Q. Ben, you were 6-over through three holes. Finished 1-under. What the heck happened?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it's kind of an interesting story. So I take creatine as a supplement, and this among I didn't take it until I basically tee'd off on 1. I was at the end of my batch. I had basically a snowball of creatine, so had been in my bucket for a month, and broke it up and put in any water bottle. I'm all good. I've taken it on the golf course before. It's fine.
I started taking it after my second shot and I accidentally swallowed one of the big rocks in my water bottle. I've never overdosed on creatine before, but I think I did in the moment because I didn't really drink any water after that. I basically just inhaled a snowball.
So I started getting super shaky. I've never felt like that before and I felt like I had tremors. I four-putted 1 and on 2 I like was freaking out and didn't know what to do.
Like I hit it so far out of bounds. Luckily my caddie stepped in and made me chug a whole water and I tried to calm down a little bit. I hit the other one in play, and then I was fine. I ended up making, whatever, a double on that hole and bogeyed the next hole.
It was probably more just a little bit flustered. I was fine after the second shot on two. And then it was -- I felt good so I went about my day and got it back to under par.
But, yeah, pretty crazy story. I don't think I'll be taking too much creatine in the future. I will take it but not in the amount that I probably did on the golf course, which wasn't probably a healthy amount.
Q. I have to admit that's not what I was expecting to hear from you.
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it's not really like an -- I did hit bad shots, but I was physically shaking like I've never felt before. And I don't normally miss a lot of short putts. It was really a weird situation.
I'm very proud of the way I bounced back. I told Alex on 4, 5 I'm going to get back to even par and got back to under par. Pretty cool. Pretty proud of myself. Excited to go to the TOUR Championship.
Unfortunately I think I came up short on a Ryder Cup locked spot, one of the six. I knew I needed to shoot about 8-under. Basically did that on the last 15. You got to do better on the first few. Lesson learned. Hopefully play really well next week and leave the captain with no choice.
Q. Even par was the goal at that point?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I mean, 14, 15 holes left on the course, I think I told him that on 5 when I was like, all right let's get it back to even. Yeah, it's a difficult golf course. It's hard to really shoot a low score out here. Robert Macintyre shot 62 the first round which was extremely impressive, and today it's a little bit more windy and the greens are firming up a touch.
Proud of the way I gave myself a lot of birdie looks and made a long one on the par-3s, which is so fun with the crowds. Yeah, fortunately was able to get back to the red.
Q. Does it make it easier to bounce back from that when you know there is like a weird reason that you played poorly as opposed supposed to...
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it was definitely not one of those situations where I'm like oh, my God, I don't know where the golf ball is going. I was very confident going into the round. It just kind of happened. It's unfortunate.
But, yeah, it was a weird feeling. I honestly got to the, whatever, third tee box and I was like, well, I'm fine. Let's pretend like that didn't happen. Kind of sucks in the moment. Damn, I wish I could have reset my round and go back to one now because I felt good.
Regardless, lesson learned. I'll be better in the future now.
Q. Is that the biggest turnaround you've ever had in a competitive round?
BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, probably. I would say so. I can't remember too many times where I've been all the way up to 6-over and shot under par in a round. That has to got to be up there. Pretty proud of myself.
Q. With your spot locked up on the TOUR Champ and going through the first three holes, did you have a moment where you're like, okay, I'm going to lock in and play aggressive or...
BEN GRIFFIN: I remember walking off 1 and walking to 2 and I'm like, am I going to have a withdraw? I was like, I need to control my body right now. It was a weird thought. Luckily I just took a minute. Probably took too long for pace of play purposes, but took a solid minute and a half and chugged water and reset and hit.
Obviously in a very lucky situation -- not, lucky but very fortunate to be that high up on the FedExCup that it didn't matter too much what I did today in terms of next week. Every single shot out here matters. Every point is important, whether it's world ranking point or FedExCup or Ryder Cup. There is so much we're playing for. Proud that I was able to reset and Lock back in and play some good golf.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports