The Charles Schwab Challenge

Ben Griffin emerged victorious over the field at the Colonial Country Club this weekend to secure his first individual PGA Tour title at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Both the event and the course are steeped in history. Officially named the Colonial National Invitational but having been sponsored by Charles Schwab since 2019, the event was first founded in the mid-1940s.

The Colonial Country Club has an unofficial affiliation with Ben Hogan, who lived in Fort Worth and won the tournament five times during his career. Players walk past a statue of him posing at full swing outside the clubhouse.

North Carolina’s Ben Griffin was the player draped in the event’s ceremonial tartan and lifting the trophy come the end of Sunday. He’d played valiantly over all four days to edge ahead of Germany’s Matthias Schmid and win the tournament by a single stroke.

Griffin began his final round sharing the lead with Schmid but instantly broke ahead of him having made an eagle on the opening hole and securing a birdie on the 2^nd.

The Sunday proved to be a rocky round for the German as he scored just as many bogeys as birdies, with a double bogey on the 5^th standing out as the culprit contributing to a lacklustre 2-over-par card.

Following his stellar start, Griffin himself was himself struggling and having reached the heights of 16-under-par would go on to make four bogeys to trickle down to 12-under-par.

Spectators were treated to a memorable ending when Schmid chipped in for birdie on the 18^th hole. While a great feat within itself, Griffin answered with a masterful up-and-down from an awkward lie that had him standing in a greenside bunker, holding his wedge halfway down its shaft when chipping onto the green.

Griffin claimed the wind was wreaking havoc on the Sunday, but despite the four bogeys on his card, he was pleased with his overall performance, and can’t argue with the result:

“It was difficult and such a grind down the stretch. The wind was taking the ball offline, so it was down to managing conditions. I was aiming for the middle of the greens and wind was taking it. It’s awesome to see a track like this, that’s not that long, with a low score winning. My game feels great and it’s awesome to now be a two-time PGA Tour winner.”

Ben Griffin is having a great season so far having secured the Zurich Classic along with his playing partner Andrew Novak just a few weeks ago in late April.

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