Anyone who watches golf on a week-to-week basis has seen a lot of Ben Griffin lately. And the journey to this point in his career is nothing short of remarkable.
After a fantastic run at the University of North Carolina, the Chapel Hill native struggled in the early years of his professional career. Things got so bad that Griffin famously even quit the game in 2021 and made a living as a loan officer at a mortgage company in his home state.
But that seems like a lifetime ago now, as the 29-year-old is now a two-time PGA Tour winner and the 24th-ranked player in the world.
Griffin picked up his first PGA Tour victory at the end of April, winning the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the only team event on the schedule, alongside Andrew Novak.
A few weeks later, he notched his first top-10 finish at a major, tying for eighth at the PGA Championship. Just one week later, he recorded his first solo victory on the PGA Tour, taking the title at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
And now, he's in contention yet again at the Memorial Tournament, getting himself into the final group on Sunday with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
So, again, Griffin has been highly visible over the last couple of months. As such, it's been impossible not to notice the aviator-like sunglasses he wears on the course, which he's been doing full-time for about a year now. But this isn't a fashion thing; it's a necessity.
Following his third round at Muirfield Village on Saturday, Griffin was asked about his shades and revealed that he has extremely poor vision, explaining that he was even in danger of losing his eyesight at one point.
"I see floaters. I have really bad vision," Griffin said, telling the media that an eye doctor told him about a year ago that his retina was starting to detach itself.
"I had retinal holes, so I had to go get basically laser surgery to fill in those holes," said Griffin. "I had eight retinal holes in both eyes, so I was at risk of losing vision maybe within five or six months had I not gotten the treatment."
Well, that's quite terrifying, isn't it?
Thankfully, he caught the issue when he did, but the floaters will continue to be a problem.
"So I still see the floaters, I had to get the surgery just to maintain my level. Because of that when I wear sunglasses it's a little bit darker out, so I don't necessarily see the floaters as well. So if it's really bright out and I'm not wearing the sunglasses, I look into the clouds or whatever and I see black stuff everywhere."
An added bonus in Griffin's glasses, which are an Asian brand called Uswing Mojing, is apparently the ability to read greens a bit better.
"There's a few different golfers, professional golfers that wear 'em across all different tours. And they have this -- they say the science behind 'em kind of helps with green reading, and I think it's 100 percent true," Griffin said.
"I love the ability to see the contrast a little bit better than when it's really bright, it's kind of hard to see maybe grain changes from time to time. So seeing contours is definitely a little bit easier, I think, with the sunglasses. And now, I mean, I guess I'm getting to the point where I have more and more fans and people like it, so I'm not going to stop wearing 'em, that's for sure."