In case you didn’t know, winning on the PGA Tour is difficult. Some might find it nearly impossible.

There are players like Tommy Fleetwood who have mastered the art of being in contention, but still have yet to claim their first PGA Tour victory. Then there are others who might have a sporadic game, but know how to win when it matters most. A player like Harris English comes to mind who has almost as many PGA Tour wins as he does Top 5 finishes. For those golfers, it’s boom-or-bust.

Then you have players like Ben Griffin. An immensely talented golfer who not long ago thought about stepping away from the game. With his dream of claiming tour card status in the air, Griffin was ready to take a desk job to make ends meet. That doesn’t mean he was expected to step away from golf forever, but instead get his finances in order before taking another shot at the tour.

He didn’t have to step away long before he was given a tremendous financial gift which allowed him to focus on golf, and he made the most of it. Throughout his 2025 season, Griffin has remembered the haters and used it as fuel to his fire. Even after winning the Zurich Classic, a two-man event where he was paired with Andrew Novak, the haters never ceased.

“It’s nice to, I don’t want to say silence the haters,” Griffin said. “But there’s definitely some hate comments I got last night, and I used that as fuel today to get an individual win.”

Griffin got his first solo win of 2025 by outlasting the field at the Charles Schwab Classic this past weekend in Fort Worth, Texas. It was a tremendous achievement, but no one can say the victory was pretty in any sense of the word.

“The back nine was quite the grind,” Griffin said. “I didn’t go into the back nine hoping to hit one or two greens in regulation, however many it was. It’s just very difficult. Very challenging. I’m proud of the way I scrambled down the stretch.”

As stated earlier, winning is never easy. Grabbing a first individual win is harder still. And Griffin had made things doubly difficult for himself by leaving his approach in an awkward lie in a green-side bunker that forced him to hit a choked-down chip while standing in the sand. He pulled that shot off nicely, running his ball just over three feet from the cup. But the tension tightened yet again when his playing partner and the golfer chasing him Matthias Schmid chipped in for birdie from a pond-side bank left of the green, forcing Griffin to jar one final putt.

Griffin did just that to claim a one-shot victory and continue his push to qualify not just for signature events, but eventually the Ryder Cup team this fall. A golfer’s life can be a crazy one.

“It’s crazy how fast things can change in this game,” he said. “Even going back to when I didn’t have any status on any sort of tours. It’s a bunch of stepping stones that kind of gets you to the next part of your career. Now I’m at the point where I feel like I’m starting to show that I am an elite golfer. I can compete against the best.”

His victory, at 12-under for the week, was Griffin’s first individual PGA Tour title, and another highlight in what has been a breakout season for the 29-year-old, who also captured the team-format Zurich Classic of New Orleans a month ago.

Next up for Griffin and the PGA Tour is the signature event The Memorial, Jack Nicklaus’ tournament, at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. Will he be able to remain red-hot, or will he experience a let down this weekend? Only time will tell, but Griffin has done more than justify his spot on the PGA Tour with his solid play in 2025.

Jeff Hartman is the host of the Fairways & Dreams podcast, and the latest episode can be heard in the podcast player below: