Ben Griffin’s Rise From Loan Officer to America’s Surprise Weapon for Ryder Cup

Ben Griffin’s remarkable rise in 2025 has been nothing short of a fairytale. Before the last time Team U.S. won the Ryder Cup in 2021, he had only played two PGA Tour events. Today, he has won twice on the Tour and has become a part of the American squad. His consistency helped him earn the trust of Keegan Bradley, and he got the opportunity to make his Ryder Cup debut. Interestingly, in 2021, while some of his present teammates were at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin, he was busy making deals in North Carolina.

Griffin’s story in professional golf is not an ordinary one. He always knew he was meant to climb to the top of the mountain. “It’s been a crazy journey for me in professional golf. Out of college, I knew I was going to play professionally. Got off to a pretty good start playing on the Canadian Tour and worked my way onto the Korn Ferry,” he told the Fore Play Podcast crew during an interview. So far, so good as he followed the same path most collegiate golfers take to get a PGA Tour card. However, in Ben’s case, he was just stuck on a bad path due to an unfortunate situation.

While speaking to Smylie Kaufman on his show, Griffin confessed, “2020 COVID hit, and they decided in the fall of 2020 that there wouldn’t be Q-School. So then in 2021, the whole season, guys had so many points. Doing Monday qualifying didn’t even make sense because I could go and finish third, and even in a Tour event, make 190x Cup points. These guys (who played through two seasons without qualifying) had a double season where 185x Cup points was 200th on the money list. You’re so far behind.”

During COVID, the PGA Tour itself was canceled for about three months. Many Korn Ferry Tour events were also canceled and/or rescheduled to deal with the pandemic. In the end, the Tour officials decided to combine the 2020 and 2021 seasons, thus stopping anyone from Q-School from getting a PGA Tour card after 2020. Griffin had only played a couple of events in 2020. So he had to make up a lot of ground if he wanted to catch up with his peers who participated in more events before 2021.

Considering how expensive the ordeal can be, the 2-time PGA Tour champion wised up and stepped away from golf. As Griffin told the Fore Play Podcast crew, “I was basically playing mini Tours, gambling on myself. It’s hard to pay rent and do things when you aren’t making very much money. You’re just traveling, and you’re just looking at your credit card balances. It just gets more and more negative.”

At 24, Griffin was losing money every week by playing professional golf. He admitted to playing internationally as well, but that only led to more financial burden. That was only a part of the reason he called it quits: “I was tired of relying on my parents. They were so supportive of me, especially my dad was floating a lot of bills. I had one sponsor at the time, but it definitely wasn’t enough to cover much.”

Even though he had a lot of support from his family to follow his dreams, Griffin was still overburdened with financial liabilities. As he had told Kaufman, his credit card bill had gone up to $70,000. He was regularly paying interest on them, but that just wasn’t enough to go by. And so he decided to take the next step: “So, my mom was in the mortgage industry, and my dad was in real estate. I took some time off. I was doing some real estate with my dad. Then got my license to be a mortgage loan officer and did that for not that long of a period of time.”

From May to August 2021, Griffin was a Mortgage Loan Officer working for CIMG Residential Mortgage. His connections in golf certainly helped him strike some great deals. As reported by Golf Digest’s Jamie Kennedy, Griffin helped Barstool Golf’s Dave Portnoy get a property in 2021. The PGA Tour pro said, “Great to get another deal done. Just got this guy into a 5-year fixed deal on his dream home in Nantucket. Reach out if you’re interested in moving or refinancing. Here to help. BG”

While he may not be a Mortgage Loan Officer anymore, Ben Griffin remains humble about his difficult journey towards the PGA Tour. His path to Ryder Cup qualification was not without roadblocks, but he was able to overcome them just like he did in 2021.

Ben Griffin broke through the chains to make it to Bethpage

Ben Griffin’s time as a Mortgage Loan Officer proved to be a boon for his career as a golfer. He spoke about Douglas B. Sieg, the CEO of Lord Abbett, who played a major role in his career. The two played golf together, and Griffin left quite an impression on Sieg. After watching him play a few times, the Chief Executive told him, “I have played with you. You’re so good. You’re so talented. I want to float your bill for a couple of years and get you back to professional golf.”

Ben revealed that the conversation happened at the end of Summer 2021. By 2023, he had lived up to the faith Sieg had in him and earned his PGA Tour card. Their partnership continued as Lord Abbett extended their sponsorship contract with Griffin. But for 89 consecutive events, he couldn’t win a single PGA Tour title. It was his 90th tournament partnering with Andrew Novak when both individuals grabbed their first wins on Tour. The momentous moment came at the 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Still facing heavy criticism for not winning a singles title, Ben Griffin silenced his doubters by defeating Scottie Scheffler in the Charles Schwab Challenge. That was enough for him to earn his place on the Ryder Cup team. Even after all he has achieved individually on the course, Griffin is still grateful for the trust others had in his abilities. Speaking about the CEO of Lord Abbett investing in him, he said, “The real reason I was able to come back to golf was Doug Sieg.” 

If he plays a big role in helping Team U.S. win at Bethpage, then every American will also show their appreciation towards Sieg for recognizing the incredible talent and potential of Ben Griffin.