Ben Griffin quit golfing in 2021.
He had just fallen off the Korn Ferry Tour, a progression tour below the PGA, the year prior. He had $17,000 in credit card debt and no sponsor to help with the expenses.
“I kind of pushed my dreams completely to the side and wanted to start fresh,” Griffin said.
He didn’t want to move to a big city, so he came back to the one place he always called home — Chapel Hill.
Griffin was a Tar Heel born and bred. His parents, Cowan and Erika, both graduated from UNC. They stayed and raised both Ben and his brother in the area.
And Chapel Hill was where Griffin took his first golf swings.
“I learned the game, pretty much, at Chapel Hill Country Club,” Griffin said.
This September, Griffin found himself representing his country on the biggest international stage at the 2025 Ryder Cup. Griffin was one of 12 golfers selected to represent the United States at the Bethpage Black course against Team Europe. While the United States lost, Griffin’s journey back to Chapel Hill helped reignite his golf career en route to becoming one of professional golf’s rising stars.
Griffin built his game around public golf, which is uncommon for many college and PGA Tour players. His childhood memories consisted of chipping greens made of fairway grass and putting to sticks. His now world-class short game was built here.
“I was paying for range balls, and it was free for me to go to the chipping green and for me to putt to the sticks,” Griffin said.
He watched as the gravel road entrance to Finley Golf Club was paved over and the Pinnacle range balls were swapped for Titleists.
Griffin soon became a state champion playing for East Chapel Hill High School. As he competed alongside other big-name junior golfers like Scottie Scheffler, scouting eyes were on the budding star.
Former UNC men’s golf coach Andrew Sapp knew he had to get Griffin.
“You got to get your local star,” Sapp said.
Sapp did just that — and it didn’t take much convincing.
“I was always a die hard Tar Heel,” Griffin said. “There was no way I was going to Duke. No way I was going to Wake Forest. No way I was going to N.C. State.”
The rising phenom began his first year at UNC in 2014. Griffin was given All-American honorable mentions in 2015 and 2017.
He immediately turned pro following his graduation in 2018. The stint was short-lived though, with Griffin stepping away from the game just three years later in 2021.
With all the debt and the desire to start fresh, golf wasn’t the path Griffin wanted to take anymore. His career path took a turn.
Chapel Hill, the location of his CIMG Residential Mortgage office where Griffin began working, overlooked the back nine of Finley Golf Club — a course where he had tied the scoring record just four years prior.
“Literally, the parking lot where I parked my car was 20 steps from that third tee box,” Griffin said.
The former Tar Heel was focused on teeing off his new career in mortgages.
Following in the footsteps of his mother, a loan officer herself, Griffin swiftly learned the business and earned himself a mortgage license.
“I wasn’t thinking about golf, really,” Griffin said. “Not even at all, actually. I was barely following leaderboards.”
He would rarely make visits to Finley Golf Club anymore. But he stayed in touch with UNC men’s golf coach Andrew DiBitetto who watched his former star make occasional trips to the chipping green during summer practices.
“When he stepped away, I think we all thought he was done,” DiBitetto said.
But early one July morning in 2021, while making his routine commute to the office, Griffin unknowingly took his car past the turn and into Finley Golf Club’s parking lot.
He quickly hit a U-turn and got back to work.
“It was probably because I was really tired, but I used it as a sign, like, ‘Huh, that’s weird,’” Griffin said.
Later, his grandfather passed away. He was one of the biggest supporters of Griffin’s golf career. Reading his obituary, one particular line hit him the hardest.
“Hit them long and straight.”
“I was like, ‘Man, why are all these things pointing me back to golf right now?’” Griffin said.
On top of all of this, Lord Abbett CEO Douglas Sieg had offered to cover his expenses for a professional comeback.
He finally had his sponsor. It became more than just signs.
“I feel like I not only owed it to myself, but I owed it to a lot of people to really maximize my potential in golf when I came back, and it obviously paid off tremendously,” Griffin said.
Griffin was now a professional golfer again. This time, though, he was ready to make the sacrifices needed to reach his full potential.
He had to cut off time with his friends. He focused solely on traveling and competing.
“He just had a little bit of a different perspective to him,” DiBitetto said. “Like overall on life, not just golf, and just seemed to be an extremely grateful human.”
In late April 2025, it all paid off. Griffin earned his first PGA Tour win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
But his game took off just one month later. The former Tar Heel caught fire.
First place in the Charles Schwab Challenge. Second place at the Memorial Tournament. Tied for tenth at the U.S. Open.
As a result, Griffin shot up the FedEx Cup and world rankings. The golf world took notice. Specifically, Team USA Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley.
Griffin didn’t crack the top six in Ryder Cup points needed to qualify for Team USA, so he was at the mercy of Bradley’s discretion for one of the last six captain’s selections.
“I could say I left him no doubt, but in the back of my head, I’m still not sure,” Griffin said.
In late August, Griffin received the call that he would be representing his country at this year’s Ryder Cup in New York.
“It was pretty emotional,” Griffin said. “It’s crazy just because at the start of the year, I wasn’t even thinking about the Ryder Cup team and then I just had so much success and sitting back, it’s hard to believe how far I’ve come.”
The moment was full circle. In college, Griffin had one mantra:
Go Heels, Go America.
“I had the ‘Go Heels’ part down in college, and now I guess I made it to the ‘Go America’ part,” Griffin said.
Friday afternoon of the tournament’s opening day in September, the Chapel Hill native walked up to the tips of the first hole at Bethpage Black for his four-ball match.
A sea of patriotism was screaming in support. President Donald Trump greeted him. His WHOOP fitness tracker recorded his heart rate at 135 beats per minute.
Inside the crowd of red, white and blue was DiBitetto, watching the former Tar Heel make his Ryder Cup debut.
“I know it’s not the most difficult tee shot in the world, but he bombed it over the corner and club twirled it and off we went,” DiBitetto said.
The energy was evident on the seventh hole, when Griffin putted from the edge of the green and watched his ball trickle 60 feet into the bottom of the cup.
The crowd roared.
He yelled back, pumping his fist.
Bryson DeChambeau was there to greet him with an adrenaline-infused chest bump.
“It’s an out-of-body experience,” Griffin said. “You’re just fist bumping, trying to pump up the crowd. It was an insane moment. It was hard to kind of calm myself down going to the next hole, honestly.”
On the 12th hole of his Sunday singles match against Rasmus Højgaard, another long putt sent the home crowd into a frenzy.
“I turned to the crowd and again, I don’t even know what I was doing,” Griffin said. “But I was just yelling and fist pumping. It was an incredible moment shared with the crowd.”
Griffin won his singles match over Højgaard, earning Team USA a point in what was a valiant near-comeback against Team Europe.
“It was one of the most surreal experiences,” Griffin said. “It was incredible, the achievement for me to just be on that team, but just an incredible experience to be able to wear the flag and play golf at one of the biggest stages.”
The Ryder Cup is just the beginning for Griffin. After donning the red, white and blue, the rising star says he’s ready to add some green to his collection.
Master’s green, that is.
“It’s crazy to say out loud, but I just feel like I’m at a point in my golf career with my golf game where I can legitimately do it in my first attempt,” Griffin said.
He doesn’t want to prove it to the world, but rather prove it to himself. And he believes he has the skills to do it.
If Griffin does win that prestigious green jacket at Augusta National, it will be a reminder that he can always call himself a Master’s champion.
In the meantime, Griffin will always be a PGA Tour champion. He will always be a Team USA member.
And he will always be a Tar Heel.
@dylanstalterr
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