Weekly PGA Recap: Griffin Proves Brave at Heart

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

Ben Griffin said during the week that winning last month's Zurich Classic, despite being a team event, really helped his confidence in individual play on the PGA Tour. On Sunday at the Charles Schwab Challenge, he needed every ounce of that confidence.

Griffin was forced to sink a knee-knocking four-foot par putt on the 72nd hole at Colonial -- because unheralded Matti Schmid made a miraculous chip-in birdie from the deep rough -- to hang on and win by one stroke at Hogan's Alley.

Griffin led after 36 holes and co-led after 54 with Schmid, a 27-year-old German. Rickie Fowler was the third man in the last grouping, but four behind the leaders. He sadly was a third wheel for much of the day.

They went to the par-4 18th with Griffin leading Schmid by one. He hit his third shot first, also from the greenside rough, and it was terrific, leaving him four feet from the cup. At that point, he had to think he had two putts to win, since how could Schmid possibly make his difficult birdie try?

But that's not the way golfers think, so they say.

"A hell of a chip-in by Matti on 18 to apply the pressure," Griffin said. "That was crazy. Certainly when I'm over my chip on 18, you always have to expect your opponent to make their next shot, but I was in a difficult lie and was very happy to -- gave it a really good run and almost went in. Left myself a four-footer. After he chipped in, I was, like, all right, I guess I have to make this one now, as opposed to lagging it up there."

Griffin's putt was straight in the whole way.

The 29-year-old North Carolina alum now has two career wins, both in the past month, and he silenced many social-media critics who claim the Zurich title doesn't count.

"You know social media," he said. "I try not to look. I really don't let a lot of anything on social media get to me because it's the Wild West. … I just saw some people questioning my ability to win individual tournaments or the Zurich doesn't count, the Zurich shouldn't be a PGA Tour event, stuff like that. I just used that as fuel. It's pretty fun. … 

"Now I can silence some people."

Just last week, Griffin tied for eighth at the PGA Championship. He didn't qualify for the Masters back in April, but he will be there next year, and likely for years to come.

A look at the stats shows a very well-rounded player, not excelling in any one area but top-70 in every strokes-gained metric. That sort of game travels well: to shorter courses such as Colonial, to longer courses like last week's Quail Hollow, to all the birdie-fest courses at the Amex, where Griffin tied for seventh earlier this year.

He's now up to a career-best 24th in the world rankings, having leap-frogged his Zurich partner Andrew Novak, who is up to 33rd. But Griffin is also ahead of some much bigger names, such as Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Sahith Theegala, Jason Day and Tom Kim.

"Now I'm at the point where I feel like I'm starting to show that I am an elite golfer," Griffin said. "I can compete against the best. It hasn't really sunk in quite yet here what necessarily I have accomplished at least the last few weeks, but I know that I'm extremely proud and extremely happy with the way my hard work has kind of paid. …Golf is not an easy game. It's a very hard game, and you don't win very often. Some people never win."

And some people win twice in a month.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Matti Schmid
Schmid is not a scrub. He had three earlier top-10s this season. All came in alternate-field events, but still. Two of them came in the past month. Hey, you have to start somewhere. This performance could very well give him the confidence that Griffin now has. There are still some big holes in Schmid's game -- he's ranked about 150th on Tour in driving accuracy and Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. But he's up to No. 76 in the world for a reason. And this runner-up got him into the Aon Swing 5, meaning he will be in the upcoming Memorial tournament.

Bud Cauley
Cauley continues to do amazing things in the second act of his golf career. He hadn't played Colonial since 2020, but he matched his best finish on Tour with a solo third (done three previous times, lastly in 2017). He's up to No. 57 in the world, which is nearing his career best of 53rd – which incredibly was set 13 years ago in 2012. Along with Schmid, Cauley qualified for the Memorial via the Aon Swing 5. They'll be joined by Ryan Fox, Harry Higgs and Mackenzie Hughes.

Scottie Scheffler
Yeah, it was an off week, a terrible week. Scheffler tied for fourth. He was far back at 36 holes. He wound up four strokes behind Griffin and, if golf tournaments were maybe 80 holes instead of 72, he could've caught the leaders. Scheffler will be the overwhelming favorite at Muirfield Village, where he is the defending champion.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood also tied for fourth. According to the Tour, this was his 41st top-10 in 156 career starts, most among golfers who have never won. He'll win at some point, right? Right?

J.J. Spaun
Spaun was part of a five-way tie for sixth place. This was his fourth top-10 and sixth top-25, and he's missed only one cut. He cracked the top 25 of the OWGR for the first time, coming in at No. 25. As part of the Aon Next 10, Spaun will be at the Memorial.

Robert MacIntyre
MacIntyre had been amid a bad stretch. He hadn't finished even in the top-30 on Tour since THE PLAYERS in March (T9). So this T6 may set him on the right path for three upcoming Opens – the U.S., British and defense of his win at the Scottish.

Harry Hall
Hall is another guy in this article who is really showing out for the first time. Even though he won last year, it was in an oppo event and he's playing far better overall this season. This T6 was his seventh top-25 of the season.

Ryo Hisatsune
Hisatsune has now made seven of his past eight cuts since missing at THE PLAYERS. He's had three top-6s since then, including T6 at the Colonial and T5 at the RBC Heritage Signature Event. Remember, he's still only 22 years old.

Aldrich Potgieter
Not many people would expect a player leading the Tour in driving distance but ranked 150th in driving accuracy to tie for sixth at Colonial. Potgieter still led the field in distance but also ranked fifth in accuracy. Pretty impressive. The South African had missed seven of his past eight cuts since a runner-up at the Mexico Open. Those two results alone will secure his card for next year and could get him into the playoffs.

Gary Woodland
Woodland had been struggling since tying for second at the Houston Open at the end of March. He closed with a 66 on a difficult day for scoring at Colonial to just miss a top-10 with a tie for 11th.

Andrew Novak
Griffin's tag-team partner also tied for 11th, continuing his all-or-nothing season of results with another entry in the "all" ledger. Novak finished second in the Aon Next 10 to book a spot at the Memorial.

Rickie Fowler
As Griffin and Schmid battled all day, Fowler was forced to tag along as part of the group. He began four shots back, not that big of a hurdle against two guys who hadn't won an, um, individual tournament. A win would've set up Fowler for two years, got him back into the Masters, etc., etc. But he bogeyed Nos. 3, 4 and 7 before doubling 11. Fowler tied for 16th. As a sponsor invite, he'll be in the Memorial.

Jordan Spieth
Fowler's good pal and fellow Memorial sponsor's invite tied for 36th. Enough said.

MISSED CUTS

Justin Thomas

There weren't many big-name missed cuts because there weren't all that many big names in the field. Two of them were Maverick McNealy and Daniel Berger. And there was a third if you want to include Michael Block.

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