How Ben Griffin Won the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge

Ben Griffin's irons finished in the middle of the field at the 2025 Charles Schwab Challenge, and he won anyway, taking Colonial Country Club by 1 stroke, 12 under par, after leading through 54 holes. Thank you, as always, to Data Golf, whose strokes-gained numbers make this kind of week possible to read. The record says this was a putting win: 49% of Griffin's advantage over the field came from the greens, against a season-winner average of 34%.

A caveat before the table. 49% is not a majority, so calling this primarily a putting win means the single biggest contributor, not the only reason. The other three categories, added together, actually outweighed the putter: 6.8 strokes to 6.5. He won with a full card, and one club did far more than its share.

How the win was built

Scoring conversion: 20 birdies or better, 7 bogeys against a field average of 10.2, 1 double bogey or worse, over 72 holes. Final round 71, +0.1 strokes against the field that day. Led after 54 holes.

*Average share across the 20 earlier 2025 winners with a strokes-gained record. Shares count only the categories where the winner beat the field, so a category where he lost strokes reads 0%, and rounding can leave the four shares a point short of or above 100. Strokes gained: Data Golf. The field is the 78 players who completed all four rounds.

Start off the tee, since it sets the baseline. Griffin gained 2.2 strokes on the field, 16th of 78, 17% of his advantage; the typical winner to that point drew 15%. That is almost exactly the going rate: a solid, unremarkable driving week.

Approach is where it gets interesting. Also 2.2 strokes gained, but 32nd of 78, the middle of the field, in the category this season's winners lean on hardest. His share was 16%, against a season-winner average of 38%. The typical winner draws nearly four strokes in ten from the irons; Griffin drew about one in six. He was ordinary with his approach play and won anyway.

Around the green he was 2.4 strokes better than the field, 11th of 78, 18% of the advantage against a season average of 13%. Top-quarter play, and worth saying plainly: this was not a weak spot getting rescued. It was a strength stacked on a strength.

Then the putter. 6.5 strokes better than the field, 3rd of 78, 49% of the total advantage, the largest single number on the card by a wide margin. His next-best category was that 2.4 around the green, so the flat stick alone outweighed any two of his other three categories combined.

The fifth of the Winner's Five is scoring conversion, and it is where Sunday shows up. 20 birdies or better across the week, 7 bogeys against a field average of 10.2, and only 1 double bogey or worse in 72 holes. He led after 54 holes and closed with a 71 that gained 0.1 strokes on the field, essentially level. He did not build the lead on Sunday. He protected one, and with a 1-stroke margin, protecting was enough.

The winning formula

Putting-Fueled Win, the 7th of the 2025 season. The rule: putting supplied at least 40% of the winner's advantage over the field. This week: putting drove 49% of the advantage.

Winning-formula ledger for 2025 through this event: Putting-Fueled Win 7, Ball-Striking Blueprint 5, Mistake-Free Win 5, Final-Round Takeover 4, Driving Domination 1, Short-Game Survival 1, Unclassified 1.

We call this a Putting-Fueled Win, the label for any week where putting supplies at least 40% of the winner's advantage. This was the 7th of the 2025 season, more than any other archetype. Through the Charles Schwab Challenge the ledger read Putting-Fueled Win 7, Ball-Striking Blueprint 5, Mistake-Free Win 5, Final-Round Takeover 4, Driving Domination 1, Short-Game Survival 1, Unclassified 1.

What sets Griffin apart from the six earlier Putting-Fueled winners this season is what he did not need rescuing from. English, Hovland, Lee, Harman, Thomas and Straka each carried a category in the red: English -0.75, Lee -0.19, Harman -0.29 and Thomas -1.05, all off the tee, and Hovland -1.57 and Straka -1.02, both around the green. Griffin is the first Putting-Fueled winner of the season with all four categories positive. The putting itself was almost routine for that group, which averaged 6.9 strokes better than the field on the greens against his 6.5. What was unusual was everything else holding up too.

What this week added to the season

Across the 23 2025 winners before this one (20 with a strokes-gained record; the averages use those 20): average winning margin 1.9 strokes, average bogeys 6.3, average shares of advantage off the tee 15%, approach 38%, around the green 13%, putting 34%. This winner: margin 1, bogeys 7.

