Q. Can you just assess how the day went for you?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it was good. Got off to a great start. Made three birdies in a row, I believe. I think I birdied 3, 4, 5, got off to a great start, and then after that, felt like I was scrambling a little bit. Wasn't hitting a ton of fairways. Felt like I needed to be a little sharper with the driver off the tee. I'm hitting it plenty long, I just need to hit the fairways.
The funny thing about this golf course is it's very long and you'd think it favors maybe a longer hitter, but the longer hitters are now hitting it in these smaller gaps where there's bunkering, so a shorter hitter doesn't necessarily have to think about the bunkers as much. They're going to probably be in the fairway. They just have like a 6-iron into a par-4 whereas for me today I felt like I was having 8- and 9-irons out of bunkers a lot on the par-4s, and big lips, pretty difficult if you don't have a great lie.
It's just tricky. The par-3s are long, hard to get it close to the pins. Today on a couple of those longer one, which were four paces from the water basically, you're looking at 17, you're looking at -- is it 13, the other one. You're kind of playing for pars on those holes.
Then the par-4s you've got to hit a mid-iron close to have birdie chances.
That was probably the most difficult thing about the day and the golf course, and it's a true challenge, and I think a lot of the players really love it. You've got to hit some really high-quality shots to shoot a low score.
Q. You've been on quite the run the last few months, only a couple blips in July but otherwise playing really well. Does it feel like you've peaked at the right time?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, my goal is always to kind of peak. It's definitely a cyclical sport in a way, but I feel like I've gotten my game to a point where I can consistently get in the mix. I try to look at a lot of what Scottie Scheffler does and try to kind of replicate that in my golf game, try to limit as many bogeys as possible, definitely try to avoid the big numbers and try to give myself as many looks as possible.
It's just nice to play well, regardless of the time of the year. But yeah, certainly it would be really nice to play really good golf right now in the playoffs and have a chance to win the TOUR Championship, and nonetheless, have a lot of momentum, at least from the U.S. side, on that Ryder Cup team.
Q. Do you feel like you've done enough to merit a spot?
BEN GRIFFIN: No, you've got to be in the top 6 to get a spot. Anyone outside of that, you never know. I've got to try to get in that top 6 this week. That's my sole focus. If I don't do that, then just got to hope.
I'm just trying to do my part and play really good golf, and hopefully I do enough to make that team.
Q. When you took your break from golf four years ago, what were the circumstances that went into that decision, and how much did that set you up for the year you're having now?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, so just to walk through it, I was playing mini-tour level golf, Korn Ferry TOUR level golf, fell off the Korn Ferry TOUR right when COVID hit, so I was playing in mini-tour events. Canada, Latin America kind of weren't in existence then because we weren't able to travel.
I just wasn't making any money. I had to step away and try something new just to pay rent. I was tired of relying on my parents. I'm so blessed for everything they've done for me, but I honestly got to a point in my career where I didn't want to ask for any more. Then coming back to golf, very blessed to have Lord Abbott and the CEO sponsor me to get me back to golf, along with a few select others.
I'd say coming back to golf just the perspective has been huge, knowing kind of I feel like I've worked like three different jobs in my life and I'm 29 or whatever and have retired from one, came back to another. It's been a whirlwind, but I'm the kind of guy that just puts my focus towards my task at hand.
Once I kind of got out of working in the mortgage industry, I put my sole focus into trying to be the best golfer I possibly could be, and ultimately I had high expectations of myself, like if you came to me and said three years later you're going to be contending for major championships and potentially winning the TOUR Championship and being on Ryder Cups, I feel like that would be hard to believe in a way. But for me, I've just been working so hard and I feel like I've been kind of leveling up each year in my career on TOUR. Now I'm at the point where I'm just very confident and I'm just trying to keep going.
Q. Was there a lightbulb moment when you were away from the sport that said, now is the time to come back?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah.
Q. What was it?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I kind of had a few signs that were telling me to get back to golf. Accidentally driving to the golf course in work clothes, my grandpa passing away. He loved golf, and his quote in his obituary was hit them long and straight. There were so many things telling me I should probably go play golf. I'm 25 years old; it's the only real chance I have to make a push in this game.
So I just took advantage of the opportunities I had and just tried to get going. Yeah, there was definitely a few signs that told me to play golf, and I took them.
Q. Do you think you made a good impression with Keegan when you played with him?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it was a good grouping. There's a bunch of guys that are kind of on the bubble and were playing the Wyndham. Granted, the Wyndham, I don't know how much of a course fit it necessarily is for Bethpage. I certainly made a lot of putts, which I think a Ryder Cup captain would like to see out of a bubble player, someone who's putting it really well.
But no, I mean, that was my first time playing with Keegan. Honestly, I really like his golf game, too. I think he's in a position where he could play really well these next couple weeks and easily be on that team as well.
Who knows what's going to happen there. I'm just trying to get in the top 6. That's all I can control.
Q. What's the pressure that you're feeling to try to make the team?
BEN GRIFFIN: None.
Q. None? How come?
BEN GRIFFIN: I'm just playing golf. I feel like I had pressure when I went into that round with Keegan, that first round, just like -- just because of the perspectives and thinking about the whole situation, what he's trying to do, trying to survey our golf games. I'm coming out of an off week, it's a course I'm familiar with, but it's not the best course fit, whatever. There was a little bit of pressure maybe there just to try to show off in a way.
Fortunately I played really well -- not really well, but I played solid golf.
Now everything I do out here on TOUR, it feels like just icing on the cake, and I just try to go out each day and just try to play my best and try to honestly get in the mix and win. I don't feel any pressure to make that team. I feel like I'm just trying to go out there and just prove to myself that I can compete in the playoffs and can make it to the TOUR Championship and have a good chance to win, and if everything works out, hopefully be on that team in September, and I feel like from a confidence standpoint, I definitely feel like I'm one of the best U.S. players in the world.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports