Q. One back into tomorrow. How do you feel about the day?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I was really into shapes today, a lot of circles and a lot of squares. Not a ton of -- well, actually, I guess kind of a few pars here and there. Yeah, it was an interesting round. I felt like I was starting to separate myself midway through and then kind of got to some tough holes and didn't execute very well. You can do that out here, and so tomorrow I've got to clean up some of those holes, make sure I stay aggressive. It's hard because this golf course, there's not a lot of bailouts, especially off the tee and a lot of times to these greens because you can leave yourself in some really difficult spots.
I unfortunately, got myself in some difficult spots there for a few holes. So I've just got to stay aggressive, continue to execute. My game feels really good. Obviously, Scottie Scheffler's the best player in the world, but No. 1 can be beat.
Q. Along those lines, getting to play in the final group with Scottie, what's it like just knowing that the best player in the world is the guy you're going kind of toe-to-toe with tomorrow?
BEN GRIFFIN: I would like to say that's what all of us out here on TOUR wish for. They want to compete against the best players. I definitely do. I want to stack up my game against his. I feel like right now -- you know, I beat him last week. Obviously, he's coming off a major win. But, yeah, I feel like he obviously can be beaten, and I've just got to keep the pedal down and make a lot of birdies because I know he's going to as well.
But I've got to do some similar things to what I did on Thursday when I had an awesome round. Obviously, I made some of those putts that you don't normally make, and so if you look at the last couple days, I've still hit it really well, but I haven't quite made as many of those longer putts that I did the first day, so hopefully I can sneak a few of those in.
Q. Are you still taking creatine?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, every day.
Q. How has that benefited your game?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I mean, look, supplements can only do so much. You still got to work really hard. I'm doing it more from the standpoint of muscle recovery, gaining muscle mass. You still have to work out if you're going to gain strength. It's not like the supplement is going to fix everything. But I would say on TOUR probably 60 or 70 percent of guys are taking that substance. I say substance, supplement. I guess everything is a substance in general (laughing).
But no, I'm doing that, I'm taking a bunch of different things. I passed my last drug test. I'm not doing anything illegal here from two weeks ago. I'm just trying to do the right things to take care of my body. I'm working out harder than I ever have, so I got to make sure I'm consuming a lot of protein. And, yeah, I feel like I'm doing the right things, just got to keep plugging along, and I'll keep taking creatine.
Q. Did someone on your team suggest it?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, so basically -- I mentioned this yesterday, but I was always working with Randy Myers, and he's been amazing to me and helped me get back to golf and everything. This year on the road I was starting to battle some quad tendonitis, and I realized that I needed someone from a physical therapy standpoint there almost every week, and so I hired Derek Smidt, who also works alongside Rickie Fowler, and he was kind of helping me with the PT treatments early on. And then what I realized through him is I needed to gain more strength to fix some of my tendonitis that I had and over the course of time, I've started to gain a little bit more distance, I've learned from him about what other athletes are kind of doing, started to realize that I should probably try to do this as well.
I think it's just kind of been one of those things I've just kind of stuck with it and I've continued to gain a little bit more power and hit it a little bit further and now it's been kind of a fun journey doing that. Aside from playing professional golf, it feels like it's almost like a separate thing that I'm working on when I'm in the gym and training and taking care of my body.
So a lot of people on my team to all thank, but yeah, Derek's been huge in me taking some of these different things that are going to help me.
Q. You said you haven't made a lot of long putts, but you've been making a lot of the ones that make a difference, those 3- to 6-footers. Talk about the confidence in your putting right now.
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, the confidence is high. I'm definitely making a lot of those kind of mid-range maybe par putts, the ones inside 6, 7, 8 feet. Obviously, I missed one on 18, a little hiccup but no big deal. I'll put that in the blinders and keep going forward.
