Cody Gribble rolled in a 20-footer on the closing hole of the final round of Second Stage – his third birdie in five holes – to earn his way into Final Stage on the number. His friend Grant Hirschman would miss a 15-footer on the same hole that left him one shot out of advancing.

Such is the finality of Q-School.

“I forgot how stressful Q-School is,” Gribble said. “And it’s amazing how good some of these kids are. It’s funny, me saying ‘kids,’ because it felt like yesterday I was a kid.”

Indeed, the 32-year-old PGA TOUR winner (Gribble captured the 2016 Sanderson Farms Championship) has grown up. He was part of the 2012 NCAA Championship-winning squad at the University of Texas alongside Jordan Spieth, but that was seemingly a lifetime ago.

After navigating a few upper-body injuries since just before, and through, the COVID-19 pandemic, Gribble is back and more motivated than ever to put together a return to the PGA TOUR.

“It’s tough; I’ve had to go back to Second Stage, but when you’ve had a couple of surgeries and start sliding a bit, that happens,” said Gribble. “Even making that putt (on the 72nd hole of Second Stage), I wasn’t sure if it was going to be enough. But it went in, and the traveling circus continues.”

Gribble earned his PGA TOUR card for the first time via the Korn Ferry Tour Finals in 2016, just a month prior to his maiden TOUR title. It was a heck of a start for him, as he went T8-1-T65-T15 in his first four PGA TOUR starts as a full-fledged member.

After his TOUR winner’s exemption ran out, he’s been trying to cobble together a schedule across the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR but was hit with the injury bug in 2019. He had some hip problems in the middle of that year – “I knew it wasn’t great” – and finished the year injured. In hindsight, he said, that “was not the best idea” and acknowledged he should have stopped playing immediately instead of grinding it out.

Gribble had his first surgery in late 2019 and was planning on making a full recovery for the following season. The COVID-19 pandemic extended his medical extension, but while he was preparing for his return he ended up having rotator cuff and labrum surgery on his shoulder.

“At the time it didn’t seem like it was, but looking back, I think that was a blessing in disguise,” he said. “I’ve had a bad shoulder and that one was a problem for a while. I was lifting a weight, not even a heavy weight, and it just went. I think that was just its last straw.”

The shoulder surgery happened at the end of 2020 and he didn’t come back until the Sanderson Farms Championship in 2021. He wasn’t ready, he said. He took more time off and began his hearty return on the Korn Ferry Tour in the Bahamas earlier this year.

While it was good to get back into some semblance of a playing routine, Gribble had a solid, if unspectacular, return. He finished 104th on the Regular Season Points List.

“I had a lot of good stuff but didn’t do anything spectacular and just kind of lost everything,” said Gribble. “I had to go back to Second Stage this year, or play my few events I’d get into on TOUR as a past champion and look for a job.”

It’s the competitive bone in Gribble that’s keeping him motivated these days. His Texas pals Spieth and Scottie Scheffler (one of those ‘kids’ Gribble references) are major winners and TOUR staples. Gribble got to the TOUR’s top early but has been working on a return ever since.

“Competing, playing, being out there again … see it from a little older, you appreciate the highs and try to manage the lows,” said Gribble. “This career is a very roller coaster-type job where the highs are incredibly high and the lows are insanely low.”

But count Gribble as a lucky one.

“(The prospect) in the next few years settling down and having kids … it’s stressful enough living for myself,” Gribble said. “Living for others is another thing. I do love it. I love golf. It’s more of a job now, of course, but it’s an incredible job. I know there are 50,000 people who probably would have signed up just to get into the position I’m in now. I’ve had better status than this, of course, but I’m sure there are a lot of people who would love to just be in this position. Just being grateful for the position I’m in and being given a second chance.”

There’s work still left to be done, of course, as Final Stage takes place early next month at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club in Savannah. Gribble is also hoping to get into one or two more TOUR events before the calendar turns. Nabbing solid Korn Ferry Tour status will be helpful, he said, to have a guaranteed place to play next season versus waiting for his number to get called on TOUR. But it’s a step at a time, he said, and he’s never felt better.

“It’s good to get back into those feelings and get into a groove. I’m finding my groove too with my swing, and what the scorecard is showing is improvement,” said Gribble. “Still a long way to go. But it’s about believing and seeing a bit of success.”