Ben

Griffin

The PGA TOUR rookie has hit a wall with missed cuts in five of his last six starts and a T52 finish in the other event. He tried his hand at U.S. Open qualifying on Monday, finishing three shots out of a playoff at the Columbus site. Griffin is still well-positioned at 62nd in the FedExCup race but he’d love to find that early-season magic that saw him land six top 25s in his first 13 starts.

Griffin is making his tournament debut this week but had no trouble get acclimated to TPC Sawgrass. “Pretty solid round. I got it out of position a couple times and was able to scramble and save pars to keep the momentum going, and yeah, just icing on the cake with three in a row to finish the round and move into tomorrow.” Griffin saved his best for last with birdies at 7, 8, and 9 to end the day. The highlight was a flop shot that he holed for birdie at the par-3 eighth. The PGA TOUR rookie already has six top 25s on his season resume including a T14 last week at Bay Hill. Griffin’s 67 was the lowest round recorded from the afternoon wave (there are still a few stranded to darkness with the potential to match or eclipse that number when play resumes on Friday).

Griffin started his week on the Plantation Course and put on a ball-striking clinic. He piped 12-of-14 fairways and missed just one green in regulation. “I hit the ball very well, kept it in play, gave myself a lot of birdie looks. Surprisingly missed a few that I kind of wanted to make inside probably 10 to 15 feet, but hit it really well and was still able to get out of there with a pretty good score.” In his post-round presser he spoke about being sick this Monday so his prep was limited. Of course, as a local resident, it was a good week to have limited prep and he even talked about an exhibition round at the Plantation Course back in July where he fired a ’59'. Griffin is playing his first season on the PGA TOUR but having no trouble getting in contention, arriving at 28th in the early FedExCup race.

Griffin cruised out of the gate and made it look like a two-man race alongside Seamus Power. Griffin reached as high as 23-under thru 11 holes before the fun stopped there for the PGA TOUR rookie. He went bogey-bogey-bogey-bogey-double to plummet on the leaderboard and lose his top spot. He closed with a pair of pars to secure his third-place finish which will still go in the books as his personal-best result on the PGA TOUR (4th at the 2022 Wyndham Championship). It would have been easy to slump his shoulders after that homeward nine but Griffin was cheerful in his post-round presser, “Hats off to Seamus, he played great in the wind. He knows how to play in the wind more than anyone out here. So it was a grind for both of us and there was a lot of back and forth most of the front nine and most of the start of the back nine and I just wasn’t able to execute and he came out on top, so hats off to him...playing golf for a living’s just really fun. It just means the world to be able to compete out here and I can’t get mad at anything that I do because it’s so cool to be able to play on the PGA TOUR.”

Griffin is making just his eighth start on Tour this week, as just last year he was working a desk job in the mortgage industry before rekindling his pro golf aspirations. He’s unlikely to return to the day job anytime soon based on the first three rounds at Port Royal GC, where Griffin has made just four bogeys through 54 holes. His 5-under 66 Saturday got him to 18 under and tied with Seamus Power for the lead heading into Sunday’s final round. Griffin has made two of three cuts this season, including a T-24 finish in Mississippi and a T-60 finish in Las Vegas in his most recent start.

Griffin’s runner-up finish helped the North Carolina product cross the fail-safe threshold of 875 points to secure his first PGA Tour card via “The 25” upon the conclusion of the Korn Ferry Tour’s regular season at the Pinnacle Bank Championship in August. “Just really going back to what my dad always taught me, having a positive attitude and doing my best,” said Griffin regarding the key to his recent success. “Really processing my thoughts and trying to get negativity and fear out of there … and replacing that with more courage and more belief, is really the key.” Last season, Griffin made only two starts before he stepped away from golf and worked as a loan officer for a mortgage group in North Carolina. But he found his fire again ahead of the KFT Qualifying Tournament, successfully advancing through first, second and final stages to earn guaranteed starts in 2022. On the season, Griffin has made 11 cuts in 15 starts with five top 10s, including three second-place finishes. Griffin is an alternate for this week’s U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

Griffin has gone 6-for-9 this season on the Korn Ferry Tour with five of those doubling as top-12 finishes. Most notable were a pair of runner-up finishes (Astara Golf Championship and LECOM Suncoast Classic). He’s gotten the job done by ranking 33rd in driving distance, 59th in GIR Percentage, and 8th in Putts per Round. Now he’ll try to keep that momentum rolling as he moves up the ranks to play a PGA TOUR event. It will be his third career PGA TOUR appearance and first since the 2018-19 campaign. Griffin got into the field this week via sponsor’s exemption.

Before the KFT’s three-week break, the 25-year-old Griffin has posted back-to-back T-2 finishes at the Astara Golf Championship and the LECOM Suncoast Classic. At the Astara, Griffin held the 36-hole lead, he was the co-leader after 54 holes, and he lipped out what would have been a putt for an eagle to force a playoff on the 72nd hole. The following week, Griffin also finished T-2 at 16-under 268, which was highlighted by a 7-under 64 in the second round and a 65 in the third round. He missed a birdie putt on the 72nd hole that would have forced a playoff. He kicked off 2022 with a T-8 at the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic and followed up with a T-12 at the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic. This will mark his first appearance at Le Triomphe Golf & CC in Broussard, La. Griffin’s highest KFT finish prior to the 2022 season was T-29 in 2019.