OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Ben Griffin entered Sunday at the 2025 BMW Championship without much on the line given his spot in the Tour Championship was secure and he began the day 14 shots off the lead. For a guy trying to make the Ryder Cup team, though, he needed to put some strong finishes together to make his final case to United States captain Keegan Bradley.
On Sunday at Caves Valley Golf Club, Griffin got off to a disastrous start with a four-putt from 4 feet on the 1st hole to make triple bogey. He then launched his tee shot on the 2nd out of bounds, leading to a double bogey. A bogey on the 3rd followed, leaving Griffin 6 over after just three holes to lead to a double. By the time he walked off the third green, he was 6 over for the day and looked like he was headed for a horrific score. Instead, he was able to grind his way back to 1 under on his round, making seven birdies on his final 12 holes to charge back into the top 15 on the leaderboard.
After his round, Griffin offered an explanation no one could’ve predicted for his horrible start: a creatine mishap.
“Yeah, it’s kind of an interesting story,” Griffin said. “So, I take creatine as a supplement, and this time I didn’t take it until I basically tee’d off on 1. I was at the end of my batch. I had basically a snowball of creatine — because it had been in my bucket for a month — and broke it up and put in any water bottle. I’m all good. I’ve taken it on the golf course before. It’s fine.
“I started taking it after my second shot, and I accidentally swallowed one of the big rocks in my water bottle. I’ve never ‘overdosed’ on creatine before, but I think I did in the moment because I didn’t really drink any water after that. I basically just inhaled a snowball. So, I started getting super shaky. I’ve never felt like that before and I felt like I had tremors.
“I four-putted 1, and on 2, I like was freaking out and didn’t know what to do. Like, I hit it so far out of bounds. Luckily, my caddie stepped in and made me chug a whole water, and I tried to calm down a little bit. I hit the other one in play and then I was fine. I ended up making, whatever, a double on that hole and bogeyed the next hole.”
Griffin thought, briefly, that he might have to withdraw due to the way. he was feeling, but he was able to settle down mentally, physically and with his game. Griffin not only got back to even par but atoned for his mistakes through the remainder of the round. It helped that he wasn’t all that mentally shaken from his terrible start because he knew the reason why he was struggling.
“It was definitely not one of those situations where I’m like, ‘oh, my God, I don’t know where the golf ball is going,'” Griffin said. “I was confident going into the round. It just kind of happened. It’s unfortunate. But yeah, it was a weird feeling. I honestly got to the, whatever, third tee box and I was like, ‘Well, I’m fine.’ Let’s pretend like that didn’t happen. Kind of sucks in the moment. Damn, I wish I could have reset my round and go back to one now because I felt good. Regardless, lesson learned. I’ll be better in the future now.”
Griffin says he won’t be making any last minute creatine mixes to take on the course, and thanks to his strong close, he was able to turn it into a funny story to tell.