PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Lanto Griffin didn’t want any additional motivation, however the e-mail that got here by his inbox on Wednesday evening didn’t harm.
After ending exterior the highest 150 in FedExCup factors this season, Griffin figured his standing for subsequent 12 months wouldn’t be nice. He was shocked, nevertheless, to learn that he didn’t have any assured Korn Ferry Tour begins in his again pocket.
“It type of pissed me off,” Griffin mentioned.
So, what did Griffin do? He took his frustrations out on the sector in PGA Tour Q-Faculty’s remaining stage, capping his first journey to qualifying college in eight years with a blistering 7-under 63 on the Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass to run away with medalist honors.
Griffin doesn’t have to fret about Korn Ferry Tour begins now.
He was one among six gamers to earn full PGA Tour membership on this second 12 months of the newest Q-Faculty iteration.
“When your again’s towards the wall, you don’t have a selection,” Griffin mentioned. “Clearly, it may have gone a special route this week for me, however my focus was good. The drive and all the pieces remains to be there, and I actually didn’t need it to finish.”
Griffin’s Q-Faculty win marks his first victory, of any sort, since his maiden PGA Tour title on the 2019 Houston Open. Loads has occurred since then – the ruptured disc in his decrease again in July 2022 and ensuing microdiscectomy that stored Griffin, No. 65 in factors on the time, out till the next January; marrying his longtime girlfriend, Maya, in December 2022, and welcoming their first baby, a daughter, earlier this fall; serving to his lifelong teacher, Steve Prater, construct a brand new indoor facility at Blacksburg Nation Membership; and changing into considerably of a spokesperson and public defender for the PGA Tour’s rank and file.
Griffin admits now that he got here again too early, even perhaps as a lot as six months untimely, and he struggled beneath the stress of competing on a medical extension. He didn’t put up a top-10 end final 12 months, and he had only one this season, on the ISCO Championship in July, earlier than shedding his card.
However he took confidence from making 9 consecutive cuts, and if he may simply begin making putts – he was No. 123 in strokes gained: placing this season – he’d haven’t any points regaining his place on the massive tour.
The recent flatstick, due to a setup revelation on Monday morning, confirmed up this week as Griffin fired three rounds within the 60s, the one outlier a good 72 in brutal scoring circumstances Friday at Sawgrass Nation Membership. He opened Sunday’s remaining spherical with an eagle and poured in 4 extra birdies earlier than the flip, permitting himself to cruise into the clubhouse for what could be a three-shot win over Hayden Buckley, one other former PGA Tour participant who’s seeking to bounce again from harm. Buckley tore a rib muscle two summers in the past, plummeted in strokes gained: off the tee (No. 10 to No. 90 this 12 months) and ended up two spots forward of Griffin in factors. Not like Griffin, although, Buckley didn’t have any begins on any tour afforded to him.
“An enormous reduction,” mentioned Buckley, who put a brand new driver and 3-wood in play this week, which he capped with back-to-back 67s. “There was a time at present the place I felt it slipping away, however I had an ideal feeling this whole week from the second I stepped foot on the property. … There’s no secret I performed terrible this 12 months, however I knew I used to be so near enjoying good golf.”
Becoming a member of Griffin and Buckley in carrying #TourBound hats on Sunday night round TPC Sawgrass’ sprawling clubhouse had been 4 others: Takumi Kanaya, the previous world No. 1 beginner from Japan who began the week because the second highest-ranked participant within the discipline however with no standing; Alejandro Tosti, the extremely gifted but extremely emotional Argentine who overcame a 5-over begin to shoot 9 beneath on the weekend and preserve his card after an inconsistent rookie season; Will Chandler, who struggled mightily in school on the College of Georgia however continued the momentum from Monday-qualifying for 5 Korn Ferry Tour occasions this 12 months; and Matthew Riedel, who had maybe essentially the most disturbing Sunday.
Riedel started the ultimate day tied for the lead with Alistair Docherty. Each had been relaxed as they warmed up on a soggy driving vary, Docherty on the far left, proper up towards the amateurs skulling wedges earlier than taking up the close by Stadium Course. Riedel’s caddie was even throwing golf balls, attempting to land them on a goal inexperienced some 75 yards away.
The pair would then mix to shoot 6 over on the entrance 9.
Docherty, who got here up one shot wanting incomes his PGA Tour card a couple of months in the past on the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, double-bogeyed the par-5 opening gap and didn’t card a birdie till the penultimate gap, finally ending up solo seventh, once more a single shot from his PGA Tour card. Riedel notched solely two pars in his first 10 holes, including three birdies, 4 bogeys and a double.
“I’ve been in some nervous conditions,” mentioned Riedel, the latest Vanderbilt standout who earned his ticket to remaining stage after ending within the high 5 of the PGA Tour College race. “That was by far essentially the most nervous. It was a bit little bit of tunneling of simply not having the ability to see something. … However I had a variety of self-belief, and I’m glad it labored out the best way it did.”
Riedel later added: “I’ve acquired to go get a bit bit higher.”
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Relive the very best photographs and notable moments from the ultimate spherical on the PGA Tour Q-Faculty, going down in Ponte Vedra Seashore, Florida.
Riedel is absolutely conscious of the subsequent problem he’s about face. So, too, is Griffin, who earlier this week known as subsequent 12 months the toughest ever to maintain one’s PGA Tour card. Final season, no Q-Faculty graduate acquired into greater than three of the primary 10 tournaments, and none of them stored their card, with Hayden Springer coming the closest at No. 127 in factors. However as Griffin factors out, the issue will possible be exacerbated in 2025 as absolutely exempt gamers play extra to attempt to crack the brand new job-security cutoff, No. 100 within the FedExCup, 25 spots fewer than earlier than. This 12 months, solely 5 of 29 Korn Ferry Tour graduates (not together with Ben Kohles, who was in a greater class because the tour’s factors winner in 2023) completed inside the highest 100.
It’s not the primary time Griffin has been vocal in regards to the ever-evolving PGA Tour panorama. After months of voicing his opinion, Griffin joined the Participant Advisory Council this 12 months, but admitted he was annoyed by the politics, which influenced the creation of a leaner and meaner circuit in 2026.
“I don’t agree with it,” Griffin mentioned. “I believe the modifications which were made aren’t the very best factor for golf and I don’t suppose they’re the very best factor for the PGA Tour, in my view, and a variety of guys agree with me. Hopefully we are able to discover a glad medium and unite the world {of professional} golf and get again to the competitors being a very powerful factor.”
On this Sunday, it was.
And nobody competed extra masterfully than Griffin, who after latest setbacks – and practically another this week – is hungrier than ever.
“It’s like an habit,” Griffin added. “We grind so laborious so a few years. And the final couple, simply accidents and physique feeling totally different, you’re unsure in the event you’re ever going to have the ability to do it once more, get again to that degree. You see these younger youngsters hit it up to now, and so they’re wholesome, and so they’re single; they don’t have households. I need to expertise this with my household now, with my child, and also you simply don’t need it to finish.
“It’s like being at a very good live performance; you simply need there to be a pair extra songs.”
