The Masters
Tour pro releases painful statement revealing that he did not, in fact, get into the Masters
Jonathan Bachman
Ben Griffin has tried like hell to play his way into the Masters field. He's played in all but two event in 2025, The Sentry (because he wasn't exempt) and the Puerto Rico Open (because he was playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational that same week). Griffin has played 12 straight weeks, even gutting out a T-7 at the American Express while severely under the weather.
The 28-year-old former loan officer started 2025 at the Sony Open ranked 68th in the world and needing one of two things to happen for him to gain entry into his first Masters Tournament: 1) Griffin could win a PGA Tour event, which comes with a Masters invite, or 2) be among the 50 leaders on the final Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the current Masters Tournament. That week, for those keeping track, is this week.
Surely, with his T-7 at AMEX and consecutive T-4s at the Mexico Open and the Cognizant Classic, Griffin would have done enough to climb 18 spots. He actually climbed 20 spots, sitting in 48th following the top five at PGA National. Unfortunately, a T-45 at Bay Hill and back-to-back missed cuts at the Players and the Valspar saw Griffin fall five spots back into 53rd with just one event remaining: last week's Texas Children's Houston Open.
Griffin made a valiant effort, tying for 18th thanks to a clutch final-round 65 that seemingly got him just inside the top 50. A few golf media outlets actually went ahead and published stories confirming Griffin had accomplished the impressive feat. Others, including Golf Digest relaying information from the PGA Tour, had reported prior to the tournament that all he needed was a solo finish of 28th or better. Some folks caught wind and began congratulating him on Sunday evening.
The story then took a dark twist: Griffin came up just short, his T-18 putting him 51st in the OWGR on Monday morning, not 50th. He then had to send out this brutal statement revealing he was not in the field:
Pain.
Luckily, Griffin does still have one final chance to grab a last-minute Masters spot. He must win this week's Valero Texas Open, his 13th consecutive PGA Tour start in 2025. If there was ever a time for the No. 13 to be lucky, it'd be now.