Ben Griffin's short game helped him win at Colonial. He credits his parents.

Lawrence Dow, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on May 25, 2025

Published in Golf

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FORT WORTH, Texas — Ben Griffin took the lead on the first hole of the final day with an eagle and never relinquished his lead — but he had to make a putt on 18 to secure the win Sunday afternoon at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial.

Matti Schmid was tied atop the leaderboard with Griffin at the start of Sunday’s round, and after he chipped in on No. 18 to cut the lead to one stroke, the pressure shifted to Griffin.

Griffin calmly sank his 39-inch putt to finish 12-under-par, ahead of Scmid’s 11-under-par score.

Griffin’s short game was crucial down the stretch, as the University of North Carolina product made several key putts to maintain the lead.

He was emotional after the victory, crediting his parents’ sacrifices for his short-game success.

“I’m very confident by my short game. I credit that going back to Junior Golf, my parents did so much for me growing up. They got hit hard by the recession, the 2008 recession, and so they invested a lot in me being able to practice and compete. I didn’t spend very much money on range balls. I was at a public golf course,” Griffin said. “I would chip and putt all day. I’d hit maybe a half bucket of balls for $5 or whatever it was, and my parents, they always considered themselves middle to upper class, but I knew there for a little bit when we lost our house, when we lost everything. I know they sacrificed a lot for me, and I credit a lot of my success down the stretch today to my short game; it kept me in it, and that’s what I did as a kid. That’s what helped my short game be so good.”

It was Griffin’s second PGA Tour win of 2025 and his career, and the first individual victory for Griffin. His previous tour victory came in April at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event.

Griffin’s first two PGA Tour wins came after the golfer stepped away from the game and became a mortgage loan officer — and before the death of his grandfather, an avid golfer known for saying, “Hit ’em long, hit ’em straight,” spurred him to return to professional golf.

He knows he made the right decision.

“Definitely validation, It’s really nice to get the validation, some weeks you get validation with the top 10, some weeks it’s the top five, some weeks. It maybe is a made cut if you’re grinding through something and it’s a challenging course. So, but winning is an incredible feeling, and words can’t really describe what it feels like,” Griffin said.

His description, however, was spot on.

“To be the last man standing on 18 is an incredible, incredible feeling, something I’ve gotten to soak in twice in the last month. It’s one that I want to keep, I want to keep feeling, you know, and hopefully I start winning by more than one, because winning by one gets a little stressful.”

Scheffler falls short

Coming into the tournament, Scottie Scheffler was the favorite at Colonial, and after a slow start, he used an excellent third round to get himself back in the top 10 headed into Sunday. Scheffler, of Dallas, and winner of last week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C., posted a one-under-par 69 round on Sunday, good for a fourth-place finish.

With a win, Scheffler would’ve been the second golfer in PGA Tour history, joining Ben Hogan in 1946, to win both the Byron Nelson and PGA Tour stop at Colonial Country Club in the same season.

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