FEDEX ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP

August 15, 2024

Ben Griffin

TPC Southwind

Quick Quotes

Q. Ben, how would you assess the round in total today?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I feel like I'm still recovering from playing three rounds in one day on Sunday at the Wyndham, finishing off the second round there and playing a bunch of holes. I feel like my body isn't quite where I want it. But nonetheless it was a good round. I feel like I swung it pretty well. I didn't really go into this round feeling super sharp about my game and my body. I just felt like I wasn't moving quite as well as I wanted to.

Nonetheless, I did a great job. Just a couple of course management misses on a couple holes, and other than that it was very clean. Hit a couple of 3-woods off the tee just to put it in the fairway and allowed me to attack on a bunch of those.

Q. What wasn't moving as well as you would have liked?

BEN GRIFFIN: My lower back has been a little tight, hips. I've been in that recovery trailer probably more than I've been out on the putting and chipping green, but it's all good. I've played here before, and it's just golf. You tee it up and you're trying to get it in the hole regardless of how you're feeling. Even though I feel like I'm not as physically sharp as I want, I'm still right there in it.

Q. What was the key to swinging it well when your body is not moving how you'd like?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, just trying not to force anything, just controlling what you can control and understanding -- for me when my lower back -- my lower back actually never really bothers me that much, but I feel like it's just been tight. I don't know if it's a combination of a bunch of holes and then I had travel day Monday and I had a couple delays. It's just been a luggish kind of start. You learn your misses as you play a lot of golf, especially professionally every week. I know when I'm not swinging my best, it's kind of short right is my miss with most of my clubs. Just kind of erring away from that a little bit on a couple of holes.

I feel like I just got in a great groove honestly with my 3-wood. I hit it great off the tee with that, and I didn't hit that many drivers, but this is not a course that you really need to overpower. The 3-wood I felt like I had a good shot with it and I kept rolling with it. Other than the one on 18 I hit just about every fairway with it, and I'm excited to have the whole afternoon off to kind of rest up, get a full night's rest and then get back to it tomorrow.

Q. Do you look at points list at all? I'm sure you know where you are, but how does that factor in?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I looked at it out there because I was in first most of the day and it was beautiful seeing myself projected third. I wish it would finish up right now.

But no, it's easy to look out there. I kind of know what I have to do this week. Fortunately I played pretty solid here last year, so I have a lot of confidence from that. I feel like it's a course that's really grainy around the greens. You've got to be very sharp with your wedges and chipping and putting is very difficult to read the greens with the grain. I feel like those are some of my strengths. When it gets really grainy on Bermuda and stuff, I feel like I kind of thrive a bit. So as long as I can get it up around the greens or get it on and give myself looks, I feel like this is a course I can really take advantage of.

I'm just hoping to continue to feel good enough and just keep rolling. I know I'm not going to feel probably any worse. I still feel fine, it just nags me a little bit and I can feel it right now standing up, so it'll be nice to put the legs up and maybe do a little ice bath or something like that and roll into the next few days.

Q. Walk me through that stretch on 18. Obviously tee shot didn't go where you wanted but still had a great approach into the fairway back into it and then a great bunker shot to get back on the green. What club did you hit on the second shot?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, the miss off the tee on 18 is to the right because you don't want to hit it in the water left. You ideally want to be short of that bunker, and with the wind it was kind of a tough club choice because I didn't want to lay too far back and have too far of a second shot, so I wanted to challenge the bunkers a little bit. Honestly I just came out of the 3-wood a little bit and I ended up in a really tough lie. I saw it from the tee; it basically one-bounced and went to the bottom of the rough. When I saw that, I knew it was going to be very difficult for me to get it up there near the green.

It's just a percentages game from there. 200 yards with a lie that's sitting at the bottom of the rough, Bermudagrass, you don't know where it's going to come out. Percentages told me to pretty much lay it up, give myself a wedge.

Unfortunately I blasted the wedge long. Hit a sand wedge from 120 and that's a 115 club for me, and it's crazy, I think just with the heat that it's starting to get a little hotter out here, so the ball is going a little bit further, and then there's a little wind tunnel on 18 that makes it tough.

Yeah, put it in the back bunker. Again, I trust my short game a lot every week, and I was pretty confident getting that bunker shot up-and-down, putting it up there to about a foot and tapping in. I don't want to finish with bogeys, but all in all it was a day that I'll take given the circumstances of not feeling as sharp.

Q. You mentioned the heat factor. Do you think it was an advantage for you to play in the morning today?

BEN GRIFFIN: Definitely. I think it's an advantage playing in the morning for the purpose of the greens. The greens are -- with it being twosomes, everyone off No. 1, I had fresh greens the entire round, so I didn't have to worry about spike marks or anything like that. Just moving a couple pieces of grass here and there. But you knew if you hit good putts they were going to go in. I made a lot of putts, and I feel like a lot of that was just due to having perfect greens.

However, if you play in the afternoon you're going to have a lot shorter clubs into holes because it's going to be a little hotter. Drivers are going to go further. The par-5s are going to be a little bit easier. I think if you look at the stats it'll probably tell you that playing in the morning maybe has a slight benefit.