Ben Griffin’s dream year continues, Aaron Rai’s robot-like display and golf’s surprising new star

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we nearly lost our minds by playing in frigid conditions. My buddies had a tee time at a local muny for this morning and we all backed out at the last minute when we saw the wind chill was going to range from 16(!) to 20 degrees for the entire round.

I love golf more than just about anything, but that’s a bit much. Especially for someone who thinks anything under 70 requires a quarter-zip. Anyway, hopefully I haven’t played my last round of the year, but it’s looking more and more like that’s the case. So to get our golf fix, let’s talk about what’s happening elsewhere in this great game. From the cozy confines of my house, that is.

WE’RE BUYING

Ben Griffin: The breakout year for Benny Booms got even better as Griffin won the World Wide Technology Championship—while wearing a World Wide Technology hat. Talk about a good company man.

Speaking of being good company men, if you haven’t watched HBO MAX’s “Task” yet, then what are you doing?! Anyway, that puts the 29-year-old UNC product in elite company, joining Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy as the only golfers to win at least three PGA Tour titles this year.

When you consider that at the start of the year this guy was best known for briefly quitting competitive golf a few years back to be a mortgage officer and for doing an informative TikTok about his expenses as a tour pro, it’s been quite a coming out party for the U.S. Ryder Cupper. (By the way, how in the world did captain Keegan Bradley only play him one session before Sunday at Bethpage Black?!) And with all the money he’s won, Griffin doesn’t have to worry as much about staying within budget.

Aaron Rai: Speaking of budgets, this guy uses a seven-year-old driver and tees that you see at your local muni on the weekend—not to mention iron covers and a pair of black gloves—and yet he remains one of the best golfers on the planet. The 30-year-old and last year’s Wyndham Championship winner added a third DP World Tour title to his resume at the Abu Dhabi Championship by taking down world-beater Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff—as well as the rest of Team Europe in regulation:

How can you not root for this guy? Despite not always looking the part, Rai is clearly a class player. And he seems like a total class lad. I’d love to see him get a chance to represent Team Europe someday. Maybe he could bring some of those pink castle tees to hand out to the rest of the squad.

Chaz Bowker: The most talked-about golfer of the week, however, was this YouTuber who took the Internet Invitational by storm. The 4-foot-4 Bowker is one of the top-ranked adaptive golfers in the country, but he was the unofficial MVP of this big Barstool/Bob Does Sports event. Chaz literally couldn’t miss a fairway:

And he was money on the greens with BIG money on the line:

Chazzy gained a ton of fans and followers after that performance, and we were thrilled to have him on this week’s episode of The Loop podcast:

WE’RE SELLING

Mason Howell being robbed: First, a few more positives. Congrats to Miles Russell and Aphrodite Deng on being named the Rolex Junior Player of the Years. And congrats to Charlie Woods for being named to the first team of the Rolex Junior All-American Team by the American Junior Golf Association. That being said, how in the world did Mason Howell—another recent guest on The Loop—not make the first team?!

You know, the Mason Howell who shot a pair of 63s to qualify for the U.S. Open? The Mason Howell who was a Walker Cup hero? The Mason Howell who won the freaking U.S. Amateur?! I’m sure there’s some justification for this based on certain junior events, but that’s just ridiculous.

Slow play: Also ridiculous? The amount of slow play going on everywhere these days. Including at some of the top private clubs in the country. One such place, Sleepy Hollow Golf Club (which happens to be my No. 1 course in Westchester County), has gone as far as to post a shame list of bad times:

And I’m all for it. I just wish they did something like this at the public courses I play. Heck, I wish they did anything at all.

Having your boat capsize: I don’t know anything about boats and I don’t want to know anything about boats because the only thing I’ve ever heard about boats is that the best two days of owning one are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. But I can only imagine that having your boat capsize is extra annoying. And having that happen publicly during a golf tournament is even worse:

Tough spot. That would make for a perfect Southwest Airlines “Wanna get away?” commercial.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour fall season rolls on with the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, AKA that one they play in Bermuda. Then there’s the DP World Tour Championship, AKA the DP World Tour finale, and, finally, The Annika, AKA that LPGA event that Caitlin Clark is playing in the pro-am and Kai Trump is playing in the real tournament. So there’s a lot going on for mid-November!

Random tournament fact: Brendon Todd won the inaugural Bermuda Championship back in 2019, before the world had ever heard of COVID and when Brendon Todd was (briefly) the best golfer on the planet. Ah, simpler times.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Kai Trump will win the Annika: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds

—Ben Griffin will ever work as a mortgage loan officer again: 10 MILLION-to-1 odds

—Castle tees and iron covers will get a boost in sales this week: LOCK

PHOTO/TWEET OF THE WEEK (DAGGER DIVISION)

That Asian Tour got Luke Kwon good for oversleeping his tee time at the Internet Invitational:

Boom. Roasted.

PHOTO/TWEET OF THE WEEK (ARCHIVE DIVISION)

Great pull by our Jamie Kennedy here regarding Aaron Rai’s Guinness World Record as a junior golfer:

It must be nice to have that memory every time he faces a 10-footer—especially when it's in a playoff to win!

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

This is unbelievable:

Between that and all those made 10-footers in a row, is Aaron Rai an actual robot?

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

I’m not a Jets fan (I’m a Giants fan, so not much better), but I appreciate Jets players who play golf. Like Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, who were traded last week. And I appreciate that Quinnen addressed the media wearing Liberty National hat:

Respect. I just feel bad for Sauce that he's going to have to have another golf simulator installed in his new house.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Aaron Rai and his dad, Amrik, shared a nice embrace following Rai’s latest win:

You love to see it.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Ben Griffin perfectly summed up his dream year in which he'll add a different kind of "W" next month:

And I’m sure Griffin could get a great honeymoon rate at Los Cabos with his World Wide Technology connections. Just saying.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Nasa Hataoka on winning her fifth career LPGA Tour title and becoming the 28th different winner in 29 events this year. Again, I’m not sure this level of parity is good or bad. ... LIV Golf announced it’s changing to 72-hole stroke-play events next year. Wild. However, it has no plans to change to the LXXII Golf. ... The PGA Tour announced the creation of a new event for next September, the Biltmore Championship in Asheville, N.C.  It will also be, you guessed it, 72 holes of stroke play. ... And, finally, congrats to former Golf Digest colleague and current Skratch content king and Netflix star Dan Rapaport on winning the Brentwood Country Club Championship:

Dan made the decision to move back to L.A. from New York last year and now he’s getting to play club championships in mid-November while I battle frost delays. Brilliant decision, Dan.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

What’s the coldest round of golf you’ve ever played?

Should I have played golf this morning?

Should/could I move to a warmer climate?