THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Ben Griffin into the interview room, our 2025 Champion of the Charles Schwab Challenge. He picks up his second PGA TOUR victory, first in an individual stroke play event. I know that means a lot to you as well, Ben. If we could get some comments on winning this week?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, incredible week. My golf game felt great all week long. I was very confident out there. Put in a lot of hard work really all of this year leading up to, I mean, you could say this, but arguably the last month and a half or so. I've been really proud of not only putting in the hard work but seeing some results.
It's not often as golfers out here on tour you get the chance to win and do win. I was very, very fortunate to have a great partner in Andrew Novak a few weeks ago at the Zurich Classic and get a win with him. Incredible experience.
Yeah, it's nice to I don't want to say silence the haters, but there's definitely some hate comments I got last night, and I used that as fuel today to get an individual win.
THE MODERATOR: Then if you'll just recap the round? You got off to a hot start, and especially taking us through hole 18 there at the end.
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, got off to an incredible start. This golf course early on in the round, you know, really just 1 and 2, those are birdie holes out of the gate. You have to take advantage of those because there's a lot of really difficult par-4s. Par-3s are all tough. The entire golf course is very tricky.
It can feel easy from time to time, but you can get barely out of position, and all of a sudden you're grinding for bogey. If you are four paces further left and have a gap, you can be making birdie. So it's very much a positional golf course.
I took advantage of the early holes. Kind of had some hiccups mid-round. I did the same thing yesterday. It's not like necessarily something was off. It's just you get out of position a little bit, and it's hard. You leave yourself an 8-footer and you don't make it, and all of a sudden you're writing down a bogey.
Yeah, the back nine was quite the grind. I didn't go into the back nine only hoping to hit I think one or two greens in regulation, however many. I think I hit the green in regulation on 10, 11, and 12, and didn't hit a green from then on. It's just very difficult, very challenging.
I'm proud of the way I scrambled down the stretch. A hell of a chip-in by Matti on 18 to apply the pressure. That was crazy. Certainly when I'm over my chip on 18, you always have to expect your opponent to make their next shot, but I was in a difficult lie and was very happy to -- gave it a really good run and almost went this. Left myself a 4-footer. After he chipped in, I was, like, All right, I guess have you to make this one now, as opposed to lagging it up there.
It was incredible to win today, and so many people to thank. Very proud to be the Charles Schwab Champion.
THE MODERATOR: Before we open it up to questions, talk a little about what to win at Colonial, one of our most historical courses on tour.
BEN GRIFFIN: Totally, super historical. It's amazing that the PGA TOUR has continued to come here and create -- they call it the Charles Schwab Challenge. It is a challenge. I mean, 12-under -- was I 12-under par? I've asked a couple of people. 12-under. For 12-under to win on the PGA TOUR, that's a really difficult golf course.
This is not a long, modern golf course. This is not like a huge U.S. Open test, modern U.S. Open test. It's old-school, and it still challenges us, the best players in the world. It's very, very difficult.
It's really incredible to have lifted that trophy on 18 with so many incredible names and greats in the game of golf. I'm very blessed to be where I am in my career to even consider myself a champion along with those guys. It's been a lot of hard work that's gone into this, and it's an awesome place for me to get my first individual win and such a historical venue.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Most important question I guess is, who gets to drive the Challenger truck, you or the fiance?
BEN GRIFFIN: I don't want to see her behind the wheel quite yet. No, it's fine. She wants to be a passenger princess. Yeah, I'm not going to be driving it from here to the Memorial, but when we do drive it, it will be very fun. I think we decided we're taking it to the beach as our first stop.
We recently moved to Jupiter, Florida, and are in the process of renovating a home, so the garage has a lot of 2-by-4s. We're going to find space to store it in the meantime. It's going to be fun to ride that thing around.
Q. You started the season with no wins and some close ones, and now here you are, man. In the last four weeks you've won twice. Is your head just spinning?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, there's nothing to this game. It's easy (smiling). Yeah, it's crazy, yeah. Up until last week I had never made a cut in a major. Finished 8th at the PGA. Had a real good chance there to even finish solo runner-up. Was within a few of Scottie going into the back nine.
