Ben Griffin Wins the Charles Schwab Challenge, Grinding Out His First Individual Title at Colonial

Ben Griffin hit four fairways on Sunday at Hogan's Alley and still walked away with the trophy.

Griffin shot 1-over 71 in a wind-whipped final round to win the Charles Schwab Challenge at 12-under 268, one shot clear of Matti Schmid. It is his first individual PGA TOUR title, arriving one month after he won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Andrew Novak. Bud Cauley shot 67 to finish third at 9 under, and Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood tied for fourth at 8 under.

A Five-Shot Lead in Five Holes

For three days, Griffin and Schmid could not be separated. It took Griffin two holes on Sunday to change that. He opened with an eagle at the par-5 1st and a birdie at the 2nd, and with Schmid struggling early, Griffin led by five after five holes.

On most courses, that is where the story ends. Colonial, with warm air and gusts near 30 mph, had other plans. Griffin did not make another birdie the rest of the day. He hit 4 of 14 fairways and 7 of 18 greens and made four bogeys after that fast start. What kept him upright was the short game.

The Back-Nine Grind

The pivotal stretch started at the 14th. Griffin faced a testy par putt and made it. Schmid missed a shorter one for par, and the margin was three with four to play.

Then the 16th flipped everything. Schmid stuffed his tee shot inside 3 feet on the par 3, a swing that nearly found the bottom of the cup, and made birdie. Griffin missed his par putt. Just like that, a three-shot lead was one.

The 17th swung it back. Griffin, with his ball behind a tree in the fairway, scrambled for par. Schmid, playing from a bunker, aimed away from the flag, ended up in the rough and made bogey. Two-shot lead, one hole left.

Whack-a-Mole on 18

Even the last hole was not simple. Griffin's tee shot found the right rough, and his 133-yard approach finished in trouble by the front-left bunker, leaving an awkward little shot. Schmid then holed a chip from deep rough for birdie, cutting the margin to one and putting all the pressure back on Griffin.

"First of all, it was like whack-a-mole hitting that third shot," Griffin said, per the AP.

He chipped to 4 feet and rolled in the putt for par and the win.

"No lead is ever safe on the PGA TOUR," Griffin said.

Afterward, he credited his scrambling for putting him in the winner's chair, and pointed back to his junior golf days for where that short game came from.

The Long Road Back

This one comes with a backstory. Griffin, 29, grew up in North Carolina, where his family lost their home during the 2008 recession and kept honing the game at a public course in Chapel Hill, according to the PGA TOUR. Poor results once pushed him out of professional golf and into a job outside the sport. He came back in 2021, and the climb since has been steady: a tie for third at the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, a tie for second at the 2023 Sanderson Farms Championship, the team title in New Orleans last month, and a tie for eighth at the PGA Championship last week, his first made cut in a major.

The win is worth 500 FedExCup points and moved Griffin to fifth in the standings, per the PGA TOUR.

Schmid's Wild Day

Schmid deserves real credit. The 27-year-old German, still chasing a first TOUR win in a 79th start, shot 72 with six birdies, six bogeys and a double. It was a messy card, but Schmid never went away, and the near ace at 16 and the chip-in at 18 nearly forced Griffin into a playoff or worse. Schmid said afterward that the closing chip came off a little right and still found the hole, and called it a bit of luck that felt earned.

Scheffler, Fleetwood and the Rest

Scheffler started six back and never got the charge going, shooting 69 with two birdies and a bogey. The world No. 1 fell short of becoming the first player since Dustin Johnson in 2017 to win three straight starts, and his run of three straight top-three finishes at Colonial ended with a tie for fourth.

"Overall it was a really challenging day," Scheffler said, adding that Friday's 71 probably cost him the tournament.

Fleetwood turned in 31, lost momentum with a bogey at the 11th and then provided the oddest moment of the day. His birdie putt at the 18th stopped on the lip, and after nearly 30 seconds the wind nudged it in for a 68. It was Fleetwood's 41st top-10 on TOUR, the most by a player without a win since 1983.

Rickie Fowler, playing in the final group from third place, never got going. A slow start and a 7 on the par-5 11th added up to a 74, and Fowler finished at 5 under. Novak, Griffin's partner in New Orleans, closed at 6 under.

What It Means

Griffin has now won twice in a month, once with a partner and once alone, and did it at Hogan's Alley on a Sunday when nothing came easy. The ball-striking was not there. The nerve was. That is the kind of win that changes how a player is seen on TOUR, and Griffin earned every bit of it.

Relive the week in our Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 recaps. Final scoring is on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's final-round recap (opens in a new tab) has more.

Sources: PGA TOUR (final-round recap, winner story and leaderboard), AP. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.