Across the 23 winners before this one in 2025, 20 of them with a full strokes-gained record and the averages built from those 20, the typical winning margin was 1.9 strokes and the typical bogey count 6.3. Griffin won by 1 with 7 bogeys: he made slightly more mistakes than the typical winner and won by less. It was a thinner margin than average, and it held anyway.

The Winner Database also holds a same-course comparison worth noting. The following year's Charles Schwab Challenge went to Russell Henley, also 12 under at Colonial, but by an entirely different formula: a Final-Round Takeover, with approach supplying 61% of his advantage and putting only 16%, close to the mirror image of Griffin's week. One course, two winners, two different recipes, a reminder that a single tournament's numbers describe that tournament and not the course's character. Griffin's other 2025 win, the World Wide Technology Championship that November, carries no strokes-gained record, so it cannot be compared category by category, but it was a Mistake-Free Win by 2 strokes, a different formula again.

The Data Action angle

The result line reads a 1-stroke win and a putter that led the way. The strokes-gained record shows something more specific: a player who was in the middle of the field with his approach play, 32nd of 78, in the exact category this season's winners depend on most, and who still put together the cleanest card of any Putting-Fueled winner in 2025. No leak to cover for. No single club doing the whole job by itself.

What the numbers do not say is why he won. With a margin of just 1 stroke and all four categories positive, no single category can be isolated as the reason: "putting is why he won" would be a story, not a measurement. What it can tell you is where the advantage came from and how much of it, 49% from the greens, 18% around them, 17% off the tee, 16% from approach. That distribution is the finding, and it does not stretch into a claim about what Colonial rewards. One winner's week is one data point, not a verdict on the course.

The amateur translation

What did the pro actually do? He put together a complete card and let the putter do more than its share: 20 birdies or better, 7 bogeys, only 1 blow-up all week, 6.5 strokes gained on the greens. The underlying scoring principle is the same one every week: manageable next shots, fewer recovery shots. On the greens that means the first putt's job is not to go in, it is to leave you nothing. A three-putt is a recovery shot on the nicest ground on the course, and it may be the most expensive mistake in your game, because nobody counts it the way they count a missed fairway.

At a 5 handicap, your leak is probably the long lag putt, not the short ones: slow it down before you worry about the line. At a 15, the bigger gain is not sinking more putts, it is three-putting less, and most players three-putt more than they realize because nobody writes it down. At a 25, you are probably not misreading the greens, you are hitting the ball the wrong speed, and speed is the read: get it to the hole and let the line take care of itself.

Homework, one item. for your next three rounds, every time you three-putt, write down how far the first putt was. Do not fix anything yet, just notice. That comes from Fred Shoemaker, the noticing does most of the teaching. Data Action Golf splits your three-putts by first-putt distance, the lag misses from the pressure misses, and Putting IQ teaches the physics under the read.

Three findings

1. Putting built the gap. 6.5 strokes better than the field, 3rd of 78, and 49% of his entire advantage, the largest share by any category this season.
2. The card had no leak to rescue. All four categories were positive, the first time this season a Putting-Fueled winner did not need a rescue from a weak spot.
3. Sunday was about holding on, not building. He led after 54 holes and closed with a 71 that gained only 0.1 strokes on the field, a lead protected rather than extended.

Better data, especially about that first putt, means better golf. This week, better golf meant a complete scorecard with one club doing more than its share.

How to read these numbers

Strokes gained figures are Data Golf's, summed over the winner's four rounds and stated against the field's average for each round, so a positive number is strokes better than the field. Field ranks compare the 78 players who completed all four rounds. "Share of advantage" is the Data Action Golf reading: a category's strokes gained as a percentage of the winner's total across the categories where he beat the field. The 2025 winner average share is the mean of that figure across the season's earlier winners with a strokes-gained record, so it moves as the season goes on. The winning-formula label is assigned by fixed rules checked in a set order; the first rule that fits wins, and the labels describe how one week's advantage was distributed, nothing more. These numbers describe this tournament. They do not predict the next one. Full method: how Data Action Golf reads a winner and what strokes gained measures.