, yeah, it's really easy to look ahead, but you just can't, you just got to keep taking it a day at a time and a shot at a time.

Q. You mentioned yesterday all the things you've gone through to get back here. Just being in that arena today how rewarding was that?

CODY GRIBBLE: It's great. I ended up the butterflies on the first tee, it's, yeah it's great being back, great competing. If any of us didn't like that, then shouldn't be in this sport. But it's great. It's great competing again. Love being out there. Fans are great. Course is awesome. It's fun being out for sure.

Q. Is it tough to follow-up a day where you made so many putts yesterday and not have those kind of expectations?

CODY GRIBBLE: Yeah, it's a great question. I mean exactly, when you have everything go right it's always hard to follow it up with something. But and I knew it was going to be extremely difficult today versus yesterday, we didn't have a whole lot of wind and it was the course was just playing easier. So today was a totally different course. Winds swirling like crazy. So it was going to be tough to match that.

Q. What were your clubs on 16 and 17?

CODY GRIBBLE: Yeah, 16 was a wedge. 3-wood off the tee, wedge. Then 17 was a 5-iron. From 194.