When it became apparent that the envelope rule may be used during the Ryder Cup last week, many would have been forgiven for expecting Ben Griffin to be the player to potentially sit out on Sunday at Bethpage Black.
Keegan Bradley had reacted to Ben Griffin losing alongside Bryson DeChambeau on Friday afternoon in New York by leaving the rookie out of both sessions the following day.
It was a ruthless move from the captain. Team USA endured a miserable opening day at the Ryder Cup, and Griffin seemed to be far from the worst performer.
Bradley stuck by Harris English and Collin Morikawa in the foursomes, despite the pair being soundly beaten on the first morning.
Ben Griffin’s caddie issues his verdict on Keegan Bradley as a captain at the Ryder Cup
Meanwhile, he desperately tried to get the best out of Scottie Scheffler and DeChambeau. DeChambeau became the first player since 1985 to have four different partners in the same Ryder Cup.
That meant that Griffin paid the price by being the only American player who only played once before the singles. He went on to beat Rasmus Hojgaard on Sunday.
Despite the disappointment, his caddie Alex Ritthamel has told Quiet Please! that he only has positive things to say about Bradley’s captaincy.
“He was awesome. He was so great. It was just about the team. There was no players, caddies. Everybody, we are a team. And he was super inspirational. He will tell you he’s a big video guy. He made a lot of videos for us. He was open. Even prior to the week when we had meetings, you’re getting him tearing up,” he said.
“He was awesome. He did a great job when it came to the team side of it and making sure that everyone was feeling good and ready to go.”
What the Bethpage fans did which inadvertently upset Ben Griffin after he had been benched for all of Saturday
Griffin had the potential to be a revelation on the Ryder Cup stage. He had an outstanding year on the PGA Tour, winning twice. And he came incredibly close to securing a third victory at the Procore Championship, with Scheffler snatching the title from his grasp.
Griffin had also eyed up a partnership with Bryson DeChambeau. So it was a surprise to see how little he did play.
And it turns out that the decision to leave Griffin out of the entirety of Saturday came fairly late in the day, with the world number 11 not finding out until he had made it onto the property.
Ritthamel explained how the encouragement from the fans made the call all the more painful.
“It was tough. We were told leading into the event that, as of now, we’re going to play Friday, Saturday afternoons and then play Sunday. Ben didn’t play bad on Friday, I wouldn’t say he played great. And it was tough because we were at the golf course when we found out,” he added.
“We didn’t know until three hours-ish before tee off that we weren’t playing. So I think it actually got tougher as the day went on, not because of the score but we went out to practice, to warm-up, and nobody fan-wise knew. So he’s on the green hitting putts and it was every 30 seconds, people were going by going, ‘come on Benny, we need you this afternoon, get the team going’. It was non-stop. He’s just walking by, ‘I wish, I wish, I wish’. It was tough.”
Griffin was definitely the player who paid the biggest price for the top stars not performing. Bradley had every reason to rest Scheffler on Saturday afternoon.
But given that Team USA were so far behind, the captain probably felt that he could not afford to take the risk of taking the world number one out of his lineup.
You would imagine that Griffin will be using that as fuel for Adare Manor in 2027.
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