MODERATOR: Good evening, everyone. We are joined here with World Wide Technology ambassador and our 2025 champion. Ben Griffin.

Ben, congrats on capturing your third PGA TOUR victory and all three coming this season. How did it feel coming down the stretch?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I feel like I'm getting more and more comfortable kind of down the stretch. Had been in the mix a couple times since my last win and so yeah, going into the round I felt great about my game, felt confident going into the day.

It's kind of a new situation for me being in the secondtolast group. I feel like I've been in a lot of final groups all season long. Pretty much when I had a chance to win I felt like I was in the final group. Charles Schwab, final group. Zurich, final group. Memorial, final group. Napa, final group. This was kind of the first time where I wasn't in the final group and had a really good chance to win. So I knew I could go out there and post a number and maybe apply some pressure.

Was really proud of the way I kept the pedal down, and was able to make a lot of putts there in the middle stretch, and capped it off with birdies on 16 and 18 to seal the deal. It was all in all a great day and I'm very excited to be the champion here this week.

MODERATOR: And like you just mentioned, this is the first time you weren't in the final group. What was it like to be chasing? How were you kind of watching those numbers on the leaderboard and knowing you needed to post a number and be aggressive?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, to start out the round I wasn't really paying too much attention. There's a lot of gettable holes, felt like there were a lot of birdies to be made. So I just kind of kept my head down and just tried to play aggressive, play smart, not attack the pins that were a little closer to the edges or whatnot, go at a lot of the pins that were a little more receptive.

Yeah, and coming down the stretch I kind of got to a point where I was I think 27 under and with three holes to go my goal was to birdie 'em all and get to 30, and I had felt like that would seal the deal. I wasn't looking at what other guys were doing but I could tell. As I was out there, I could tell there weren't that many roars, definitely not behind me, maybe a couple in front, so I knew there wasn't a whole lot going on, or at least it didn't feel like there was someone making a lot of birdies. So I felt like I was kind of in control and all I had to do was just set that goal of 30 under, and I felt like there would be no way I would lose if I got to that number.

So didn't quite get there, got to 29, needed to birdie 17 or eagle 18, but sure enough 29 was enough.

MODERATOR: And heard Kira say earlier about how joining an elite list with three wins this season, only Rory and Scottie have done that and you're the first since Scottie to have your first three wins in the same season. What's it like to show that you're up there in the numbers and able to compete?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it's just, it's been a break-through year, and I knew, you know, selfishly I kind of had a feeling after getting the first win, I felt like I was going to win at least another soon after, and sure enough I did.

I feel like I've just had so many positive experiences coming down the stretch winning, and then I've had enough experiences where it's gone the other way to where I've learned a lot. Felt really pretty confident and composed down the stretch here.

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

But no, it's been a lot of hard work. Been playing a lot of golf this year, just been keeping my head down and just trying to play my best and see how far I can go in this game.

MODERATOR: And sticking with that same theme, with this win, moving to top-10 in the world. So what's it like to see that work paying off?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I mean, it's cool to look at the rankings and whatnot and see how far I've come and where I'm at compared to other guys.

But honestly, I try to stay pretty present. It's cool at least this offseason to look at the rankings and see where I'm at and be super proud of what I've accomplished and maybe celebrate it a little bit.

But I'm going to show up next season ready to go, and I'm not going to get comfortable just winning three times out here. I'm going to try to continue to work really hard and hopefully play even better. And sure enough I did win this week, but I felt like there's still a couple things I do want to work on this offseason with my game. Not necessarily changing much, but just getting a little bit better.

So it will be fun this offseason to continue to work hard and hopefully continue to do exactly what I'm doing and put my name up against those guys.

MODERATOR: Made a putter switch. Will this putter be  will we see it next year with you?

BEN GRIFFIN: I'll probably switch tomorrow to something else.

No, she's here to stay for now. I don't know. It's been a fun week trying that putter out. Honestly, I just wanted to  I actually looked a lot at the stats this year. I was 19 in Strokes Gained Putting, and I believe I was the best blade putter on Tour at 19, and all these guys ahead of me switched from blades to mallets.

It was just something I thought about, what would happen if I used a mallet, and I felt like this was a good week for me to test it out. Because so many guys here are competing to try to get in the top-60 in the Aon Next 10 and qualify for Pebble and Riviera, guys are trying to finish top 100 to keep their cards, Top-125.

For me, I didn't have much to lose so it was a really great week for me to be able to experiment a little bit. This is something I probably wouldn't have done if it was the start of next season, so I used it as kind of an opportunity to see what would happen if I tried a mallet putter out.

I was messing around a lot in our little studio that we've been living in for like a year because we've been renovating our house, but I have a little putting mat that I've been practicing on honestly a lot, and I would mess around with all the different putters that I have. I probably have 15 putters up there, and Dana can attest to that, a putter she trips on trying to get out of our little studio.

But yeah, I was messing around with the Spider putter. It felt really good up there and I brought it out to the course, so on Saturday and Sunday before flying here, played some good rounds and said why not, see what happens. Sure enough, it worked.

MODERATOR: Last one from me before we open it up. Third consecutive World Wide Technology ambassador to win. We're here in beautiful Los Cabos, you're at a lot of events and functions as an ambassador. Can you speak to the vibes here and the fans and the Mexican people here on what it's like to have the support?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah. This is always one of my favorite weeks of the year. I always call it the fifth major with all the executives at World Wide Technology.

It's really fun to come in here early. I've participated in the par 3, the proam with The First Tee every year. Doing that on Tuesday was a lot of fun. Played with a girl, Maria. She had a great golf swing and we made  she made a lot of putts for me, which was very fun.

Yeah, just starting with that, and as the week goes on there's a celebrity proam challenge where they bring in celebrities and I'm able to interact with customers, clients, execs, employees.

It's really cool for me to have a partner like World Wide Technology where I can come out here and compete and give them a good show, especially this week, and also be able to interact with a lot of their customers and everyone else with all their events.

They have several events all week long, and they do a business innovation summit. So last year I was able to listen to Jensen from Nvidia speak, and it's so cool and eye opening to see what he's kind of doing to transform the world from a technology standpoint.

But just an awesome partner. I feel like I get along great with just about everyone, and it's been amazing to have them by my side and I'm very grateful for their support.

MODERATOR: With that, we'll open it up to questions.

Q. Congratulations. My question is, how would you describe this year or this season for you? I mean, you won your three PGA titles this season, you're going to be top-10, also you participated in the Ryder Cup. How would you describe this season for you in? And also I read in an article on the PGA website that in 2020 you had some financial complications to continue playing as a professional golf player, so what does it mean to be or to have this year after that moment? Thanks.

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I think most people have kind of coined the term already for me, but break-through is just the easiest word to use. It's been  I've had a lot of buildup going into this year of some good moments but hadn't quite broken through and won, and so this year was able to not only do that but win multiple times, and then make the Ryder Cup team and then win again here. It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of belief.

And yeah, the other question, going back to 2020, yeah, when COVID hit it was a tough time for professional golf if you weren't on the Korn Ferry Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour. I was sitting in credit card debt for probably eight months. When I quit golf, I was $17,000 in debt, was relying heavily on my parents for rent and other things, and it was just a point in my life where I knew I needed to get out of golf and go into business  you write for the Economist  so go try to use my economics degree that I have from North Carolina and go into the real world.

I did that for a short stint. Fortunately, I had some incredible people in my corner, one of which is in here right now, Jesse Ahearn from Missouri. He helped kind of jump start my career back with some funding as well as Doug Sieg with Lord Abbett, Mike Swan, there are several other members at Highland Springs Country Club in Missouri that helped me out just through random connections.

Kind of got out of the loan officer job that I had and got back to golf. Man, did that give me a lot of self belief just having all the support in my corner to kind of come back to professional golf and keep my head down and just try to work hard and see how far I could get.

That basically started in 2022 when I was on the Korn Ferry Tour and worked my way on the PGA TOUR pretty fast. And yeah, it's been a very steady climb since then. Just trying to work really hard, trying to do the right things both on and off the course and enjoy and savor the good moments.

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.

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.

Q. I just want to know, how do you feel as a person when you decide to come back to the golf with your self?

BEN GRIFFIN: I felt revived. I was in a tough spot. I was in debt, and I was actually enjoying working and getting away from golf.

