THE MODERATOR: We are joined here with Ben Griffin at the Travelers Championship, Ben, making your third consecutive start. What is it like to be teeing it up here at TPC River Highlands?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it feels good. Excited to be back at the Travelers Championship. One of the, I'd say, player favorites of the year. They treat us so well. Really excited to play a golf course that's not quite as demanding as the last few weeks.
Anyway, great event. Travelers does an amazing job. Really excited to tee it up against the best players in the world and hopefully get in the mix again.
Q. Already eight top 10s, including two wins this season and a top 10 last week. How are you feeling entering the week?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I think I'm feeling pretty good. My game is in a really good spot. Had the results recently. It's really nice because this game can be very difficult from time to time, and you can have some good weeks that are maybe 20th. It's nice for me to see some high results in big events, just trying to continue to do the same things I've been doing, continuing to work hard and try to get back in the mix and get in contention again.
I wasn't in the final group last week and was in my previous two starts, so try to get back into that mode. It's really fun to compete on TOUR and be in the mix on Sundays.
Q. I was wondering in terms of your typical recovery routine, what that looks like in terms of the things you try to do every week, and then after the U.S. Open is it particularly important to hone in on that?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I always try to take off at least a majority of one day coming off a tournament. Going back to the start of the season, I played, I think, 12 or 13 events in a row or something like that.
Generally speaking, we'll fly out Sunday night or Monday morning, just depending on the flight situation, and then Mondays are typically kind of an off day. If it's a course that I'm not as familiar with or has made changes, I may chip and putt some. Otherwise not really swinging a club on Monday.
Still in the gym every single day, doing physio work every day except for Sundays. My physio travels after I tee off on Sundays, so I see him on Mondays and we do a little more physio work if needed. But yeah, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays are hard days in the gym. Try to get sore. Then Thursday through Sunday still pretty hard but try not to get too sore, and just kind of continue on that momentum.
But from a golf standpoint, it's normally nine holes on Tuesday afternoon late, so last night I went out at about 4:45 p.m., just me and the grounds crew hanging out, not really a whole lot of players out there, but it's kind of peaceful for me to do that, so I try to do that as often as possible.
Other weeks I might go at like 1:00 or 2:00 and play with my college teammate Ryan Gerard. I play a lot with him. He kind of has gotten on a similar schedule as me, nine holes, Wednesday pro-am and then kind of back to it. But I try not to play 18 holes consecutively on any given day until tournament time.
Typically just nine holes, and going back to the U.S. Open was nine holes Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, just kind of keeping the days relatively short, although those practice round days, the nine holes could take as much as three and a half hours.
Yeah, I'm pretty consistent. I don't really change a whole lot. The only thing that can vary is the travel day depending on what event was prior and how far I've got to really travel. Traveling is tough on TOUR. You're on your own so you've got to try to figure out what's best for you.
Q. Do you do any sort of recapping tournaments in terms of delving into stats or journaling or things in terms of how you process the week that was?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I'm not a huge stats guy. I'm really self-aware of kind of how my game is. I don't necessarily need to go and look at stats to know what probably wasn't going my way the previous week or what I needed to work on.
I don't really look at a lot of the ShotLink data or different things like that. Recently I've been looking at more of the driving distance in comparison to other players, so last week at the U.S. Open I was fourth in distance. My goal was to try to get as close to first as I can right now this season by the end of the year. Just been trying to set little mini-goals like that with the stats. Clean up the putter a little bit. Last week I struggled with a lot of three-putts, but I made a lot of putts.
Even though -- that's kind of a self-aware thing. I knew I struggled maybe with some lag putts from time to time, but my 15-footers that I needed to save for par, I was making a lot of them. A week like this I need to clean up those four-, five-, six-footers and make sure I've got the speed dialed a little bit more on these greens.
But a test like here at TPC River Highlands is a lot easier to figure out compared to Oakmont.
Q. You mentioned the driving distance goal. I know it can be relative based on how far you want to push up at different times because last year I think you were outside the top 100 in driving distance. Last year how close -- if you were going all out, where do you think you would have ranked last year?
BEN GRIFFIN: 70th. Very much middle of -- maybe slightly above average. Yeah, it's been a good goal of mine to try to increase that.
