A PGA Tour birdie machine has some great advice for you on how to go low
En route to his best year in professional golf, which included three wins and 12 top-10 finishes, Ben Griffin made a boatload of birdies—427 of them, in fact. He also finished in the top 10 in 12 scoring categories. Bottom line: He knows how to efficiently get the ball from the tee box to the bottom of the cup.
For that reason, we asked the 29-year-old rising golf star if he could share some of his advice on scoring with regular golfers like you. In an interview with Golf Digest (72 hours before his wedding in December!) Griffin offered some smart and simple tips that are ideally suited for players who don’t have a lot of time to practice but would love to shoot their career-best score this upcoming season.
LONGER DRIVES
69.17 SCORING AVERAGE (RANKED SIXTH ON THE PGA TOUR IN 2025)
YOU DON’T NEED FASTER HANDS TO PICK UP MORE DISTANCE
“I got my ball speed up from the low 170s to over 180 miles per hour by spending a lot of time in the gym doing things like pushing sleds, bench presses, squats,” Griffin says. “It’s more like a football workout than golf training. You might think the result is that I’m swinging harder, but I’m actually swinging smoother because I can put more force into the hit.
Even if you don’t have time for the gym, the thing I’ve learned is that when you go at it harder, you tend to get your hands and arms too involved in the swing and not use your big muscles as much for power. That can get you out of sync. Instead, I like to feel like Cam Young or Sam Burns. When they get to the top of the swing, it looks like they just rotate their bodies and the club simply falls into the ball.
Here are two ways to get your body more involved: First, set up open to your target. You’ll find it really frees you up to rotate better and let your body stay ahead of the club. Second, rehearse some downswings like I’m doing here with the idea that the club doesn’t get ahead of your body rotation. It’s lower body first, then upper body and finally your arms and club. Trust me, you’ll pick up yards this way, which means you’re going to be hitting shorter clubs into greens— a huge key to scoring.
CONTROL
427 TOTAL BIRDIES (RANKED THIRD)
SOMETIMES POSITION TRUMPS POWER
“Another benefit of getting stronger and using your bigger muscles off the tee is that every club in the bag gets longer, so you don’t necessarily have to hit driver as often. When being in the short grass matters most, go with a fairway wood and play for the best position to attack the green.
When I’m swinging a 3-wood, especially off a low tee or the deck, the feeling I want is that I’m covering the ball with my chest at impact. I’m posing this position here. That feel helps me drive the ball forward, not balloon it up.
If you copy this move, you have to get more weight into your left side (for righties) as you swing down. If you’re the type of golfer who swings off your back foot or scoops at the ball, this feeling of weight forward and upper body covering the ball is going to really help you compress it off the face. You might not hit it as far as your driver, but you’ll be rewarded with decent distance and your next shot coming from the fairway. You’ll then have a lot more control on the outcome needed to get the ball in the hole.”
WEDGE PLAY
2.98 PAR-3 SCORING AVERAGE (RANKED FIFTH)
YOU NEED OPTIONS ON SHORT SHOTS—BUT DON’T OVERCOMPLICATE IT
I don’t want to brush past advice on full-swing irons without mentioning that my strategy with them is to pick the shot I’m most comfortable hitting, regardless of pin position. I don’t like to shape shots if I don’t have to. I really don’t have anything to demonstrate for you with irons—just play to your strengths instead of trying to execute stuff you don’t feel comfortable with.
When it comes to hitting approaches with wedges, however, you do need to switch it up a bit depending on the pin location. To keep it simple, have two wedge options. The first is a lower-trajectory shot with spin for middle-to-back pins. The other is a higher, deader shot for front pins, especially ones where you have to carry a bunker or something. To hit a low checker, play it no farther forward than middle in your stance and make a smooth swing with a restricted follow-through like this (above, left). To hit a higher, softer shot, play it slightly farther forward than center and make a full swing that ends with the club finishing more around your body instead of in front of it (above, right). The fuller finish puts more loft on the ball.
Having two options keeps it simple, but it also improves your chance at a makeable putting opportunity.”
ON THE GREEN
CHANGE YOUR MIND-SET ABOUT LAG PUTTING
The leader in one-putt percentage on tour, Taylor Montgomery, gets it in the hole 46 percent of the time. That’s impressive, for sure, but what it also should tell you is we’re missing more than we make, which is why second putts are so crucial to scoring.
When you stand over a longer putt, what are you thinking about? I bet it’s something like, Pick a line and get it close. Me? I’m thinking about making them—and here’s why: If you’re thinking about getting the ball into a three-foot circle but then miss by two feet, now you’ve got to contend with a testy five-footer. But when you try to make it, you sharpen your focus and the miss usually ends up in that three-foot circle for an easier second putt.
I know a lot of players might need to practice feel and speed control, but that also falls into a get-it-close mind-set instead of I’m making this. That’s why I spend a lot more energy on reading the putt. I’ll read them from behind the ball and behind the hole, but I also read it from a few spots between the ball and the hole like I am here. I want to judge what the ball is going to roll over at various spots as it tracks toward the cup. My vision is getting worse, so I read the breaks with my eyes and my feet. You should, too.
I saw a tweet from another tour pro, Michael Kim. He said under pressure, feel like you have to make every putt, but try to make them on the highest line you think the ball would possibly go in. If you do, as the putt loses speed, it’s going to move toward the cup, not away from it. That makes misses a lot easier to clean up. Don’t forget, birdies and pars are important for scoring, but so is keeping those big numbers off your card by three-putting or worse.