Ben Griffin’s career has made a sudden turn in the right direction during the past five weeks, and the former mortgage broker couldn’t be much happier.

Griffin got off to a fantastic start on Sunday with an eagle on the first hole and secured his first individual PGA Tour victory at the Charles Schwab Challenge, shooting 1-over-par 71 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

“So many people to thank,” Griffin said. “So many people in my corner. I’m very blessed.”

He finished at 12-under 268 for a one-stroke victory. Griffin clinched the result with a 4-foot par putt on the last hole.

“I felt pretty good over it,” Griffin said. “It was just a left edge and trust it, let it slide in there.”

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.

Bud Cauley shot 67 to move to third place at 9 under.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who was bidding for a third championship in as many outings, finished with 69, managing his only birdies on Nos. 1 and 11. That left him tied for fourth place at 8 under, joining England’s Tommy Fleetwood (68).

It’s the second victory in about a month’s span for Griffin, who combined with Andrew Novak to win April’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans team competition.

Griffin, 29, was playing his 94th PGA Tour tournament. A former University of North Carolina standout, he took a job as a mortgage broker as he waited for his golf career to get sorted out.

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 the PGA Tour, birdied the first hole but he was 3 over through six holes during an erratic round.

“It wasn’t a very good start, even though I don’t think I deserved to be 3-over (at that stage),” Schmid said. “I hit a lot of quality shots actually.”

His birdie on No. 16 as Griffin was taking a bogey closed the gap to one stroke. But Schmid ended up in the bunker on his approach at No. 17, leading to a bogey and a two-stroke gap. He said there were few good options coming out of the trap.

“I knew it would kind of come out hot,” Schmid said. “… At that point I just tried to make a 5, and thankfully I did it.”

Then Schmid holed out for birdie from the greenside rough at No. 18 to get back to 11 under and put pressure on Griffin to make his par.

Scheffler was trying to build off Saturday’s 64, calling the final round a challenging day in terms of scoring.

“Overall, three of the four days I played what I felt was pretty solid,” Scheffler said. “Just had one off day (on Friday), but outside of that, I did some good things this week as well.”

Gusting winds added to the calculations.

“On a day like today, there’s a little bit of luck involved as well,” Scheffler said.

Scheffler said it was an unusual week in terms of preparation coming off his victory in the PGA Championship. He said he’ll get back into a more normal routine after resting Monday.

Cauley was one of a handful of golfers with four sub-70 rounds. He was cruising Sunday until his only above-par mark on the scorecard, a double bogey at the par-3 13th.

“It’s obviously disappointing doubling 13 there,” Cauley said. “It’s not even so much swings. It’s decisions out there and trying to get over that hump. But happy with my game and just a couple of little things and get over the edge.”

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 5 under.

–Field Level Media