Hard work, right team help Griggs thrive in first full pro season
By Ken MacLeod
The All Pro Tour (APT) has been a good launching pad for the careers of many young Oklahoma professional golfers, some of whom have now gone on to the PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour.
The APT’s Eagle Ops Championship being played this week at Indian Springs Country Club in Broken Arrow would in the recent past have featured players such as Brendon Jelley, Quade Cummins, Zach Bauchou, Blaine Hale Jr. and Josh Creel, all of whom now play on the Korn Ferry or PGA Tour.
One who would like to join them on that career trajectory and is having a very solid first full year as a professional is Carson Griggs. The 24-year-old Sand Springs native who played five collegiate seasons at the University of Denver, has made the cut in all ten events he’s entered on the APT this summer. He had a five-tournament streak of top-10 finishes, beginning with the Birdies on the Bayou event in mid April in Brownwood, Texas, and concluding with the Southwest Kansas Pro-Am at Southwind CC in Garden City.
The APT is a great place to hone your game against top competition while learning the demands of travel, scheduling, practice maintenance, taking care of yourself on the road, just like the upper level tours. What’s not the same are the financial benefits. Griggs ranked 19th on the APT Money List coming into this week, where he again made the cut. Those 10 cuts netted him $20,320, probably close to half of which he’s burned up in entry fees.
The full field of former collegians from across the country and internationally that is playing this week in Broken Arrow is not doing it to get rich quick. Griggs, who is very frugal by nature, spends his off weeks working part time for the Insurica firm in Sand Springs where his parents Cindy and Guy Griggs also work. He majored in finance with a minor in real estate and a one-year graduate certificate in organizational communications at Denver and is carefully laying out a roadmap for success whether his professional career pans out or not.
Right now, that career is his passion. He was a good high school player, taking second in Class 6A as a senior at Sand Springs and was recruited by many mid majors before choosing Denver for its business school. Despite the tumult of going through three coaching changes in his five years there, he was a consistent all conference level performer whose game really began to progress when he began working midway through his fourth collegiate season with swing coach Craig Koy, who had worked extensively with Wyndham Clark among many others.
“Golf is something I wanted to do professionally but I knew I wasn’t the next Viktor Hovland or Colin Morikawa,” Griggs said. “Those guys knew they were going to be successful on the PGA Tour at an early age. On the other hand there are young guys out there that didn’t even play Division I golf. It just goes to show you that if you put the hard work in, you can be successful.
“For me, it was about believing in myself and finding a game plan to see myself improve. That meant surrounding myself with the right people and Craig Koy has been a significant benefit to my game.”
Griggs said Koy is a believer in iron shots that impart minimal spin, leaving him free to play to a distance that doesn’t have to account for uncertain amounts of back spin.
“He’s been the biggest blessing to me,” Griggs said. “The amount of guidance he has proved me in addition to overall knowledge of the game has been significant to the point that feel much more comfortable and well rounded in my game than I would have.”
Griggs gave Korn Ferry Tour qualifying school an unsuccessful try in 2023 after playing in a handful of professional events after graduation. With his first full year of pro golf under his belt, he is looking forward to giving it another go this fall, particularly since the first stage event he is entered will be held at Indian Springs.
Note: Live scoring for the third round of the Eagle Ops Championship is here. The leaders are in a group ranging from 7-under to 9-under, where the previous winning scores have been much lower. However two of the par-5s for members, on the first and 15th holes, are playing as long par-4s this week while the new Champion Bermuda greens have also matured and improved greatly. The tournament is open to the public at no charge.
