4 years in the past, Ben Griffin was working as a mortgage officer for a mortgage firm.
However in one of many nice second acts in a sporting profession, the 29-year-old golfer will play in his first Ryder Cup this week.
Griffin was the PGA Tour’s breakout star of the previous season, profitable twice as nicely coming prime ten in two majors to earn one in all Keegan Bradley’s captain’s picks for the US workforce.
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Griffin’s emergence got here so late that he’s nonetheless but to grace the hallowed turf of Augusta Nationwide.
Having begun the yr ranked 68th on this planet, Griffin jumped to 51st within the Official World Golf Rankings on the eve of The Masters, however solely these within the prime 50, not in any other case exempt, earn a spot within the subject.
He’ll virtually definitely be there in April, nonetheless, having climbed all the best way to No.11 at present.
“Going from a desk job to creating my method again to the PGA Tour has been an unbelievable journey, and this yr it’s been form of a breakthrough yr for me,” Griffin stated upon being named to make his debut in US colors.
“And I’ve simply been working actually exhausting and believing in myself, and I’m simply actually excited to be part of this workforce and respect the idea from not solely Keegan but in addition from the remainder of the captains and different gamers that additionally consider in me, and I’m able to work exhausting and struggle for lots of factors at Bethpage.”
Griffin may have so simply been one of many followers on the opposite facet of the ropes at Bethpage Black in New York this week, having walked away from the skilled sport in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In his youth, Griffin skilled the financial hardship such a world occasion can inflict, together with his household having to maneuver home on account of the 2008 International Monetary Disaster.
The 12-year-old additionally needed to go away the nation membership the place he had been creating is golf sport alongside his father and grandfather.
As he navigated his teenage years, Griffin needed to as a substitute accept chipping and placing on the apply inexperienced at his native public course in North Carolina.
Spending hours upon hours on his quick sport saved cash on inexperienced charges, and Griffin credit these days as the explanation why he’s now thought to be possessing probably the greatest quick sport’s on this planet.
“I’d chip and putt all day,” Griffin recalled in an interview earlier this yr.
“I’d hit perhaps a half bucket of balls for $5 or no matter it was, and my mother and father, they at all times thought of themselves center to higher class, however I knew there for a bit bit after we misplaced our home, after we misplaced every part.
“I do know they sacrificed loads for me.”
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By the age of 16, Griffin was usually driving himself to junior tournaments, and staying in motels or accommodations alone as a result of his mother and father needed to keep dwelling to work.
“I’d inform the entrance desk, ‘Look, my dad is coming to test us in, don’t fear. He’s on a name and operating behind. I simply want a room key’,” he recalled.
“It labored each time.”
These reminiscences haven’t escaped Griffin’s thoughts, and that’s the reason he determined it was time to earn a extra regular pay cheque when the pandemic hit after just a few powerful years on the skilled circuit.
He graduated with a level in economics from the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018, and thought he higher put his research to good use, proving that he didn’t simply benefit from the free vary balls throughout his 4 years in school.
“Once I stepped away from golf, I used to be utterly performed,” Griffin recalled at this yr’s US Open.
“I’d misplaced my motivation and love for golf. The stress of taking part in with $15,000 of credit-card debt was agony, so I stop,” he stated in a separate interview with Golf Digest.
Between turning skilled and stepping away from skilled golf, Griffin had earned $96,000 throughout the PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour Canada.
He additionally performed 4 occasions on the PGA Tour Lationamerica for 4 missed cuts, heading dwelling with out a cent to point out for his efforts on the decrease stage circuit.
With the price of flights, vehicles, lodging and the numerous different bills of tour-life, his checking account was drained, therefore the bank card debt.
Now, his financial institution stability seems remarkably completely different, boasting virtually $27 million in prize cash for his profession.
This yr alone, he has received $16.2 million largely off the again of his two wins, two runners-up finishes and 11 prime tens in 29 begins.
All of that might not have been potential with out a weird act of the unconscious that drew him again to the game, nonetheless.
After just a few months within the workplace, Griffin randomly left his dwelling one morning and drove himself to the golf course as a substitute of the workplace.
It’s the kind of factor most workplace employees who like to swing a membership of their leisure time dream about doing any morning the solar is shining.
However Griffin was not dwelling out a rebellious fantasy.
Quite he was on auto-pilot, nonetheless performing as if he was dwelling his former life.
Days later one other signal emerged.
Griffin’s grandfather handed away, and a line in his obituary – “hit them lengthy and straight”- struck a chord together with his grandson.
“Once I noticed that, and after I had by chance pushed to the course, I used to be like, man, perhaps I want to offer this one other run,” Griffin recalled.
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Returning to the skilled sport turned an absolute no brainer when a beneficiant supply was introduced to Griffin.
Doug Sieg, CEO of funding administration firm Lord Abbett, is a pal of Griffin’s coach Randy Myers from their faculty days.
