COGNIZANT CLASSIC

March 1, 2025

Ben Griffin

PGA National Champion Course

Quick Quotes

Q. Just start with some comments on your round.

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it was solid. It's always fun playing with Rickie. He always draws a good crowd out there, so it was fun. Pretty exciting making some birdies with him. We slowed down a little bit kind of middle of the back nine, but I was able to finish with a couple birdies there to put myself right there going into Sunday.

Q. Lots of fluctuation on the leaderboard; do you watch the leaderboard on a day like this, on a Saturday?

BEN GRIFFIN: No, not really. Stick to the game plan, try and make as many birdies as possible. You know scores are going to typically be pretty low on Saturday so you've just got to keep the pedal down. The nice thing about this course is towards the end of rounds it gets pretty difficult, so that's why you're going to see some fluctuation.

The back nine is very tough. So for me I'm proud of the way I hung in there. I gave myself a lot of looks, and I'm right where I want to be.

Q. Already a couple top 10s for you this season, including last week. What particularly about your game are you feeling good with?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I feel solid all the way around. It was nice for me getting away from the West Coast Swing on the poa annua greens. I tend to struggle on those. Feel like my finishes at Amex and Mexico, those weren't poa annua, and Bermuda I'm really comfortable with. It's nice to see some putts fall.

That's probably why I hadn't finished as well on some of those other events, even though I was hitting it pretty good. I feel like the ball-striking is in a good spot to contend out here on TOUR, and now it just comes down to making the putts, which on a course like this, I feel really good on the greens.

Q. Stats-wise it would point to the driver being a little bit better than it has in previous years. Anything in particular you've worked on off the tee?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it was a huge thing for me to look at after the regular season last year because that was probably the one area that was lacking for me. So yeah, I worked really hard on it with my coach and kind of got the driver swing where I want it.

I feel very confident on the tee right now, which is great. I feel like I can use that to my advantage on a couple of these holes, maybe push driver when some other guys aren't. I didn't hit it quite as well as I wanted to today; I kind of pulled it a few times. I'll get that dialed in for tomorrow and we'll be all set.

Q. Just technique stuff that you cleaned up?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it's just a couple of tee shots, the wind swirls a lot, so because of that I'm shifting target lines a lot from previous days, and I felt like I drove it really well yesterday and had some good lines, and today I felt like I had to thread it on a couple holes, especially on the back nine.

12 is a shorter par-4, but for me 3-wood brought in most of the bunkers, so I felt like I needed to hit driver. I pulled it left, but I knew it was okay over there. I played to my miss. Unfortunately 6 I pulled it left. That's a shot where I need to hit it further right. I've got the whole country to the right of that fairway, and I hit it in the water left.

It's all good. Straighten that out and hopefully hit a bunch of fairways tomorrow and hopefully give myself some looks.

Q. You got some roars on some of your great shots. How is that, the adrenaline, when you have the crowd?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, tons of fun playing with him. I've played with him a couple times now on TOUR, a few practice rounds. I've gotten to know Rick really well. Feel like we've become pretty good friends.

It's nice out there feeling comfortable with him, and then, yeah, having the crowds out there, they were mainly pulling for him, but I heard some "Bens," which was nice. I'll take what I can get. It's fun just being involved in that and having some excitement and having a bunch of kids out there rooting us both on, so it was fun to throw some balls out and have a good time with him.