The golf world is full of family ties. From father-son pairs like Tiger Woods and Charlie Woods to siblings like Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard, the sport has seen plenty of talent passed down through generations. So when Ben Griffin broke through with his win at the Zurich Classic in 2025, a lot of fans had the same thought: wait, haven’t we heard that name before? Ben’s story is unique. He once stepped away from golf to work as a loan officer before returning to the game and eventually earning a spot on Keegan Bradley‘s Ryder Cup team. But the chatter around his rise wasn’t just about his comeback. It was also because another familiar name on Tour kept causing double takes: Lanto Griffin. So, are the two related?

The simple answer: they aren’t. Despite the shared surname, there is reportedly no overlap in their family histories. Lanto Griffin was born in Mount Shasta, California, in 1988 and grew up in Virginia before making his home in Florida. Ben Griffin, who is eight years younger, was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. On one hand, where Lanto’s path to golf came through Virginia Commonwealth University, Ben spent his amateur years representing the University of North Carolina. Official records, PGA Tour profiles, and interviews confirm that the two golfers share nothing beyond their last name, which is of Welsh origin and fairly common in the United States.

The confusion, though, is easy to understand. Lanto Griffin made his reputation years before Ben stepped into the PGA Tour. After turning professional in 2010, Lanto bounced around smaller circuits before finally making a win on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica in 2015. Then came his first Korn Ferry Tour title in 2017. By 2019, he had earned a decent name supported by his breakthrough win at the Houston Open, a win that secured him places in the Masters and PGA Championship. This story carried extra weight because Lanto struggled to reach that stage, including financial losses and the death of his father during his childhood.

Ben Griffin’s rise came much later, and it had its own share of twists. He was a standout at UNC, turning pro in 2018, but due to some financial and mental setbacks, he quit the sport 3 years later. He started working as a mortgage loan officer, and golf back then was nowhere in his mind. But with backing from investors, Ben made a comeback in 2022, earning his PGA Tour card through the Korn Ferry Tour. In 2025, he not only won the Zurich Classic but also added the Charles Schwab Challenge. Currently, he’s one of the most talked-about players of the season.

Hence, these two men couldn’t be any different from one another. With Lanto’s already established career and then Ben’s rise this year naturally led fans to assume they were connected. Just as many have done when surnames like Love, Johnson, or Thomas appear more than once on Tour. Yet, biologically and familially, their lives show no intersection.

But the two Griffins might be connected in other ways.

A shared struggle of Ben and Lanto Griffin

Both Ben and Lanto have walked similar tightropes of financial strain and self-doubt before they ever tasted success. Lanto once had just $176 in his bank account and nearly quit golf altogether in 2017. He was worn down by years of debt from mini-tours and long stretches without results. To stay afloat, he even worked as a caddie, earning $17,000 at the Greenbrier while looping for Will Wilcox. That paycheck at the time was more than what he had earned by playing golf.

Ben’s story is also quite similar. Early on in his childhood, his family suffered a major financial loss due to the 2008 recession. “We went from having a nice house to renting,” he recalls. Then, decades later, in 2021, he, like Lanto, burned out on mini-tours and accumulated more than $15,000 in credit card debt. This forced him to quit golf and take a desk job as a mortgage loan officer in Chapel Hill. The pandemic had disrupted his path to the PGA Tour, and he found himself gambling on his career week after week while watching his bank balance sink. He admitted to relying heavily on his parents, and at one point, his debt ballooned toward $70,000. Walking away felt like the only option.

So while the two Griffins don’t share a family bond, they do share the scars of chasing a dream that once left them broke and disillusioned. Today, both have clawed their way back to the PGA Tour, proving that persistence sometimes matters more than bloodlines.