It is insufficient, if not inaccurate, to simply note that this loan arranger got back in the saddle, as it were, trying another run at professional golf, and cashing a $US1.71 million prize.
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It is more complicated, indeed more unlikely, than that. No scriptwriter conceivably would have created this scenario. Four years ago, Ben Griffin walked away from a golf career going nowhere, his inability to make a living at it sending him in pursuit of a job that reliably would provide him a pay cheque. His mother was a mortgage loan officer, so he decided that that would be his livelihood.
One day, attired in coat and tie and driving to the office, when, by his own telling, he “accidentally” made a wrong turn towards a golf course that convinced him to give golf a mulligan. His wrong turn in fact was emphatically a right turn.
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Griffin, 29, won the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday, his second victory of the year, second in his last five starts, in fact, the first coming in a team event, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, partnering with Andrew Novak. This latest win ran his earnings this year alone to $US4.9 million and his PGA Tour career earnings to $US11.6 million.
Wild guess here, but writing loans likely would not have been so lucrative.
His is a remarkable second-chance story that is still unfolding, while no doubt inspiring others now that he has become the standard-bearer for keeping dreams alive, even those on life support. In his case, he already had pulled the plug, yet still persevered.
“Yeah, there’s nothing to this game. It’s easy,” he said, smiling. “Yeah, it’s crazy. Up until last week I had never made a cut in a major. Finished eighth at the PGA. Had a real good chance there to even finish solo runner-up. Was within a few of Scottie [Scheffler] going into the back nine.
“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 was not an easy career resurrection, four years in the making, as it was, and a similarly difficult challenge in winning his first individual title, notwithstanding his opening the final round with an eagle and a birdie to take a three-stroke lead that at one point increased to five. Over the next 16 holes, he made four bogeys and the rest pars, and needed to make a difficult up-and-down par save from a steep bank at the 18th green to fend off a strong challenge from runner-up Matti Schmid of Germany.
Griffin took a two-stroke lead to 18, and both players missed the green, though Schmid had the far greater challenge, needing to hole his third from a steep bank left of the green to have a chance. Griffin, too, had a difficult third, standing in a bunker. He put it to four feet of the hole. Schmid then, remarkably (miraculously?), holed his birdie pitch, after which Griffin casually made his winning putt.
“Like a whack-a-mole hitting that third shot,” Griffin said. “Gripped down to the hosel on the wedge. In my mind, I was thinking Matti probably would make it. So, fortunately, I had that four-footer and felt pretty good with it.”
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Griffin discounts the notion that he has redeemed his career, however, given its unusual meandering path, instead preferring to call it validation.
“I didn’t redeem myself for anything, but definitely validation,” he said. “It’s really nice to get the validation. Some weeks you get validation with a top 10. Some weeks it’s the top five. 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 the last man standing on 18, an incredible feeling, something I’ve gotten to soak in twice in the last month. It’s one that I want to keep feeling.”
