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SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONSJanuary 2, 2020Lanto GriffinKapalua, Maui, Hawaii Q. Kind of a roller coaster there on the inward nine. You had a double bogey but what a way to finish, with an eagle. LANTO GRIFFIN: Yeah, I played real solid on the front, and believe it or not my legs got a little tired on the back. The course is a beautiful place to be, but I battled pretty hard. I really wanted to get it under par, and unfortunately I three-putted 15 from about 12, 15 feet for eagle, so the one on 18 was pretty sweet. So that was a nice way to end the day. Q. When you consider where you were, Brendan Todd, too, the two of you go back 365 days, go back a year, you were about to begin your second tour with the Korn Ferry and he was thinking about opening a pizza franchise, so it has to be just a bonus to be here, doesn't it? LANTO GRIFFIN: Yeah, we were actually walking down 17 talking about that. We were just talking about the view and then we were like, man, this place is pretty cool, just to be here. Where I was four months ago and where he was a year ago, two years ago, in a dark place. So we enjoyed having that little chat down 17, down the hill. It is cool to look back. It doesn't help when you're not playing well because your mind is in the current state. But when you sit back and kind of appreciate what you've accomplished and where you're at now, it's pretty cool. Q. If anyone deserves some good karma, it would be you. Talk about your relationship with young golfer Ben Carroll, what you did and your association with him. LANTO GRIFFIN: Yeah, so I heard about Ben. His mom passed away about two and a half, three years ago, and he's just a really good kid, really good player, young player, and I just remember where I was at that age and I needed some help. Now that I'm in a position to be able to help somebody that was in a similar situation as me, it's pretty gratifying to be able to just be there for him if he needs advice or if I can help him work with my coach or come stay with me down in Florida and hopefully just inspire him to work a little harder and just realize that in 10, 15 years he could be a winner on the PGA TOUR. That's really my only goal. But I know he's just a really good kid, and he deserves some help. Q. I know he lost his mother, you lost your dad at a young age. I think the story goes you won $10,000 closest to the pin at the Travelers. You donate that to the golf association in Blacksburg, they match it, so he gets $20,000, plus his golf scholarship to Charleston Southern. LANTO GRIFFIN: Yeah, a lot of people don't understand, when you get a full ride or even a half ride to play golf in college, there's still so many expenses on top of books and school and just trying to live and being able to have the money if he wants to go play an amateur tournament, so that's my goal going forward is if he needs to go out and go play a full amateur schedule, hopefully I can help some of that, and I'm starting a foundation, and that's going to be part of it. It's not going to be the whole goal of my foundation, but I want to be able to help kids that work really hard, have a chance to be where I am now and give them an opportunity to grow. It's really fun. I've really enjoyed getting to meet Ben, and hopefully we can do good things going forward. Q. What's it like being in Maui and playing this course? LANTO GRIFFIN: It's incredible. Your legs are dying out there walking up and down these hills, but then you look at this view and you don't really think about it anymore. I've been all over the world playing golf and this is hands down the best views. I wouldn't say the best walk, but visually. Everything has been great. The food has been awesome, people are nice, everybody in my crew has really enjoyed it. Q. Did you bring those shoes just for this? LANTO GRIFFIN: FootJoy put them in our locker. It's a special print for this week, and believe it or not, they're really comfortable, too. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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