A Thorn in Scottie Scheffler’s Side, Golfer Calls Out Impulsive Mistake Most PGA Tour Rising Talents Make

In the high-stakes world of the PGA Tour, momentum is everything. Just ask the golfer who’s dared to go toe-to-toe with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler not once, but twice in recent months —”Obviously, Scottie Scheffler’s the best player in the world, but No. 1 can be beaten.” If you haven’t been paying attention, we’re talking about Ben Griffin, who is now one of golf’s most quietly charismatic rising stars. Griffin has had an incredible journey on the PGA Tour so far, with two wins just this year. And now, as he continues to ride the hot streak, the golfer from North Carolina opens up on why he’s afraid to give himself a well-deserved break.

It was three years ago when Griffin was not even on the PGA Tour. He was instead selling mortgages as a loan officer. But fast forward to 2025, Griffin has had over 97 starts and seventeen top-10 finishes in the last three years, including 8 alone this year. While his first win this year was at the Zurich Classic in April, Griffin’s big break this year was when he won the Charles Schwab Challenge. It was because he finished four shots ahead of Scottie Scheffler and tried to achieve the same feat the week after, at the Memorial. While Scheffler ultimately won Jack Nicklaus’ signature event, Ben Griffin was tied in for a solo second and gave Scheffler a run for his money.

But having achieved so much success in just the first half of the season, Griffin is afraid to take a break. “Yeah, I think, look, I play a lot and it’s for a various of different reasons, but like I think it’s been awesome to continue to play when I’ve had success because I think there’s been players maybe in the past that have success and kind of start to go deviate from their normal schedules and maybe, uh, you know, take a few more off and maybe they don’t kind of stay on the, the hot runs as long as they probably could because, because golf is kind of a game of runs,” Griffin confessed as he spoke to Patrick McDonald on CBS. He is making his 23rd start for the season this week at the John Deere Classic.

For Griffin, his strategy remains to keep teeing it up as much as possible and continue to do the same prep he did on his journey so far. “And so I feel like after you win, you can kind of stop doing some of those things and feel like you have a little more flexibility. For me, um, you know, I’m trying to do the same things I was doing leading up to this kind of stretch that I’ve been on. And so just trying to keep the pedal down and play a lot,” he added. He implied that often, success gets to players, and they stop the grind once they’ve had a win. But for Griffin, nothing has changed.

Ben Griffin earned the nickname of Iron Man from the host, merely because of how many events he has played this season. Since his win at the Zurich Classic at the end of April, Griffin has only missed two events, the Myrtle Beach Classic and the RBC Canadian Open. And now he’s playing this week at the TPC Deere Run, unlike some of the other players, who are trying to get in as much rest as possible before The Open at Royal Portrush in two weeks. While he will skip the Genesis Scottish Open and the ISCO Championship right before the final major, it’s only to get in as much practice as possible.

While we hope Griffin’s strategy and mental fortitude will be displayed this week in Illinois, let’s take a look at how this has helped in yielding his stellar finishes this season.