PGA Tour
Ben Griffin's explanation for why he wears sunglasses sounds kind of scary
Icon Sportswire
Take a scroll on Golf Twitter when Ben Griffin is near the top of the leader board and you'll inevitably see someone poke fun at his look, the look being Griffin's gigantic Aviator sunglasses. It's a look normally reserved for a movie star, not a slender 6-foot-1 PGA Tour pro who used to be a mortgage loan officer.
Turns out, there's a somewhat serious and kind of scary reason Griffin had to exclusively begin sporting the shades while he played. He added the accessory for good about a year ago when he had a legitimate issue with his vision.
"It's interesting. After learning a little bit more about, like, my experience, I'm a little surprised more golfers don't [wear them]," Griffin said Saturday at the Memorial Tournament, where he'll begin the final round one off the lead. "But, yeah, I see floaters. I have really bad vision."
Eye floaters, as described on mayoclinic.org, are spots in your vision that may look like "black or grey specks, strings or cobwebs." These floaters can drift about when you move your eyes and they appear to dart away when you try to look at them directly. Less than ideal for a very visually-oriented sport like professional golf.
Griffin, 29, said he began seeing them about a year ago. So he went to an eye doctor who told him his retina was starting to detach itself.
"I had retinal holes, so I had to go get basically laser surgery to fill in those holes," said Griffin. "I had eight retinal holes in both eyes, so I was at risk of losing vision maybe within five or six months had I not gotten the treatment."
Sheesh, that doesn't exactly sound like some throwaway issue, especially for a guy as young as Griffin. Fortunately, he caught on early, though the floaters are likely not going anywhere any time soon, he says.
"So I still see the floaters, I had to get the surgery just to maintain my level. Because of that when I wear sunglasses it's a little bit darker out, so I don't necessarily see the floaters as well. So if it's really bright out and I'm not wearing the sunglasses, I look into the clouds or whatever and I see black stuff everywhere."
Griffin also mentioned that the sunglasses are not actually Aviators. They're an Asian brand called Uswing Mojing, and he's not the only professional golfer who sports them.
"There's a few different golfers, professional golfers that wear 'em across all different tours. And they have this -- they say the science behind 'em kind of helps with green reading and I think it's 100 percent true," he said. "I love the ability to see the contrast a little bit better, than when it's really bright it's kind of hard to see maybe grain changes from time to time. So seeing contours is definitely a little bit easier I think with the sunglasses. And now, I mean, I guess I'm getting to the point where I have more and more fans and people like it, so I'm not going to stop wearing 'em, that's for sure."
Just you wait, Ben. Knowing how professional golfers operate, half the tour will be wearing these bad boys by next season, especially if Griffin is able to slay the giant that is Scottie Scheffler on Sunday at the Memorial Tournament. Griffin pulls that off and he'll end up at Bethpage Black for the Ryder Cup. By then he'll have a literal army of fans wearing Uswing Mojings.