Ben Griffin In Tears After Charles Schwab Challenge; Says Victory Was Fuelled By Social Media Hate

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An emotional Ben Griffin broke down after claiming his first solo PGA Tour win at the Charles Schwab Challenge, just weeks after teaming up with Andrew Novak to win the Zurich Classic.

Griffin revealed how social media criticism and doubt had fuelled his drive to succeed, and opened up about how his family was hit hard during the 2008 financial crisis, a struggle that’s shaped his journey both on and off the course.

This win meant more than just a trophy — it was personal redemption.

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Ben Griffin into the interview room. Our 2025 champion of the Charles Schwab challenge. He picks up his second PGA Tour victory. First in an individual stroke play event. I know that means a lot to you as well, Ben. If we can get some comments on winning this week. Yeah. Um, incredible week. Um, my golf game felt great all week long. Um, was very confident out there. Um, put in a lot of hard work. um really all of this year leading up to I mean you could say this but arguably you know the last month and a half or so I’ve been really proud of not only putting in the hard work but seeing some results. Um it’s not often as golfers out here on tour you um get the chance to win and and do win and so um was very very fortunate to um have a a great partner in Andrew Novak a few weeks ago at the Zurich Classic get a win with him. Uh, incredible experience and yeah, it’s nice to I don’t want to say silence the haters, but there there’s definitely some hate comments I got last night and I use that as fuel today to get an individual win. And then if you’ll just recap the round, you got off to a hot start and then uh especially take us through hole 18 there at the end. Yeah, got off to an incredible start. Uh, you know, this golf course early on in the round, you know, really just one and two, those are those are birdie holes out of the gate. Um, you got to take advantage of those because there’s a lot of really difficult par fours, par threes are all tough. I mean, the entire golf course is very, very tricky. It can feel easy from time to time. Um, but you can get barely out of position and all of a sudden you’re grinding for bogey and if you’re, you know, four paces further left or, you know, and have have a gap, you can be making birdies. So, it’s a very it’s very much a positional golf course. Um, I took advantage of the early holes. Uh, kind of had some hiccups mid round. Uh, I did the same thing yesterday. Um it’s not like necessarily something was off. It’s just you get out of position a little bit and it’s and it’s hard and you leave yourself an eightfooter and you don’t make it and all of a sudden you’re writing down a bogey. So um yeah, the back n was uh was quite the grind. Um I didn’t go into the back n hoping to hit I think one or two greens in regulation. However many I think I hit the green in regulation on 10, 11, and 12 and didn’t hit a hit a green from then on. So uh it’s just very very difficult, very challenging. Um, proud of the way I I scrambled down the stretch. Um, hell of a chip in by Maddie on 18 to apply the pressure. That was crazy. Um, you know, certainly when I’m over my chip on 18. You always have to expect your opponent to to make their next shot, but I was in a difficult lie and um was very happy to to gave it a really good run and almost went in, but left myself a 4-footer and after he chipped in, I was like, “All right, I guess you got to make this one now.” Um, as opposed to, you know, lagging it up there. So, um, uh, it was incredible to win today and, um, so many people to thank and very, uh, very proud to be the Charles Schwab champion. And before we open it up to questions, talk a little bit about what it means to win at Colonial, one of our one of our most historical courses on tour. Totally. Um, super historical. Uh, it’s amazing um, that the PJ tours continue to come here and create, you know, they call it the Charles Challenge. It is a challenge. I mean, 12 under, I think, was I 12 under par? I’ve asked a couple people. 12 under. Um for 12 under to win on the PGA Tour, um that’s a really difficult golf course. And this is not a long modern golf course. This is not like a huge like US Open like test, the modern US Open test. Um it’s old school and it still challenges us uh the best players in the world and uh it’s very very difficult and um it’s really incredible to have lifted that trophy on 18 with so many incredible names and greats in the game of golf. Um I’m very blessed to to be where I am in my career to to even you know consider myself uh a champion along with those guys. So um it’s uh it’s been a lot of hard work uh that’s gone into this and um it’s an awesome place for me to get my first individual win and um at such a historical venue. All right, if you’ll raise your hand, we’ll get a microphone to you. We’ll start with Kevin in the back back left. Okay, go ahead Art. We’ll go Art and then Kevin. Okay. Uh, most important question, I guess, is who gets to drive the Challenger truck? You or the, uh, fiance? Uh, I don’t want to see her behind the wheel quite yet. No. Uh, she said it’s fine. She wants to be a passenger princess. Um, yeah, it’s uh I’m not going to be driving it from here to the memorial, but um, when we do drive it, it’ll be very fun. I think we decided we’re taking it to the beach um, as our first uh first stop. So, we recently um moved to Jupiter, Florida, and the process of renovating a home. So, the garage has a lot of 2x4s, so we’re going to have to find some space to to store it in the meantime, but it’s going to it’s going to be fun to ride that thing around. All right, let’s go to Kevin. I’m ready now. