What an incredible year it has been for Ben Griffin so far. Having received his PGA Tour card in 2023, he had played 78 tournaments before the 2025 season began. They resulted in 52 cuts and 9 top-10 finishes. But he was yet to win a PGA Tour title. Griffin did come close to winning twice. Once in 2023, in the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he finished at T2 after losing to Luke List in the playoffs. His second runner-up finish was in the 2024 RBC Canadian Open, where Robert MacIntyre beat him by 1 stroke. However, things have turned around for the 29-year-old in 2025 as he has finally started winning.
We have not even completed half a year yet, and Ben Griffin has already competed in 18 PGA Tour events. The North Carolina citizen has been on the hunt for success ever since the 2025 Sony Open in Hawaii. However, it was The American Express that got him his first top-10 of the season, and he hasn’t looked back since. Griffin got 5 more top-10 finishes this year, which include his first and second PGA Tour wins as well. His latest win in the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge a few hours ago marks the first individual title of his career on the Tour.
Excited to finally break the winless streak, he sat down for an emotional round of Press Conference to confess his struggles. Griffin said, “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.”
During an interview after the penultimate round, Griffin was asked about his mindset going into the final round of the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge at the top of the leaderboard. He responded with, “I’m a PGA Tour winner now, so that helps.” It may have exuded confidence for him and the PGA Tour as they shared the statement online. However, fans didn’t read too kindly into it as they criticized Griffin for only winning a team event. “It’s weird to talk like that when your only win is a team event…” said one of the fans as they disregarded the 29-year-old’s win with Andrew Novak a few weeks ago. They had shot 28 under, and won by 1 stroke over the Hojgaard brothers.
Coming back to the post-win interview, Griffin said, “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 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.” Winning over the likes of Scottie and Tommy Fleetwood, who were right behind, chasing the win, is a big deal in itself.
Before the 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, both Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin fell into the category of golfers who had never won a PGA Tour event. Now, the former has a team title, and the latter just won two tournaments in the same season. Both of them are living the dream, which, as Griffin himself admitted, “some people never” achieve.
Continuing to speak about the mountain he climbed, he added, “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.”
While the statement from Saturday evening might have ticked off some fans, it showed that Griffin was confident in his abilities. And a win in Pennsylvania has just given him the belief that he is capable of winning more frequently on the PGA Tour. Reflecting on his statement about competing “against the best,” let’s take a look at his performance in the tournament and the challengers he beat.
How did Ben Griffin win his second PGA Tour title?
Sitting with the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge title beside him, Ben Griffin was seen wearing a Tartan jacket, holding up a key to a classic car, and with a $1.71 million paycheck waiting to get cashed. The scenes at the Colonial Country Club were truly remarkable as he finally proved his “haters” wrong. And he did so in an emphatic fashion after going into he final round at the top of the leaderboard tied with Matti Schmid.
Despite conceding a point on Sunday, Griffin was able to capture the title by 1 stroke with a 12-under par. He became the fourth winner on the Tour to start the final round with an eagle. Schmid, who was also competing for his first title, went 2-over par 72 to end up in the second spot. However, no one else came close enough to really challenge the two in the final round.
Rickie Fowler, who was solo third on Saturday with a 9-under par, went 4 over to fall to T16. Scottie Scheffler, who was caught wincing in pain during the second round, managed to rise the table on Saturday. But a final round -1 could only push him to T4 with Tommy Fleetwood.
There was no other top golfer in sight for Ben Griffin to worry about. Hence, his rise to the 24th spot on the OWGR leaderboard was much easier than what he and Andrew Novak had to face in the 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans a few weeks ago. Talk about making a statement after facing criticism for winning a team event.
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