But I just had this amazing opportunity from the support of several people, especially Lord Abbett. Doug Sieg the CEO of Lord Abbett and I agreed to a deal that was going to allow me to play professional golf and work really hard and have the same opportunities that some guys on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR were having, where when I was in debt I couldn't afford to even go and train with a trainer.

You're trying to make ends meet and trying to make money as fast as possible and I just wasn't. I felt revived and felt like I just had an incredible amount of support and so many people in my corner that wanted me to accomplish good things in golf.

That's ultimately why I decided to come back. It wasn't like I really wanted to go back to golf, but I just felt like I had so much support and so many signs telling me I needed to go play golf. And sure enough, I mean, all the signs are right, I don't know. The world's a crazy place. You just have to have a lot of belief and take advantage of those unique opportunities. I'm so grateful I was able to have an opportunity to come back and play golf.

Q. What do you think was the key moment this weekend and what does this tournament make different from the both previous wins you had this season?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I think the pivotal moment this week was making birdie on 16. I knew I was pretty much in the lead or right around the lead, and I knew I needed to finish strong, and I set a goal of trying to go three under the last three holes when I was on 16.

It was awesome to make that putt. When I saw that putt drop I knew I had some momentum coming down the stretch. Ultimately didn't birdie 17 but I hit a couple great shots on 18 to set up an eagle putt. Sure enough, it was enough.

Yeah, I'd say I was kind of, I had so much momentum in the middle of the round, and then I kind of stalled maybe for a little bit on 13, 14, 15. It's not like I was hitting necessarily bad shots, I just wasn't quite getting the birdie looks and seeing the putts drop.

I had made so many in the middle of the round, and so when I saw another bit one got in on 16, it was kind of a sigh of relief and a little bit of momentum for the last few.

And then your second question? Oh, compared to other wins.

Yeah, definitely different. You know, this is  my first win, kind of coming from behind where I didn't have the lead, so it's really nice being a chaser. And it's something, it's a mindset that I've tried to have when I've been in the lead.

And you have to stay aggressive on the PGA TOUR, you have to make a lot of birdies. Obviously I shoot 9 under and I only win by 2, so if I shot 7 under today, played an incredible final round, I still would have been in a playoff. It just goes to show you need to stay aggressive till the very end. I needed to birdie 16, I needed to birdie 18 to get it done.

And so yeah, going back to my previous two wins, we were kind of  I was a frontrunner with Andrew going in the final round at the Zurich Classic, the team event. It was a little different mindset. Also, it's alternate shot format so I'm hitting half the amount of shots that I did today. That one was a bit different. But I'm super proud of not only the way I finished, but especially Andrew. We both pulled off incredible shots down the stretch to seal the deal there.

Charles Schwab, I felt like the course was really, really difficult. It almost felt like a U.S. Open. It you were just in the rough, it was so hard to hit the greens, so making pars was really good, and I made a lot of pars on the back nine to ultimately get it done there.

And here I was more, I needed to be aggressive. Yeah, it was nice to be in the second-to-last group, I think that freed me up a little bit. I was able to go out and attack early and quickly build some momentum, and it was nice in the middle stretch to make a lot of putts and that's what got it done.

Q. How hard is it to win against this generation on the PGA TOUR and how hard is it to win three times in a year?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, it's really hard. You know, I can say that in a cocky  I mean, in a cocky way yeah, I won three times and I can say it's really hard, but it legitimately is.

Going into this week if you had told me I needed to be better than 27 under to win, I'd be like dang, that's going to be really freaking hard to do. Even if there's not much wind, you've still got to hit incredible shots. You never know if you're going to short side yourself on this golf course.

It's so easy, like a hole like yesterday, a lot of the media was talking about 15, that back left pin location, fortunately from the previous two years I knew that pin location was really not one you go at, you just play it for the middle of the green and try to get out of there with 4. That can make or break guys' tournaments.

For me, I had to play really, really smart golf and really aggressive golf at times on the par 5s especially to get the job done here.

Yeah, it takes a lot of hard work. It's a team, it really is a team win. I had my caddie, Alex; I had my trainer, Derek; I have my swing coach, James. There's so many different people that are helping me try to save one or two shots.