Myers had clearly been telling his pal about Griffin’s story, so Sieg related with Griffin to encourage him to make the leap as soon as once more.
Quickly sufficient, Sieg provided to cowl Griffin’s golf-related funds for 2 years if he stepped again onto the skilled circuit.
“He noticed one thing in me that another individuals could have noticed, however he was in a position to put the cheque ahead to me to permit me to play skilled golf,” Griffin stated at The Gamers Championship in 2023.
“As a golfer, while you’re beginning up, that may be a humongous sigh of aid and large in your confidence and every part, since you don’t have to consider something however profitable.
“Earlier than, I’m interested by, ‘Alright, how am I going to pay my lease, how am I going to pay my meals?’
“I’m not going to get guac at Chipotle; that’s what Viktor Hovland used to say. It’s stuff like that that’s actual.”
With monetary freedom, Griffin invested closely in himself.
He centered on diet, and spent numerous hours within the fitness center with the intention to get stronger and sooner to extend his swing pace, and thus his distance off the tee.
Placing within the work off the course elevated his confidence on it, and with out worrying about what his day by day financial institution stability appeared, Griffin undertook a major mindset change.
“It’s simple to get caught as a mini-tour golfer, caught like, man, that is so exhausting, my again is towards the wall,” Griffin stated.
“So as a substitute of that mindset, I had a extra forward-thinking mindset of I’m already probably the greatest gamers on this planet. I simply should go on the market and show it.
“The road may be very skinny out right here between being one of many prime gamers on this planet or not,” he added.
“It may be a shot a spherical. So I’ve to get up each morning feeling able to go and never give away these photographs.”
The diligence in his preparation, and his self-belief, has not wavered within the 4 years he has been again within the skilled ranks.
Griffin’s swing coach James Oh lately advised golf.com that his consumer is so regimented that that his schedule hardly wavers.
He believes that such consistency is a key ingredient to Griffin’s success.
“He works actually exhausting, however now we have a set schedule,” Oh stated.
“I may inform you, 4 weeks from now at an occasion, the place he’s going to be at midday on a Tuesday.
“Due to that routine and since he sticks to it, he’s not looking out. It’s began to click on.”
Initially, it clicked within the type of three runner-up finishes and coming eighth on the Korn Ferry Tour’s season-long standings in 2022 to earn a PGA Tour card.
Within the following two years, he had runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour on the 2023 Sanderson Farms Championship and the 2024 Canadian Open.
He didn’t race out of the blocks this yr nonetheless, with only one prime ten in his first six begins.
However as soon as Griffin received going, there was no stopping him.
He received the PGA Tour’s annual groups occasion, the Zurich Traditional alongside Andrew Novak, and virtually a month later, he claimed his first particular person win on the Charles Schwab Problem – every week after ending tied eight on the PGA Championship.
Followers turned enamored by a man utilizing Maxfli golf balls, as a substitute of one of many powerhouse manufacturers like Titleist or Callaway, and carrying Aviator-style sun shades on the course – that are to assist with a imaginative and prescient situation the place he was seeing “floaters”.
With a wave of momentum behind him, Griffin got here runner-up the next week at The Memorial and a fortnight later was tied tenth on the US Open.
“The most important second, the place I seen it, was taking part in within the remaining group with Scottie Scheffler on the Memorial after we had been battling that out,” Griffin advised Forbes of his elevated fan help.
“On the Memorial, it felt like there have been virtually extra for me than Scottie plenty of the time. I used to be fairly engaged with the followers and I believe at that second I used to be like ‘man I’m actually gaining popularity out on tour’. It’s undoubtedly been plenty of gravy to have these galleries on my facet.”
He arrived in New York operating scorching too, coming tied 14th or higher in seven of the 9 tournaments he has performed since Oakmont, together with ending runner-up to Scottie Scheffler on the Procore Championship two weeks in the past.
“I at all times knew I may win and I knew I used to be going to. It was simply form of a matter of time earlier than I’d break via,” Griffin stated.
“However right here is the factor about golf. We play each week and it’s 156 guys. You don’t win an entire lot. You not often win except you’re prime gamers profitable a number of instances a yr.
“You need to settle for the actual fact that you’re going to play some actually good golf and end fifth place and virtually deal with these like wins.
“Having that constructive mindset is big, however actually getting the job performed and getting the primary win was big. It simply gave me the arrogance I may do it.”
Griffin is now set to be a fan favorite for the pro-American crowd at Bethpage Black.
The nickname ‘Benny Booms’ has gained attraction, whereas he can be within the thick of the partisanship if paired up with Bryson DeChambeau as anticipated.
The pair have performed apply rounds collectively in current days, hinting at a potential pairing by Bradley.
At any time when Griffin does hit his first Ryder Cup tee shot, he thoughts is unlikely to waver from the duty at hand.
However certainly he can take a momentum to assume that the expertise trumps observing spreadsheets all day.
His grandfather’s obituary could even come to his thoughts too.