SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 15, 2026

Ben Griffin

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Ben, nice way to start the year, bogey-free 7-under 63. Just get some comments on your round.

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I felt like I was pretty fortunate to be bogey-free. I hit it in a lot of greenside bunkers today, but sand saves were very nice. Gave myself a lot of looks and took advantage of the fact there wasn't a ton of wind early on in our round. Got kind of windy in the middle and then right at the end the wind surprisingly came back down.

So I think there is probably a few more low scores out there. Yeah, very happy with my performance.

Q. How good does it feel to start the season with a round like this?

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, really good. You never really know what the first round back is going to feel like. It's been a couple months since I've competed out here. So played a decent amount at home and felt like I was playing will well. When you tee up in a TOUR event it always feels a little bit different.

So was really happy with my ball striking. Was happy with the way my overall game felt. Need to clean up a couple things, but overall really happy with the way I played.

Q. Obviously this course is setting up well for you. Talk a little bit about the conditions today and how it does set up for you.

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, I think the greens are a little bit softer than in year's past. There was a good amount rain that came through Hawai'i last week, so it's definitely changed a little bit from previous years. Allowed me to be a little more aggressive probably to certain pins, and the par-3s probably became a little bit easier, especially some of the long irons. Holding the greens felt easier to do.

So rough is definitely long. I hit a lot of fairways today. I missed one fairway and was in the first cut on 18 because I was just through. Drove it really nicely; that always helps.

And, yeah, greens aren't crazy fast yet. I'm sure they'll get there as the weekend looks like some really good weather. I'm sure this course will start to firm up a touch, but just recovering from a lot of the rain last week.

Q. You closed birdie, birdie. Take us through those two holes.

BEN GRIFFIN: Yeah, so No. 8 I hit a great tee shot. Was downwind, so we had played a good amount of par-4s on the front with some crosswinds, and it was nice to get up on to 8 tee box and know the wind was at our backs. Everyone in our group had great tee shots there.

That hole tends to be a mid-iron in and I was able to have a pitching wedge into that back left pin. The wind, again, kind of died down after I hit that tee shot, so felt like I could be pretty aggressive with the pitching wedge. Hit it in there to about ten feet and made a little left-to-righter.

And then No. 9 one the easiest par-5s probably on TOUR. It comes down to kind of hitting the fairway off the tee. Put it in the middle; didn't hit a great second shot. Put it in a bunker, but my bunker game was pretty good all day and felt confident getting one more up and down.

Scared the hole. Had a little tap-in, probably a six in putt or so.