And you have to have that on the PGA TOUR. You have to have a good support system and you can't go at this alone. It's really hard to. I think Michael Brennan might have done that a little bit in his first win, which is really impressive, and it would be cool to see how far he goes in his career.

Yeah, really hard. You have to be super focused. You have to do the right things off the golf course, and you have to go to the first tee on Thursday with a game plan of trying to win. You can't let up at any moment because every shot's so crucial out here.

Q. You talked pre-tournament about having your bachelor party in Los Cabos. Can you talk a little bit about this area now that you've won here, and does it feel a little bit more special, Los Cabos?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I've always loved coming to Cabo ever since the first time I came, which was with Jesse here in the room for New Years like five or six years ago. I think it was five years ago in 2020 was my first time coming here, and it was amazing. I knew it would be a place that would be a fun place to have a bachelor party because a lot of incredible golf.

We had the opportunity to play a couple of the Discovery properties in Florencia. It's memories I'll always have.

It's fun coming back here every year for this event as well, being with the World Wide Technology folks, all their customers and clients. It's amazing, and they do such a great job of hosting and making us feel welcome as players as well going into the different events. It's a very comfortable week for all of us.

But yeah, I got some practice in Cabo about two or three months ago and certainly paid off coming back here. All around good vibes in Cabo and Los Cabos. Super excited to come back next year.

MODERATOR: Any stories you can share from that or any fellow teammates join the parties?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, some fellow teammates, Austin Hitt, he's on the Korn Ferry Tour was with us. We probably drank a little bit too much alcohol, but he went into the next week and finished second, and I had Napa two weeks later and I finished second so ultimately whatever we did was the right preparation.

No, I remember playing Eldorado at sunset, the par 3 right there on the water, and it was just a really cool moment with some of my best friends. Be on the golf course, have some fun together. We were playing like an eightsome, which you can't really do that very often at most golf courses. So moments like that, and then getting to experience some of the restaurants in downtown Cabo was a lot of fun.

MODERATOR: (No microphone.) Are you able to put your clubs kind of down for the next month, or any promises (inaudible)?

BEN GRIFFIN: What do you think, should we go to Bermuda next week? I'm just kidding. Yeah, we do love Bermuda, and the RSM, we do love them as well.

I do actually want to play in Sea Island, RSM. That tournament means a lot to me. That was my first PGA TOUR start. Todd Thompson gave me an exemption back in 2018 and I played there the past few years, and lived  I called Sea Island home for several years after I graduated college, so I want to go back.

And it's been such a tough fall. It's been a tough fall in the fact that I've just had a lot more events than I expected. It's been a good tough. Like I played in Napa, I played well. Was in the Ryder Cup. Got to experience India on the D.P. World, which I always wanted to play a D.P. World event. And then coming here.

I've got to take some time off, especially with the wedding. We have a couple other friends that are getting married so we have a couple other weddings to go to. And I'm going to go play Augusta National for the first time, which I'm really excited about.

I have a lot of things on the agenda, and the wedding's the most important one. It's important for me to kind of rest up and get ready for that, and make sure I have enough money to afford all the flowers that Dana wants and make it the most memorable wedding of all time.

MODERATOR: One last one unless there are any other questions from the group? Perfect. Final one is  how heavy is this trophy, and now that you've won three times (inaudible).

BEN GRIFFIN: It's funny, yeah, I've won  my last two events I won, but I didn't get a trophy so this will be my first trophy I think that I actually get.

I didn't know this, but you have to pay for your trophy sometimes when you win. So I won a belt buckle at Zurich Classic, I won a belt buckle at the Charles Schwab. I also won a car at the Charles Schwab that actually burned in a tractortrailer as it was getting delivered.

I've had the worst luck honestly with awards when I've won, so I'm really hoping this makes its way back to home. It's been a  all the wires have gone through on Wednesday after, so that's been amazing. I'm super grateful and blessed to play golf and obviously make as much as I do. This I think will be the first trophy that makes it back to my house, knock on wood.

MODERATOR: That's all the questions we have.

BEN GRIFFIN: Bet you didn't expect that.

MODERATOR: Thank you, appreciate the time and again, congratulations.

BEN GRIFFIN: Thank you. Gracias.