Yeah, it's crazy how fast things can change in this game. Even going back to when I didn't have any status on any sort of tours, getting onto the Korn Ferry Tour. I mean, it's a bunch of stepping stones that kind of gets you to the next part of your career.
Now I'm at the point where I feel like I'm starting to show that I am an elite golfer. I can compete against the best. It hasn't really sunk in quite yet here what necessarily I have accomplished at least the last few weeks, but I know that I'm extremely proud and extremely happy with the way my hard work has kind of paid off a little bit recently because golf -- I said it was easy. Golf is not an easy game. It's a very hard game, and you don't win very often. Some people never win.
It's really cool to get that monkey off the back, going back a few weeks ago, and I feel like now that I've done it a couple of times, I just feel super confident in my ability down the stretch.
I know it didn't maybe look like it today, but I felt really calm and confident over a lot of putts today. I don't know if I necessarily would have felt that maybe a year ago, but I just feel like I'm in a really good place with my golf game. It's a cyclical game. I have to make sure I keep doing the right things to remember what I'm doing right now, continue to build, and continue into the summer with some big events upcoming.
Q. Given your career journey, I know you're feeling a lot of different emotions right now. I wonder if redemption and validation are two of those things you're feeling?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah. Not necessarily redemption. I didn't redeem myself for anything, but definitely validation. It's really nice to get the validation.
Some weeks you get validation with a top 10. Some weeks it's the top 5. Some weeks maybe it's a made cut if you are grinding through something and it's a challenging course, but winning is an incredible feeling. Words can't really describe what it feels like to be -- I don't know how big the field was this week. Maybe 120 or 128. Some weeks it's 156. It's a lot of guys. There's a lot of horses in these races. To be the last man standing on 18 is an incredible, incredible feeling, something I've gotten to soak in twice in the last month. It's one that I want to keep feeling.
Hopefully I start winning by more than one because winning by one gets a little stressful, but I'm still very proud of how calm and composed I was out there.
Q. Did you want to elaborate at all on some of the hate comments that you talked about from yesterday that you saw?
BEN GRIFFIN: You know social media. I try not to look. I really don't let a lot of anything on social media get to me because it's the Wild West. Social media is an incredible platform to share moments with people everywhere, and I just saw some people questioning my ability to win individual tournaments or the Zurich doesn't count, the Zurich shouldn't be a PGA TOUR event, stuff like that. I just used that as fuel. It's pretty fun.
I didn't care that much that people felt that way. I feel like if I was someone on social media maybe trolling a little bit, maybe it makes sense. I haven't won individually. I'm just proud that I was able to be the last man standing this week. Now I can silence some people.
Q. I wanted to make sure it's safe to assume you didn't think it was going to be easy when you had a five-shot lead after just five holes today?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I wasn't really thinking -- it's crazy. No lead is ever safe on the PGA TOUR. It never is. It can feel like a tournament is done. Maybe if it's Scottie Scheffler with a five-shot lead it's done, but for most golfers it doesn't matter how big your lead is. Things can happen out there.
I felt really confident. I was trying to keep the pedal down. I kept hitting a lot of drivers and kept trying to give myself birdie putts. I just didn't give myself a lot of birdie putts. I think I had three birdie putts on my last 12 holes... crazy.
Q. You had a lot of key putts for par there in the last couple of holes. Talk about keeping your composure when you got in some tough situations.
BEN GRIFFIN: The scrambling is what put me in this seat here today. I'm very confident in my short game. I credit that going back to junior golf. My parents did so much for me growing up.
They got hit hard by the recession, the 2008 recession. They invested a lot in me being able to practice and compete. I didn't spend very much money on range balls. I was at a public golf course, and I would chip and putt all day. I would hit maybe a half bucket of balls for $5 or whatever it was, and my parents, they always considered themselves middle to upper class, but I knew there for a little bit when we lost our house, when we lost everything.
I know they sacrificed a lot for me, and I credit a lot of my success down the stretch today to my short game. It kept me in it, and that's what I did as a kid. That's what helped my short game be so good down the stretch today.
I didn't mean for that answer to get that emotional, but it kind of was (smiling).
THE MODERATOR: Ben, we couldn't be happier for you. Congratulations.
BEN GRIFFIN: Thank you.
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