Ben Griffin got off to a fantastic start with an eagle on the first hole and secured his first individual PGA Tour victory at the Charles Schwab Challenge, shooting a one-over-par 71 on Sunday at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth,Texas.
His one-stroke victory came with a 12 under total. Griffin clinched the result with a four-foot par putt on the last hole.
For the first time in the tournament's four rounds, Griffin had a different score than Germany's Matti Schmid (72 on Sunday). Schmid settled for second place.
Griffin, 29, was playing his 94th PGA Tour tournament and secured his second victory in about a month's span, after combining with Andrew Novak to win April's Zurich Classic of New Orleans team competition.
Bud Cauley shot 67 to move to third place at nine under.
World number one Scottie Scheffler, who was bidding for a third championship in as many outings, finished with 69, managing his only birdies on holes one and 11.That left him tied for fourth place at eight under, joining England's Tommy Fleetwood (68).
Seamus Power endured a difficult final round, carding a three over 73. That left the Waterford man on two over and tied for 59th.
Griffin needed a putt from less than 15 feet for an eagle on the par-5 first hole. He rolled in a birdie on the par-4 second after nearly reaching the green off the tee.
Schmid, who has never won on the PGA Tour, birdied the first hole but he was three over through six holes during an erratic round. Still, his birdie on 16 as Griffin was taking a bogey closed the gap to one stroke.
But Schmid ended up in the bunker on his approach at 17, leading to a bogey and a two-stroke gap.
Schmid holed out for birdie from the greenside rough at 18 to get back to 11 under and put pressure on Griffin to make his par.
Rickie Fowler, who began the day four strokes back and played as part of the final trio, struggled with a 74 and tied for 16th place at five under.
