“Look, it’s a tough game,” said Power, an Irishman who knows a thing or two about being resilient. He turned pro in 2011 and didn’t make it onto the PGA TOUR until six years later.
“It’s an individual sport and individual sports have their ups and downs. It’s not for everyone.”
What is for everyone is the compelling story of an unheralded long shot and that is what Griffin is saturated in. Backed financially by men who believed in him – Doug Sieg, Mike Swann, Jesse Ahearn – Griffin returned to golf in 2021, got through the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament, played consistently well, and earned a PGA TOUR card for 2022-23.
If there is a sense of what to expect in Sunday’s final round, it’s because Griffin has already lived a little bit of this. Back in August, he got through a Monday qualifier for the Wyndham Championship, made the cut, and tossed down a pair of 64s on the weekend to finish joint fourth.
OK, so his dream story couldn’t trump the one that was authored by Tom Kim that day (the phenom from South Korea closed with 61 to win by five), but Griffin will draw from what did take place at Wyndham.
“Having that experience on the PGA TOUR, playing in a championship – not necessarily having a chance to win, but fighting to try and get as high a finish as I could . . . that experience is going to help me a ton,” said Griffin.
Of course, he is the first to concede that his experience cannot match the sort of stuff up against which he’s going. Gay owns five PGA TOUR wins, including here in 2021, and Baddeley is a four-time winner who seems to always play his best when his status is on the line.
Then there is Power, the personable Irishman who played at East Tennessee State. He roared out with five birdies, finished strongly (birdies at Nos. 16 and 17), and seems to act gleefully when the wind crackles the flags, as it did Saturday.
Part of that comes from the hard road he has traveled, minitour after minitour. Maybe it’s not quite been like Griffin’s tale, but it’s not dissimilar.
