“I’d lost my motivation and love for golf,” said emotional Ben Griffin after facing struggles and hardships with his passion and switching fields. But destiny had other plans, big ones! Ben turned professional in 2018, and after graduating, started playing on the PGA Tour Canada. But the door to the biggest league, the PGA Tour, stayed locked for him until 2025, and he had to take matters into his own hands.
Owing to financial instability and debt, Ben decided in 2021 to step away from golf and join the conventional field. He became a loan officer. But soon after, as he joined back, the story started to take shape as he had dreamt of. Now that he has achieved his first individual win and second Tour win at the Charles Schwab Challenge, Amanda Balionis brought back certain memories as she interviewed him after his emotional win.
In the post-round interview, she asked him, “Ben, success often takes a long time, but it can happen all at once. You were a mortgage broker in 2021, and in the last month, you became a two-time PGA Tour Champion, this one on your own. That finish was not easy; talk me through what was going through your mind over that four-footer.” Answering this, Griffin was as candid as he could.
“First of all, it was like whack-a-mole hitting that third shot,” he said. He kept the lead since the third round and was one stroke ahead of Matthias Schmid. To win, he needed to do better than Schmid and the rest of the field. And he did. At the 18th, Griffin shot a beautiful wedge shot, which ended 4 feet away from the cup. Ultimately, he closed in 1-over 71 to claim the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge by one stroke over Matti Schmid.
He, with wet eyes, continued sharing, “Grouped down to about the hosel on the wedge, but no, I mean, in my head I was thinking Matty might probably make that. Fortunately, I had that four-footer; I felt pretty good about it.” With just a stroke difference, Griffin had already carded a bogey at the 16th, and with the 18th and final hole, that wasn’t the option. But after his approach to the green, he made the 4-foot putt to win his first individual title.
“It was like whack-a-mole hitting that third shot.”
It wasn’t easy, but Ben Griffin gets his first solo PGA Tour win. pic.twitter.com/cRDulFlzqE
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) May 25, 2025
Griffin had already won $1.3 million with his Zurich Classic win, which came a month ago, and now this one adds another $1.7 million. Once struggling with debt, he now seems to be comfortable. This win was not just emotional but historic too. Do you know that Ben became only the fourth player ever to eagle the first hole in the final round and win on the PGA Tour since 1983? The first was K.J. Choi at the 2006 Valspar Championship, the second was Phil Mickelson at the 2009 Genesis Invitational, and the third was Chris Kirk, 10 years ago, at the 2015 Charles Schwab Challenge.
After the strong decision to step away in 2021, an invitation changed his life towards the journey as a professional golfer.
Ben Griffin’s decision that shaped his pro journey
Griffin won the Sanderson Farms Championship in 2018, but that became his first and last win as a professional until this year. He kept attempting to win, but the efforts were in vain. Considering the situation in 2021, he took a step back and joined as a mortgage broker.
Talking about his decision during an interview, he shared, “In 2021, I was burned out on mini-tours and couldn’t see myself making it to the PGA Tour. I’d lost my motivation and love for golf. The stress of playing with $15,000 of credit-card debt was agony, so I quit.” With just one win, surviving isn’t easy, but his grandfather’s and father’s decision to introduce golf to him came to effect when the opportunity knocked.
Then he shared how, fortunately, after a month, he got the chance to get back on the course. He said, “I got a job as a mortgage loan officer and hadn’t touched a club in a month when I accepted an invitation to a member-guest tournament that changed my life.” The golfer, after accepting the invite, not just stood consistently but made significant changes in lifestyle and practice to get the desired result. Some of the changes include quitting drinking during the season and shifting to a vegan diet.
The consistent efforts today taste sweeter for the golfer, clearly! This is just the beginning for Ben Griffin, and he will add more wins. What are your thoughts on it? Share with us in the comments below.
The post Ben Griffin Pours Out Raw Emotions As Amanda Balionis Reminds Him of His Emotional Journey Before $1.7M Payday appeared first on EssentiallySports.
