Ben Griffin’s caddie drives 12 hours overnight to procure clubs for The Genesis

The art of caddying often requires ingenuity outside the ropes, which led to a 12-hour overnight road trip for Ben Griffin’s caddie Alex Ritthamel earlier this week. Griffin is quite grateful.

After completing the WM Phoenix Open on Sunday, Griffin flew to Los Angeles for The Genesis Invitational, into which he qualified via the Aon Next 10 after the conclusion of the FedExCup Fall. The catch: Griffin’s clubs didn’t arrive with him. He played Monday’s pro-am with a rental set, and as the airline’s delay extended, it appeared that he’d need to play Tuesday’s practice round again with the rentals.

Griffin is a seasoned pro and can adapt on the fly, but rental clubs aren’t the best preparation for a puzzle of a venue like The Riviera Country Club. So Ritthamel and a couple friends took matters into their own hands. They drove back to Phoenix – six hours each way – to procure the clubs from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Ritthamel drove through the night Monday, making it back to Riviera in time for a Tuesday afternoon practice round. Griffin wasn’t in Wednesday’s pro-am, so Tuesday was his chance to play Riviera with his own clubs prior to this week’s Signature Event.

Mission accomplished.

“Story of the week,” Griffin quipped Thursday on PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ while preparing for his opening round of The Genesis. “Alex went through the night with two of his buddies, got the clubs, and I was able to get a practice round in Tuesday afternoon, right before it got dark. So it was a little crazy.

“I’m used to it, playing professional golf and golf in general for most of my life; I’ve had plenty of clubs get lost, but a week like this, it was very nice of Alex and his friends to go do that. I thought they were crazy for doing it. I just needed to make sure they were here by Thursday, but always nice to get a round in with your real clubs before a tournament like this.”

Griffin, 27, earned his spot in The Genesis via the Aon Next 10, as No. 53 on last year’s FedExCup Fall standings after The RSM Classic. (Nos. 51-60 earned spots in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis.) The second-year TOUR member, who stepped away from pro golf for a few months in 2021 to work as a mortgage loan officer, has missed just one cut in five starts this season. Griffin finished T28 at last week’s WM Phoenix Open before turning his attention to The Genesis.

His game is in solid form for Riviera, buoyed by his caddie’s overnight road-trip efforts.