I've watched way too many tournaments seeing Rory McIlroy just overpower golf courses and take bunkers out of play, and there's a lot of talk about the ball rollback and other hot topics like that about golf course design and us players -- certain players aren't playing courses how they're designed. But for me as a player I've got to take advantage of the opportunity to be able to do that.
It's been really fun to try to train harder and be more conscious of swinging harder and trying to make golf as easy as possible because it's a very difficult game.
Q. Ben, are you the type of person that sets or a player that sets season-long goals at the start of the year?
BEN GRIFFIN: I don't set goals related to winning or making a Ryder Cup. I won't set specific goals like that. But I'll set goals daily of what I kind of want to achieve on the day and also maybe on, like, a weekly basis of what maybe I need to work on mentally to be in a better frame of mind to play better, certain things like that.
But nothing that compares me to other players. I won't set goals like that. I only set self goals that I can control.
Q. Going back to Mexico, did something click around that time this year, or was it something you were building towards and then you were finally like, I'm starting to really get this, but it was a week-by-week thing versus -- it seems like if we look at your season, like a switch flip there, and next thing you know you're winning multiple times, eighth on the Ryder Cup list, things are happening?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, historically I struggle on the West Coast. I don't know if it's the type of golf. I'm just not that -- I didn't grow up playing poa annua greens. I didn't grow up playing much golf on the West Coast. I've historically struggled the last couple years.
However, this year I was playing -- physically I felt like my game was in a really good place, not only at Torrey but Pebble, and Torrey again when we went back. I wasn't finishing very high but I knew my game was really good, and I was struggling with my putting.
My putting stats were bad, and I knew I was struggling with it out there, but I knew once I got away from poa annua greens that I was going to putt really well. So I was never worried.
It just was a matter of getting through the West Coast Swing and getting into courses that I like a little bit more and greens and grasses that I'm more familiar with. Going to Mexico, being paspalum grass, very familiar with that. I lived in Sea Island, Georgia, for a majority of the last six years, and the Plantation Course there has paspalum greens. I have the course record there. I love that golf course, and I knew going to Mexico I was going to putt well, and it just came down to Mexico hitting it far. That's more of a bomber's golf course, and that was kind of right when I started training, so I actually wasn't hitting it as far. I was pretty much middle of the pack. But I still finished fourth.
Then as I continued to train and get stronger, some of the courses that I like got a little bit easier. Putting is still good.
So yeah, after Mexico, I went to the Florida Swing. Love the Florida Swing, love Bermudagrass. Putt really good on that grass. Really good at judging lies out of the rough. So if I miss fairways or around the greens, I'm really good at that type of stuff. So I knew I was going to play well there.
Then kind of just progressed, and then I was playing -- was honestly playing very well. I was 51 in the world, didn't get in the Masters. I think I could have easily played really well at the Masters but I just had to kind of wait to win.
Same with RBC Heritage; I felt really good about my game, but I had back-to-back off weeks there, and I was first alternate, didn't get in the field. Was kind of bummed. Andrew Novak finishes second, so I know he's playing really well. I know I'm playing well even though I hadn't played two weeks in a row. So when we went to Zurich, I knew it was going to be a really good week for both of us.
Andrew definitely helped me a lot early in the week. He was playing phenomenal. And then we did a really good job -- I played really well on the weekend on Saturday and then alternate shot, so we ham-and-egged it perfect, which is what you have to do at that event.
Now going into the rest of the year, I love the rest of the summer in terms of the golf courses, the types of grass that I'm playing on. I've struggled on the West Coast Swing, so I'm pretty much every year on TOUR I haven't gotten off to that great of a start. I always play well at the Amex and always play well at Sony Open. So the Amex I finished top 10 the last two years; Sony Open I think I have maybe a top 10 and this year I didn't play great on Sunday and probably finished middle of the pack.
I think Sony Open I haven't played as well just coming off an off-season. I just need to be a little bit more sharper. Be interesting this year playing Maui and then going into that. I'm sure I'll probably play a lot better at Sony.
Sorry, that was a really long answer. Yeah, I just kind of kept going.
