Ben Griffin has enjoyed a breakthrough season on the PGA Tour but the biggest day of his year still is to come. He and his fiancée Dana are prepping for their wedding in less than month. Griffin said he wants it to be “the most memorable wedding of all time,” but along the way, the budget, he said, “started somewhere and it ended up somewhere else,” which is very relatable.

“The talk of the town the last couple of weeks has been the floral budget,” he said. “I figured the more birdies I made, the easier it would be to afford those florals.”

Griffin birdied 30 holes for the week, including an eagle, as he torched El Cardonal at Diamante, a Tiger Woods design in Los Cabos, Mexico, to win the World Wide Technology Championship on Sunday by two strokes over Chad Ramey and Sami Valimaki.

In the final round, Griffin birdied more than half the holes and shot 9-under 63 and won for the third time this season, joining Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy as the only players this year with three or more victories on the PGA Tour. He also became the first player to notch his first three wins on Tour in the same season since Scheffler did so in 2022.

“Anytime I can be on a list with those two names, it means I'm doing something pretty good,” Griffin said. “It was helpful both of those guys weren't in the field this week.”

Griffin’s emergence as one of the best players this season is the all more remarkable given that he quit the game during COVID-19 and worked as a mortgage loan officer for a short time. He was $17,000 in credit card debt. But his rejuvenated game has taken him to new heights. Griffin won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in late April with partner Andrew Novak and then validated with a solo victory at the Charles Schwab Challenge a month later. Griffin said that he wasn't surprised that the flood gates opened after his first title.

"I knew that was going to happen with me. I just had that belief," he said. "It's not like a cocky belief, but it's just one of those things you have to have out here."

Griffin kept playing at such a high level that he was chosen to represent the U.S. team at his first Ryder Cup in late September, and most recently played in his first DP World Tour event in India. He said his game was rusty when he arrived at the sun-drenched resort destination, but he opened with a pair of 65s and a 66 on Moving Day.

"The funny thing about me is I never really feel that sharp, especially early in the week. I'm like the worst pro‑am player. I topped a driver in the pro‑am,” he said. “I kind of show up in tournaments for some reason.”

He was chasing Garrick Higgo, the 54-hole leader, until he hit an errant 3-iron off the toe at the 12th tee and into a penalty area, leading to a double bogey. He posted 68 and finished T-4. Ramey birdied his final three holes to shoot 65 and moved to No. 89 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings after entering the week at No. 123.Valimaki, who closed with 64 for his best finish of the season, projected to move to No. 76 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings after entering the week at No. 103. Both have locked up their cards for next season. But Griffin, who hit 63 of 72 greens in regulation and inserted a TaylorMade Spider Tour X Black putter into his bag this week, was a birdie machine, signing for a 72-hole tournament record of 29-under 259.

“She's here to stay for now,” Griffin said of his experiment with a mallet putter.

So, too, may Griffin as one of the best in the game. He vaulted into the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his career. “When you become very good, it’s self-belief that makes you even better. I think he’s got that now,” said PGA Tour Radio analyst Dennis Paulson. “I think he could be a top 5 player because of the way he plays. He’s so aggressive. He really can take it to that ultimate level and be one of those guys at the top of the game next season.”

Griffin said he isn’t about to take his foot off the pedal anytime soon.

“It's been an incredible ride, and I'm just trying to not get super comfortable and just continue to see how far I can really go in this game because it's been an incredible story. And I'm just so grateful, I can't believe all this is happening,” he said. “But I'm not going to sit here and just try to admire it, I'm going to keep using each event as fuel for the next one and continue to work really hard. That's what Tiger Woods always did, what Scottie Scheffler's doing. I've got to continue doing all the right things to be great.”

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Ben Griffin blitzes Tiger-designed El Cardonal to win World Wide Technology Championship

Reporting by Adam Schupak, Golfweek / Golfweek

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