Ben Griffin opened up with a round of two-under par 68 at the Rocket Classic on Thursday.
Griffin hasn’t been at his best so far in 2026, after his stellar 2025 season when he won three PGA Tour titles.
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The 30-year-old from North Carolina is without a win so far this season, and he only has four top-10 finishes to his name in 21 starts.
However, Ben Griffin has been showing signs that his form is returning since the PGA Championship, with five top-25 finishes to his name in six starts.
He will obviously be hoping for another solid tournament at the Rocket Classic this week as he looks to maintain his place inside the top 50 of the FedEx Cup points list.
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Griffin made the US Ryder Cup team in September, and he looks set to be part of the US Presidents Cup team later this year as well.
However, he will have to address the problem he currently has with his driver if he is to be competitive at the very highest level.
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Ben Griffin admits he had an issue with his driver at the Rocket Classic
Griffin spoke to reporters after his opening round at the Rocket Classic on Thursday.
And the three-time PGA Tour winner responded when asked to recap his day on the golf course.
“Yeah, it was an interesting day,“ Griffin admitted.
“I went into the week trying to do some driver testing and unfortunately my driver going into the round, it was spinning a lot all of a sudden, which is kind of random. So, I unfortunately didn’t really get a chance to hit it much.
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“When I did hit it, it was going just as short as my 3-wood. So, I just hit 3-wood a lot during the round because I knew at least where the 3-wood was going because I’m used to it and I felt like it was going almost just as far.
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“Some of the holes played a little bit longer because of that. I’m going to go to the range after this and figure out a driver.“
Griffin obviously can’t be hitting 3-wood off every par-four and par-five. The course will just eat him up in the end.
So finding a new driver, or fixing the issue with his current model will be crucial to his hopes of contending this week.
Ben Griffin delivers verdict on his game in general
The American was asked to sum up where his game in general is at right now after his opening round in Detroit.
“Other than that (the driver), felt like I hit a lot of good shots,“ Griffin admitted.
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“Hit some that weren’t as good, left myself a lot of really long birdie putts, had a couple good two-putts, a bad three-putt. Just kind of the way it goes.
“Felt like it’s been a while since I played. Even though it’s been only one week off, it just felt like, I don’t know, it was hard to get back in the rhythm I felt a little bit.
“But feel good about where my game’s at, just got to keep plugging along.“
If Griffin fixes his driver issue before he tees off on Friday, he may well come out the blocks firing on all cylinders and go low on day two in Detroit.
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