Ben Griffin won the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge. In his post round interview, he got very emotional talking about his past and upbringing.
He began by talking about how much his parents did for him during his upbringing. He also said, “My parents, you know, we did they always consider 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 they sacrificed a lot for me, and I credit a lot of my success down the stretch today to my short game.” His parents tried to comfort him and lied to him about their financial situation but once he realized, he cut down on how much money he spent on golf. He would buy one small bucket of range balls for $5 but would then spend hours upon hours to work on his chipping and putting game because that was free.
Once he got older, he golfed at UNC for 4 years. He was able to work his way up the minor tours and finally earned his PGA Tour card. In his first 8 starts, he missed 6 cuts. Since you don’t make money when you miss a cut, he found himself in $17,000 in debt. Because of his situation, he decided to quit golf and become a banker so he could have a more reliable source of income.
He made up all of his debt and started to pick up golf for fun again. His boss realized how good he was, and loaned him $125,000 for him to kickstart golf once again. This time, he was making cuts, and ended up winning in a partner tournament, with a rookie Andrew Novak. Later this season, he picked up another PGA win at the Charles Schwab and is most likely back to golf for good this time.
https://www.newsweek.com/sports/golf/pga-tour-news-ben-griffin-lose-house-jouney-winner-2077200