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Okay, so uh you know, you started the season with no wins and some some close ones, but and now here you are, man. like in the last four weeks you’ve won twice. Is your head just spinning? Yeah, there’s nothing to this game. It’s easy. Um yeah, it’s uh it’s crazy. Yeah. Um you know, up until last week, I’d never made a cut to major. Finished eighth at the PGA. Had a real good chance there to even finish solo runner up. Um was within a few of Scotty, you know, going in the back nine. Um yeah, it’s it’s it’s crazy how fast uh things can change in this game. Um, even going back to when I didn’t have any status on any sort of tours. Um, getting onto the corn ferry tour. I mean, it’s just a bunch of stepping stones that kind of get you to the next part of your career. And now I’m at the point where I feel like, um, starting to show that I am an elite golfer. Um, I can compete against the best. Um, it’s it hasn’t really sunk in quite yet here, like what I what necessarily I’ve accomplished, at least the last few weeks, but I know that I’m extremely proud and extremely um extremely happy with the way my hard work’s kind of paid off a little bit recently cuz it’s golf’s a I said it was easy. Golf is not an easy game. Uh it’s a very hard game and you don’t win very often and some people never win and it’s uh it’s really cool to get that monkey off the back. Uh you know, going back a few weeks ago and now I I feel like now that I’ve done it a few a couple times, I I I just feel super confident in my ability down the stretch. I know it didn’t maybe look like it today, but um you know, I felt really calm and confident over a lot of putts today. Um, and I don’t know if um, I necessarily would have felt that maybe a year ago. Um, but I just feel like I’m in a really good place with my golf game. It’s a cyclical game. I got to make sure I keep doing the right things to to remember what I’m doing right now, continue to build, and um, continue into the summer um, with some big events upcoming. Thank you. I do have Go ahead. One followup, John. Yep. Um, given your career journey, um, I wonder if you’re feeling I know you’re feeling a lot of different emotions right now. I wonder if, uh, redemption and validation are two of those things you’re feeling. Yeah. Um, not necessarily redemption. I didn’t redeem myself for anything, but definitely validation. Um, it’s really nice to get the validation. Um, some weeks you get validation with a top 10. Um, some weeks it’s a top five. Some weeks it maybe is a made cut. Um, if you’re grinding through something and it’s a challenging course. So, but winning is an incredible feeling. Um, and words can’t really describe what it feels like to to beat I don’t know how big the field was this week, maybe 120 or 128. Some weeks it’s 156. I mean, it’s a lot of guys. There’s a lot of horses in these races and um to be the last man standing on 18 is an incredible incredible feeling. Um something I’ve I’ve gotten to soak in, you know, twice in the last month. It’s um it’s one that I I want to keep I want to keep feeling. Um you know, and hopefully I I start winning by more than one because winning by one gets a little stressful. Um but I’m still very proud of how calm and composed I was out there. All right, let’s go. Skyler on the left and then over to Lawrence. Before I get to what I wanted to ask, I just wanted to check, did you want to elaborate at all on some of the hate comments that you talked about from yesterday that you saw? You know, social media, like I I try not to let I I I really don’t let a lot of anything on social media get to me because it’s the wild west. Um, but social media is an incredible platform to to share moments with um with people everywhere. And um I just saw some people questioning my ability to win individual tournaments or you know the Zurich doesn’t count. The Zurich shouldn’t be a PGA Tour event. Stuff like that. I mean I just use that as fuel. It’s a it’s pretty fun. Like I I didn’t care that much that people felt that way. I I feel like if I was, you know, uh someone on social media maybe trolling a little bit, like you know, maybe it makes sense. You know, I haven’t won individually. And so, um, I’m just proud that I was able to to be the last man standing this week. And, um, now I can silence some people. And I wanted to make sure it’s safe to assume you didn’t think it was going to be easy when you had a five shot lead after just five holes today. Yeah. Um, I wasn’t really thinking. Yeah. I mean, it’s crazy. No lead is ever safe on the PGA Tour. It It never is. It can feel like a tournament’s done. Maybe if it’s Scotty Sheffler with a five shot lead, it’s done. But like for most golfers, it doesn’t matter how big your lead is, things can happen out there. And um I felt really confident. I I felt like I I was trying to keep the pedal down. I I kept hitting a lot of drivers, kept trying to give myself birdie putts. I just didn’t give myself a lot of birdie putts. I think I had three birdie putts on my last like 12 holes. Crazy. All right, let’s go to Lawrence. Second row right here. Had a lot of key putts for par there in the last couple holes. talk about keeping your composure when you kind of got in some tough situations. Yeah. Um the scrambling uh is what what what put me in the seat here today. Um I’m very confident my my short game. I credit that going back to junior golf. Um my parents did so much did so much for me um growing up. um they got hit hard by the recession. The 2008 recession and so they invested a lot in um in me being able to um you know practice and compete. Um I didn’t spend very many very much money on range balls. [Music] Um, I was at a public golf course and I would I would chip and putt all day. Um, I’d hit maybe a half bucket of balls for $5 or whatever it was. And my parents, you know, we did they always consider themselves middle to upper class, but I knew there for a little bit. Um, when we lost our house, when we lost everything, um, I know they they sacrificed a lot for me. Um, and I credit a lot of my, um, you know, success down the stretch today to, um, you know, my short game. It kept me in it, and that’s what that’s what I did as a kid. That’s what that’s what helped my short game be so good um, down the stretch today. All right. I didn’t I didn’t mean for that answer to get that emotional, but it kind of was. Okay. Anything else, Ben? We couldn’t be happier for you. Congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] All right.