Ben Griffin surges with birdie blitz to win World Wide Technology Championship

Although steady throughout the week in Cabo San Lucas, Griffin began the day trailing South African Garrick Higgo by two strokes. A blistering stretch of five consecutive birdies from the 8th through the 12th propelled him past both Higgo and Carson Young, pushing him to 27 under and firmly into the lead.

Griffin picked up two more birdies on the closing stretch and ultimately signed for 10 birdies against a lone bogey, finishing at 29-under-par 259 at El Cardonal Golf Course. That total proved enough for a two-shot victory over Finland's Sami Valimaki, who posted a 64, and Chad Ramey, who carded a 65.

Higgo closed with a 68 and slipped into a tie for fourth with Trevor Cone, who shot 66.

“To start out the round I wasn't really paying too much attention to the leaderboard”, Griffin said. "There's a lot of gettable holes, felt like there were a lot of birdies to be made.

"So I just kind of kept my head down and just tried to play aggressive, play smart, not attack the pins that were a little closer to the edges or whatnot, go at a lot of the pins that were a little more receptive.

"Yeah, and coming down the stretch I kind of got to a point where I was I think 27 under and with three holes to go my goal was to birdie ‘em all and get to 30, and I had felt like that would seal the deal."

At 29, Griffin had already enjoyed a landmark year: he teamed up with Andrew Novak to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, added the Charles Schwab Challenge in the spring, climbed into the world's top 15 for the first time, earned his debut appearance at the Tour Championship, and secured a captain's pick for the U.S. Ryder Cup squad.