Q. Are you aware or what would you guess is the record for PGA TOUR-sanctioned golf for most consecutive birdies in a row, in a round?
BEN GRIFFIN: Most consecutive ever? It's got to be seven or eight.
Q. Nine. That was set in 1994. Scores have gotten lower and lower in a lot of different ways and stats you measure, but that one has kind of locked at nine. I'm curious what your take would be on why that is the record and why no one has ever made more than nine in a row?
BEN GRIFFIN: I don't know necessarily. What year was that?
Q. 1994.
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, so I've got to imagine golf courses weren't as firm, greens weren't as fast, and the rough wasn't as penal back in 1994 as it is nowadays. Nowadays I think with technology, superintendents and rules officials and staff setting up golf courses have to be really strategic to make it really challenging for the modern-day golfers, so you've got to have thick rough, you have to have firm greens, you have to tuck the pins a little bit more. So I think that's probably why that record has -- who's been the closest? Has there been like seven in a row in the last couple years? I'm sure there has.
Q. Here it was a few years ago, but Kevin Streelman made seven in a row to win.
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, that's right. That was nuts.
Yeah, I think it's just probably course setup is probably a little more challenging. So whereas maybe in 1994 it was a little bit easier to get on a green and have a good chance to make putts, you just had to get hot with the putter, whereas nowadays you can be on some of these greens and have crazy putts or you just barely miss the fairway and you can't really get it on the green, whereas maybe in 1994 you could get it on the green from the rough.
I'd say that's probably why that stat has held up. Who did it?
Q. Omar Uresti.
BEN GRIFFIN: That's pretty cool. That's a cool stat for him to have. I don't think he's in danger probably, as long as we're playing difficult golf courses. Although this week, this is as soft and -- I shouldn't say slow because the greens are still fast, but the course feels the most scorable I've ever seen it since I started coming here.
I feel like this could be a year where maybe not nine in a row, but the winning score could be maybe a record breaker. I don't know what the lowest winning score is here ever, probably 24-, 25-, 26-under. I could easily see that this week.
Q. A different topic. J.J. Spaun winning the U.S. Open, I know he had talked about thinking about stepping away and calling his college coach for a teaching job. I know you have a similar experience of feeling almost a little burned out early in your career. I was wondering, first of all, what you know about J.J. and if you've spent any time with him, and kind of what his story does, just seeing it as a fellow pro?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, that was amazing. He's the American Nick Taylor right now, winning the national open with a bomb on 18. So cool. Such an amazing moment.
I didn't see it live, unfortunately. I was driving. But I got a few text messages right when it happened and saw the footage shortly after that when I got done driving to the airport. Yeah, such an amazing, amazing finish for him.
His story is, yeah, very similar to mine. He played on the Mackenzie TOUR, the Canadian Tour, now it's the PGA Americas Tour. He won the same event that I won, the Thunder Bay Staal Open; he won it three, four, five years prior to me maybe.
Yeah, it's really cool to see. He's had a really good year, and obviously what happened at THE PLAYERS I think was probably a little tough on him, just the way it went down in the playoff, even though it was extremely difficult conditions, and I know as a player just how tough it was probably to judge that shot on 17. Not many people play in conditions like PGA TOUR players do when you have grandstands and where you don't really have flags showing the wind, and you have these little wind tunnels that go through grandstand areas. It's just really tough; if he hits it super low, the wind isn't going to touch it, and if he hits it high it's going to get smoked.
But yeah, such an amazing moment. So happy for him. I've gotten to know him pretty well over the last few years being on the PGA TOUR. He's an amazing guy, and couldn't be happier for him and his caddie Mark Carens getting the job done and winning there.
I finished at 5-over par, but there was a moment there coming down the stretch after I birdied 16 where I was like, man, if I could eagle 17 and birdie 18 and post 2-over, you never know right now because the scores were just coming back so much.
I thought it was a very fair test, and I thought it was awesome that he was able to execute some really high-quality shots down the stretch and make birdies. Yeah, I don't know what he was feeling on that 70-footer, but I know if I was in that position, it's one of those putts where you're just like, just somehow get it up there on the right tier and have three, four, five feet and you're doing an incredible job, and to make it, that's one of the coolest moments in sports in my opinion.
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