Griffin thankful for his past as he takes early lead at Memorial
COVER PHOTO: Ben Griffin celebrates after knocking in a 52-foot chip-in at par-4, no. 18 to conclude his first round of the 50th annual Memorial Tournament with three birdies on the final three holes. Picture by Andy Evans/Columbus Wired.
Ben Griffin is on a roll.
Maybe it’s because he’s had such a solid support system throughout his amateur and professional career that has gotten him to the point he’s at now.
Or maybe it’s all of the time he’s spent in the weight room, shaping his body to be able to shape all of the shots that have gotten him here.
Whatever the case may be, Griffin is parlaying his performances from the last two weeks into his first round of the 50th annual Memorial Tournament.
Two weeks ago, he finished tied-for eighth in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and followed that up with his second PGA Tour win last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Now he’s in prime position at seven-under par after his early Thursday round on Jack Nicklaus’ course, which he’s only played twice before, to take home his third Tour win of the 2025 season.
“Yeah, it was an incredible day,” said Griffin. “(I was) kind of building on what I kind of was doing last week, making a ton of birdies (and) staying aggressive.”
The seven-year pro said the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio is one of the hardest courses on the Tour.
“You’ve got to kind of be on your game to make birdies and give yourself a lot of looks. I felt like I kind of did that.”
The journey to this point, however, hasn’t come without its severely low instances for the 29-year-old Chapel Hill, N.C. native.
After winning last week, he became emotional during his post-round interview and recalled how his parents lost their home in the 2008 housing collapse, yet still continued to support his dream of playing professional golf.
“When we lost our house, when we lost everything, I know they sacrificed a lot for me.”
He said during that interview that he spent a lot of time after they lost their home (albeit not a lot of money because they couldn’t afford full rounds of golf) chipping and putting “all day” at one of the local public courses where he grew up.
“I’d hit maybe a half bucket of balls for $5, or whatever it was … and I credit a lot of my success down the stretch today to my short game.”
Griffin ended the round with birdies on the last three holes, including a 52-foot chip-in from the fringe on par-4, no. 18.
“I can’t remember the last time I birdied the last three holes of a tournament. My dad always used to tell me, ‘par the first and last holes’. Unfortunately, I birdied the first and last, so….” he said with a chuckle.
He went bogey-free with three birdies on the front nine and an eagle on par-5, no. 7. However, he would double-bogey par-3, no. 12 but birdied par-4, no. 14 and ended with the three straight birds.
The grind of the season certainly hasn’t gotten to him and that’s probably because he’s taken a different tact when it comes to his preparation.
“This is nothing,” said Griffin. “I started out the year playing 13 events in a row. This is, I think, week six (in a row) and it doesn’t feel like much. Honestly, I feel great (and my) energy level is high. It’s funny, I talked to a lot of my peers out here and they don’t understand how I do it. I think it’s because I do a really good job resting on Mondays and Tuesday mornings. I don’t really prepare for tournaments unless pretty much Tuesday afternoons.”
Griffin credited his trainer, Derek Smith, for preparing him, as well as a couple of names he hesitated on giving credit.
“You used to see guys on Tour, I mean we probably shouldn’t mention their names that much, whatever, but Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, some of those guys back when they were dominating the majors, they were in the gym every day pumping, doing dumbbell presses and bench presses, stuff like that.”
Griffin said he never really thought about weight training until recently when he encountered tendonitis in his knee during the offseason. And then it was when he played the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in late January that he knew he had to make some changes to his routine.
“I was kind of training but wasn’t doing a ton about it, (I) was kind of more resting,” he said. “(Then I) got to Pebble Peach and had some funky lies and it was really messing me up. It was hard for me to hit bunker shots, the tendonitis would flare up.
“So that’s when I met my now-trainer, Derek Smith. I was using him as PT (physical therapy) guy at first, just to try to alleviate some of the pain. What I learned is, I needed to strengthen it as much as possible.”
He said at first he was training simply to become healthy again but came to learn that as he worked with weights, he not only started feeling better but was feeling stronger and gaining some swing speed along with it.
“I was like, ‘man if I can keep this up, I can kind of continue to get higher and higher ball speeds.”
Griffin said he’s not trying to push himself too much but is consciously trying to hit the ball harder.
“Basically, just my kind of goal has been to swing harder (and) get, like, a mile-per-hour faster or so every week or two and I’ve been on this nice trajectory right now.”
And he said he feels like when he consciously swings harder, he’s actually hitting it straighter.
“It’s funky, golf’s a weird sport,” he said. “But here I am. I guess I’m an athlete now.”
Griffin will tee it up at 1:00 p.m. EDT for round 2 alongside Shane Lowry, who currently sits in a three-way tie for third at three-under, including Ryder Cup captain, Keegan Bradley and Canadian Nick Taylor.
Other notables on the leaderboard include last year's runner-up, Collin Morikawa - who is in second place at five-under - as well as World no. 1 and the defending Memorial champion, Scottie Scheffler, who's tied for seventh with three others.