Golfer Ben Griffin Reflects on Pro Comeback After Quitting Over $17K Debt (Exclusive)

Ben Griffin is not shy about sharing his story. The golfer, who’s featured on season 4 of the Netflix sports docuseries Full Swing, has been open about his monetary struggles, which initially derailed his desires of competing on knowledgeable degree. 

On the present, Griffin, 29, admitted his “professional golf journey has been a curler coaster,” largely because of the reality he “didn’t play well” after making his skilled debut in 2018.

Not solely that, however in line with the docuseries, skilled golfers are thought-about “independent contractors” and are liable for their very own bills, from journey and lodging to hiring caddies, which might quantity to $40,000 to $50,000 any given season. And if a participant isn’t profitable tournaments, then they don’t seem to be accumulating a paycheck. 

“Starting out in golf, it’s a very difficult journey,” Griffin candidly tells PEOPLE, explaining that not like different skilled sports activities, “There’s nothing guaranteed [in golf].” As he places it, “You can go out and you can win every single major championship and you can be worth $25 million in one year,” or “You have a bad year, and you can lose your card and be back on the Korn Ferry Tour.”

In Griffin’s case, his poor efficiency shortly after going professional led him to accumulating $17,000 in bank card debt. “For me, the system made it so difficult to make it that I didn’t want to gamble on myself anymore,” he mentioned on digicam, including he wanted to step away and prioritize turning into financially steady.

In 2021, he walked away from sport — even forsaking a “lifelong dream” of taking part in on the Masters, he tells PEOPLE — and have become a mortgage officer at Lord, Abbett & Co., the place he began accumulating paychecks and was in a position to pay lease once more. 

It wasn’t lengthy earlier than CEO Doug Sieg informed Griffin he was too good of a participant to be working within the workplace and supplied to sponsor his return (and canopy all his bills). “I decided to make a comeback to golf in 2021,” Griffin mentioned on the Netflix sequence, including, “I really credit him for all my success.” 

But it wasn’t simply so simple as Sieg reducing a test for Griffin. “I had a talk with him about this. I was like, ‘I literally don’t want to come back to golf unless I can focus on just trying to win,'” the athlete remembers to PEOPLE concerning the dialogue they’d about his potential return. In response, Seig informed him, “I’m going to make sure that you have everything you need to try to be the best possible golfer you can.”

The different ingredient was timing. Griffin says they needed to wait till the beginning of the following season, which ended up being in 2021, for him to step onto the inexperienced once more. “I made sure the timing was good, because when Doug originally wanted to sponsor me and get me back to golf, it was in the middle of the season,” he remembers. 

Once that was sorted, Griffin reverted his mindset again to “when I was a kid, trying to win and move up rankings.” He says, “I wasn’t thinking about the financial implications of my finishes, I was thinking more about, ‘How can I get to the PGA Tour? How can I be the best possible golfer I can be?’ ”

Of course, he wasn’t a star in a single day — and it took a few years for the whole lot to lock into place. “It’s not like I was a millionaire all of a sudden with Doug, but I didn’t have to think about money,” Griffin says, noting that to play the perfect he may for Sieg meant staying wholesome, being targeted on the sport, doing the whole lot he may to change into the absolute best golfer. “And that’s what I did for a long period of time and made it on the PGA Tour.” 

It was in the course of the 2025 season, the yr that cameras adopted Griffin round on and off the course, that he lastly turned issues round — and began profitable huge. That April, he earned his first PGA Tour win on the Zurich Classic with companion Andrew Novak and took house $1,392,000. 

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It was the “monkey off the back” Griffin wanted, he tells PEOPLE, and at last realizing the potential of his comeback journey. “It was just an extremely cool reward to finally be a PGA Tour winner after a period of time where I was never even thinking about being a professional golfer again,” he says. “That win was just validation of a lot of hard work.”

He provides, “It was just so fulfilling for me and so fulfilling for Doug.” 

Griffin went on to clinch the Charles Schwab Challenge the next month, taking house $1,710,00, and the World Wide Technology Championship in November 2025, the place he gained $1,080,000. In whole, he gained an estimated $4,182,000 in 2025.

His dominant performances additionally landed him a coveted spot on the American crew for the 2025 Ryder Cup, which sees high U.S. gamers face off in opposition to a delegation of golfers from Europe. 

This yr, as he continues to construct on the momentum of 2025, Griffin made his debut on the 2026 Masters, which performed out in Augusta, Ga. from April 9 to April 12 . Although he didn’t clinch the title — Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy went on to win his second consecutive inexperienced jacket — it was nonetheless a significant expertise for the participant.

Describing the general expertise as “incredible,” he says, “That’s a tournament every kid that plays golf — or dreams of playing competitive golf or professional golf — dreams of playing. And so for me, it was a lifelong dream realized.” 

“Now, my aggressive aspect needed to focus extra on attempting to win the golf event and attempt to study the course and be as ready as attainable for Sunday, however there have been so many moments the place I could not assist however simply pinch myself and notice how cool it was to be inside the ropes and be a participant at Augusta, a event that I grew up watching with my dad and with household,” Griffin continues. “There’s just so much validation in finally making it into the Masters and it’s just such a really cool experience.”

Full Swing season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.