I don't think I've made that many necessarily 20-footers that I did the first -- like, the first round I literally almost made everything. I think you kind of have to do that on TOUR when you're winning. You have to make some of those that you don't necessarily expect or the stats say you shouldn't make. Obviously as professional golfers at the highest level, we're trying to make almost every shot. Like, Nick Taylor on 14 after he made it, I was trying to make it too, even though we're 103 yards out. Yeah, just got to -- the hole looks really big tomorrow and hopefully a lot of putts drop.
Q. This is a pretty big tournament a couple weeks before the U.S. Open. You seem like you just are having fun and really enjoying the game of golf. You're looking people in the eye and you're just playing golf. How cool is that?
BEN GRIFFIN: I don't think there's a stage that's too big -- there's not a stage that's too big for me anymore. I think if you go back maybe a year or two, there would definitely be maybe a tick of intimidation, just because I was unfamiliar with the territory. Now that I've experienced it and I've competed against the best players in the world and had success, there's nothing from a mental standpoint that's going to block me from trying to win tomorrow. It's a tournament, there's a trophy every single week. Obviously, this maybe is a little bit bigger stage being Jack's event, a lot of history on this golf course, it's a Signature Event, a lot of points to play for.
Again, for me, I'm out there on the golf course, I'm just trying to win a golf tournament. So I'm excited to battle against Scottie and I don't think there's a moment too big.
Q. A lot of golfers don't wear sunglasses. You do. Talk about why golfers typically don't wear sunglasses and why you do.
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it's interesting. After learning a little bit more about, like, my experience, I'm a little surprised more golfers don't. But, yeah, I see floaters. I have really bad vision. So about a year ago is when I started seeing floaters, went to an eye doctor, realized my retina was starting to kind of try to detach itself. I had retinal holes, so I had to go get basically laser surgery to fill in those holes I had eight retinal holes in both eyes, so I was at risk of losing vision maybe within five or six months had I not gotten the treatment. So I still see the floaters, I had to get the surgery just to maintain my level. Because of that when I wear sunglasses it's a little bit darker out, so I don't necessarily see the floaters as well. So if it's really bright out and I'm not wearing the sunglasses, I look into the clouds or whatever and I see black stuff everywhere.
Q. Does it help you when you're reading the greens?
BEN GRIFFIN: I think it does. The specific sunglasses I wear they're called Uswing Mojing. It's a brand based in Asia. There's a few different golfers, professional golfers that wear 'em across all different tours. And they have this -- they say the science behind 'em kind of helps with green reading and I think it's 100 percent true. I love the ability to see the contrast a little bit better, than when it's really bright it's kind of hard to see maybe grain changes from time to time. So seeing contours is definitely a little bit easier I think with the sunglasses. And now, I mean, I guess I'm getting to the point where I have more and more fans and people like it, so I'm not going to stop wearing 'em, that's for sure.
Q. One round with Scottie previously on the PGA TOUR, do you recall when and where that was?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, THE PLAYERS Championship. He was still playing video game golf back then. That was my rookie year. Final group on Saturday. But, yeah, I played a bunch with him in junior golf and college, I'm familiar with his golf game, it's obviously very good. Yeah, I'm excited to tee it up again with him. It's going to be a ton of fun. Final group, it's what we dream of as kids so excited to get out there and battle.
Q. He was very complimentary of you, descriptive about your swing in junior golf, and saying you've come a long way in your ball striking.
BEN GRIFFIN: It's awesome. Any time you can get a compliment from the best player in the world it means you're doing something decent at least. So, I mean, I've known Scottie for forever. His game's always been very good. I mean, he had a stretch in college where he wasn't even sure if he was going to play professionally, just battling his injury. So it's been awesome to see his progression as players. I think if you look at our kind of age group class you have Collin Morikawa, Cameron Champ, there was a lot of players that kind of came out and had a lot of success. And I unfortunately didn't, but I wasn't the physical golfer that I am today. I put in a lot of hard work to kind of improve my ball striking, which was never, never a good part of my game throughout the history of my golf. I was always a good chipper and putter. So now the that the ball striking's kind of coming around I feel like the sky's kind of the limit.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports