Mexico City (AFP) – World number 12 Ben Griffin fired a nine-under par 63 on Sunday to win the World Wide Technology Championship by two strokes for his third US PGA Tour title of the year. The 29-year-old American made 10 birdies and a lone bogey to finish on a tournament record 29-under 259 after 72 holes at El Cardonal in Los Cabos, Mexico.
“Got off to a great start, making some birdies. I feel like I’ve done that a lot in final rounds when I’ve had a chance to win so that was nice,” Griffin said. “I pushed myself a little harder than I have the past few weeks when I was in contention to keep the pedal down and the putter helped me out, made a lot of putts on the back nine.”
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Finland’s Sami Valimaki shot 64 to share second with American Chad Ramey on 261, with South African Garrick Higgo and American Trevor Cone another stroke adrift. Griffin joined top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and world number two Rory McIlroy as the only players with three PGA Tour triumphs this year. He became only the seventh player since 1983 to have his first three PGA Tour victories come in the same season, the first since Scheffler in 2022.
Griffin, a member of this year’s US Ryder Cup team, captured the pairs event at New Orleans with Andrew Novak in April and the Charles Schwab Challenge in May at Colonial. Griffin was also a runner-up in June at the Memorial and in September’s Procore Championship, a Ryder Cup tuneup tournament.
After starting the final round two strokes behind Higgo, Griffin birdied three of the first four holes before a bogey at the fifth. Griffin reeled off five birdies in a row from the eighth through 12th holes and a birdie at the par-three 16th lifted him to 28-under par, two ahead of Valimaki. Both birdied the par-five 18th to seal Griffin’s triumph, breaking the old course record by two strokes.
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