Joey Garber, Ben Griffin share 54-hole lead at Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard

BOGOTA, Colombia – A former mortgage loan officer in the midst of a career revival, and a past Korn Ferry Tour champion share the 54-hole lead at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard, as Ben Griffin and Joey Garber both reached 15-under par Saturday at Country Club de Bogota.

With the full post-cut field playing Country Club de Bogota’s Lagos course for the third round, Garber carded a bogey-free 7-under 64, tying the second-lowest score of his career and marking his best since firing a career-low 8-under 63 last June at the 2021 BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX. Griffin, the outright 36-hole leader, followed up a career-low round from Friday with his second 3-under 68 this week on the Lagos course.

Garber birdied the par-4 first and parred the next six holes. From just short of the green at the par-5 eighth, Garber chipped in for eagle, and backed it up with a lengthy putt for birdie at the par-4 ninth. Four pars later, the University of Georgia alum sank back-to-back birdies at the par-4 14th and par-3 15th. Two more pars preceded a closing birdie at the par-5 18th, solidifying one of two bogey-free scorecards turned in Saturday.

“Any time you can stay clean around this golf course, you’re doing something right,” Garber said. “I’ll look to build on that and try and repeat it tomorrow, and hit as many similar shots as I can. I’ve been putting well, and that’s usually my strength. That’s a good thing to do on Sunday, and that’s what I’ll look to do tomorrow.”

Garber, a Petoskey, Michigan native, holds a share of the 54-hole lead for the first time in what is his 78th Korn Ferry Tour start. Prior this week, Garber’s highest 54-hole position at a Korn Ferry Tour event was T2 at the 2018 REX Hospital Open, where he earned his first and only Tour win.

The victory helped Garber secure his first PGA TOUR card at season’s end. And while Garber’s 2018-19 TOUR season was inconsistent (12 missed cuts in 22 starts), it was not without high points, as he logged a T10 at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open and a T7 at the 2019 3M Open. A final ranking of 170th in the FedExCup Standings, however, sent Garber back to the Korn Ferry Tour.

“I love the Korn Ferry Tour, the guys that are here,” said Garber, who finished No. 72 in the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points Standings for fully exempt status this year. “I feel comfortable out there. I love being out there. We’re having a good time, and I’m just trying to enjoy myself on the golf course. I love Bogota. We’ve gone out to dinner a couple nights and explored the city, and I look forward to doing that again tomorrow. Restaurants, the people, the climate is incredible, the trees are beautiful. We’re very fortunate to be here.”

Griffin struggled early in his third round, bogeying the par-4 first and parring his next 10 holes, including a three-putt par at the par-5 eighth. Birdies at the par-3 12th and par-4 14th finally generated some momentum, which culminated in back-to-back birdies at Nos. 17 and 18.

“Couple holes starting out were playing a little more difficult than I thought,” Griffin said. “I was patient again, just like yesterday, and just waited. I was still focusing on myself and just trying to play my game, waiting for the birdies to come. Hit one close on (No. 12) and started rolling in a few bigger putts… put myself back at the top where I want to be.”

Griffin’s return to professional golf is proving to be an inspiring story.

A highly-touted junior golfer and two-time All-America Honorable Mention at the University of North Carolina, Griffin turned professional in 2018 and enjoyed immediate success on PGA TOUR Canada.

In his first event, roughly a week after the 2018 NCAA Championships concluded on May 28, Griffin finished solo fourth. A month later, Griffin won the Staal Foundation Open presented by tbatyel and eventually ended the year ranked No. 8 on the Order of Merit, which earned him an exemption to the Final Stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament.

Things took a downward turn shortly thereafter.

A T100 finish at Final Stage left Griffin without guaranteed starts for the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour season. Buried in the priority ranking, Griffin split the year between Korn Ferry Tour (six missed cuts in eight starts) and PGA TOUR Canada (three missed cuts in four starts), combining for less than $4,000 in official money across both tours. A failed run on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica (four missed cuts in as many starts) for the 2020-21 season drove Griffin out of golf.

“I was burnt out,” Griffin said. “Golf was hard and I wasn’t making enough money to support myself. My parents have always been supportive of me, but I never wanted to ask them for any help. I wanted to start making some financial decisions on my own, and that’s kind of why I had to go to work. It was one of those things… I wasn’t confident in myself to make it all the way to the (PGA) TOUR back then. I didn’t see myself doing it. It was really weird, but I was going through one of those times. It was dark.”

The Monday after a two-man event in April 2021, Griffin went to his father’s office and filled in for an employee who resigned. Griffin worked in property management for a few weeks, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with professional golf now in the rearview.

“My mom was a loan officer; she told me I would be good at it, so I went ahead and accepted a job mid-April,” Griffin said. “I had to spend a little time studying to get my license. By beginning of May, I was in the office starting to work a little bit, grinded all through May, June.”

Throughout last July, Griffin mulled a comeback as he worked as a mortgage loan officer in his hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. At first, it was entirely subconscious. After a successful Monday qualifier, it became a mission.

“I never had to wear a jacket and tie when I worked, but I liked to,” Griffin said. “I dressed up one day and started driving to work and accidentally drove to the golf course. I was like, ‘What am I doing?’

“A couple days later, my grandpa had been battling with some things from a health standpoint and he passed away,” Griffin continued. “He was one of the big people involved in me getting into golf, along with my dad. And in his obituary he said, hit them long and straight. When I saw that, and after I had accidentally driven to the course, I was like, ‘Maybe I need to give this another run.’

“It was hard,” Griffin said of the decision to quit his job as a mortgage loan officer. “I had really good co-workers… and they wanted me to be very successful in the business. I want to thank them for everything. One person in particular, Karen Lorbacher, she taught me a lot. When I decided to leave, I mean, it was disappointing because she had spent probably a month and a half really training me. It was hard, but I had a couple things telling me I needed to go back.”

A return to Final Stage last November resulted in a T29 and eight guaranteed starts. In the first two events this season, Griffin finished T8 and T12. In the nine Korn Ferry Tour starts Griffin made prior to 2022, his best finish was T57. Griffin’s best round in those nine starts was a 4-under 67. Through 13 rounds this year, Griffin has four 67s, along with Friday’s 9-under 61 on Country Club de Bogota’s Pacos course.

It’s safe to say Ben Griffin is back.

“For a while, kind of had lost my dreams,” Griffin said. “I’m just so fortunate to have so many people on my side, and I’m just hoping to continue to do my thing.

“Hopefully I can make a nice run tomorrow.”

Taylor Montgomery will join Garber and Griffin in the final group of Sunday’s final round. A Las Vegas, Nevada resident in his second Korn Ferry Tour season, Montgomery broke the course record with a 9-under 62 and rose all the way from T39 position to T3. Montgomery finished No. 26 in both the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points Standings and Korn Ferry Tour Finals, leaving him one position shy of a PGA TOUR card on both occasions.

Final-round tee times will run in groups of three from 7-11:15 a.m. ET off the first tee of the Lagos course.