Why Ben Griffin’s boastful makes him a perfect fit for Bethpage and this Ryder Cup

Walking in rue Bourbon after midnight with a plated belt with six -inch rhodium around its waist was a golfer that this city barely knew. But Ben Griffin knew who he was and how he felt – invincible. He entered a random diving bar in the French district of New Orleans with noisy acclamations of “Hey, beautiful belt!” But they were not aware of the meaning, and they did not see something strange in the choice of fashion, because around these parts, stand out.

The belt has read “Zurich Classic Team Champions” along the loop, with musical notes, flowers, gators and masks on Tuesday fat decorating the edges. Some six hours earlier, Griffin and his good friend Andrew Novak won the PGA Tour solitary team event for their first career victories on Tour.

This meant it was time for a Sunday evening celebration, and fortunately, they were in a place where nothing stops early. A tournament official obtained the duo a table in Galatoire, a gastronomic institution at the tip of Bourbon. They ate all night, drinking champagne and swallowing a few old-fashioned. They traveled the neighborhood and appeared in bars before ending their evening at Caesars Palace, where Griffin proudly won $ 45 while playing CRAPS.

“What have we not done?” He said last week, when he was preparing for his first touring championship. “The night was long.”

At that time, Ben Griffin was only another winner of the first PGA Tour, feeling that he pierced by claiming the title during a lower level event. There was more media attention on his partner, Novak.

The world of golf did not know that it was the beginning of being presented to a new main character: a viral personality producing viral quotes that went from a reflection after the fact to play as one of the 10 best golfers in the world. Griffin is a showman, the type of guy who leaves the course by telling stories of blackness of a creatine “overdose”. Who said “Bring it” to ignorance and plays the crowd. The kind of person who says he is “too blessed to be stressed” because he awaits the big announcement on Wednesday.

Griffin seems to be a golfer put on the ground to look at the pandemonium of a long Island Ryder Cup next month with Black Bethpage, looking at the crowd noisy and looking directly in the moments filled with pressure behind his tinted mojing shajing shades.

Many spent the best part of the summer assuming that it was a lock for the American team, with two victories, 10 top-10 this season and ninth in the Ryder Cup points. But the more we get closer to the announcement of the team on Wednesday, the more speculation increases on the status of griffin. Especially after us, Captain Keegan Bradley, said on Sunday at Golf Channel, “there will probably be some guys who think they are going to be in the team that will not be.”

And Griffin never hesitated to believe in himself. Like when he left the course tied in equal place in halfway in the United States. He did it by playing in a group with Bradley, to which the constantly note griffin joked: “Yeah, Keegan said that the one who was a low man after 36 holes was done on the Ryder Cup, so I suppose that I am – I’m kidding.”

Or when the PGA Tour published a video after Griffin during the Fedex St. Jude championship, and after having hit the fists with Bradley, he turned side by side and whispered: “Pick-moi!”

Understanding Griffin’s career arch is to recognize this undeniable feeling of self -confidence. This is how a golfer who moved away from the golf course in 2021 to work as a mortgage loan agent can win a PGA Tour card a year later and be among the best in the game by 2025. Even when he played dark start time along the fringes of a TEE sheet, the same chirp followed. This is what a Griffin captain counts on.

“That’s how Ben is,” said Novak.

Novak still cannot overcome a moment three years ago. Griffin played a relaxed round in Sea Island in Georgia, and he was on the radiator of all the radiators – 11 under a hole to go. He needed an eagle to get 59 years old. Standing in the fairway at about 160 meters until the last pin, he had the presence of mind to tell his boyfriend to start filming. “I’m going to do that,” he said.

And Griffin did it. He fled 160, sprinting around the fairway, eyes bulging before viral video takes the internet.

“Who does that?” Novak said. “I don’t know. He’s crazy. “

Fun to watch !! I had to hole it on the last for 59! @Chillinchico @PgaTour @Pgantourkevin @Golfchannel @Golfcentral @Kornferrytour @espn @Sportscenter @Bengriffingolf https://t.co/3ws1jfur6q pic.twitter.com/edmba8xh9s

– Harrison Shih (@Hshihgolf) July 9, 2022

Ok, so someone who believes in themselves as much, did he know that this season would happen?

“Not necessarily everything that happened, but I knew I would be better,” Griffin told Atlanta. He saw the progress occurring, in three years, going from the Korn Ferry tour to keep his PGA Tour card at No. 61 at points last season. He saw the advantages of the experience. Realisticly, he was joined the top 50 in points this season and embarking on all signature events.

But then he finished in the top 10 three times on March 2. He won the Zurich in April with Novak, at the time one of the hottest players on tour. It seemed to unlock an even greater belief. Eighth place in the PGA championship. A solo victory at the Charles Schwab Invitational. Second place in the memorial, 10th at the US Open and never stopping after that – 10 top -20 ends in its last 12 departures. It was no longer a hot sequence. Griffin had increased to become the highest fourth American by strokes obtained data.

The short game of Griffin has always been respected – he said that he developed it when his family was crushed by the 2008 recession and that he could not spend much on the range balls. But he started hunting swing speed. He said that his goal was to add a mile per hour each week, improving slowly at the 71st distance by car from the PGA Tour. He now wins the TEE blows, after three years which were well below the average of the tour.

Griffin looks at all these stories about himself. He admits that he is not exactly a crusher, called “more a player”. He does not refuse media requests. Even if he is really the version of himself he depicts, he always knows how to play for the camera. However, he slightly pumps the brakes on the description.

“Outside the golf course, I am not necessarily soaring, like, alpha male”, he jokes, “more just a normal person. But on a golf course, you must be confident. You must have a little selfishness in a way, have a ton of self-belitance to go to the Tour championship.”

Now Bradley will have an unnatiable decision to make. He will have to choose between major superstar winners and inexperienced golfers in good shape. He will have to fight the course in shape compared to who plays really well. Oh, and he will have to decide if he wants to choose as a game captain, a controversial decision, no matter how he looks.

But if Griffin is left out, it will probably mean that it was never quite the golf course, because on paper, there is no strong argument against him.

“It was an interesting summer. I do (Netflix documentary)” Swing “, I did a lot of media, and I have the impression that every day, I receive questions about the Ryder Cup. It was definitely additional pressure for me, and it is something that was more in my mind that it should probably be”.

For one more day, he will have to wait and hope that he made his cases, which he never hesitated to do.

“It’s hard to be a bubble and be outside this top six, but I played really solid this year,” said Griffin. “I hope Keegan sees it and wants me to represent the United States.”

(Top Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)