(Photo: USA Today, 247Sports)

Ben Griffin was selected to the United States Ryder Cup Team on Wednesday by the team’s captain, Keegan Bradley.  

Griffin is a graduate of East Chapel Hill High School, and the University of North Carolina in 2018.  He was named two-time Honorable Mention All-American, and left with the lowest scoring average in program history which was previously set by Davis Love III. 

The 29 year old finished tied for tenth place in the 2025 PGA Tour FedEx Cup race.  Griffin won two tournaments which were the first two of his career.  He broke the ice late in April at the Zurich Classic.  He and Andrew Novak took first place in the New Orleans team event. 

His first career singles win came four tournaments later at the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.  He finished at 12 under par to best Matti Schmid by a stroke.

Griffin went into the early summer as the hottest golfer on tour outside of Scottie Scheffler.  Perhaps the most notoriety he picked up during the season was the following week after the Charles Schwab was the following week at the Memorial.  He finished second to the world’s best player in the Sunday final pairing. 

The Tar Heel made the cut in 22 out of 28 tournaments.  He finished in the top-25 on 15 occasions which was over half the time.  He made the top-10 an even ten times.  He earned $9,990,352 in 2025.  He also finished as the ninth-ranked American in the Ryder Cup race.      

Griffin entered the season in January at No. 64 in the OWGR rankings.  He has now currently climbed to No. 17 thanks to his stellar play over the past few months.  Another indication of his rise on the world golfing stage is that he did not qualify for The Masters in April.  He still had strong major tournament showings.  Griffin finished tied for eighth place at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, and tied for tenth at the U.S. Open.     

Griffin was selected with one of the six captain’s picks by Bradley.   There were six original automatic picks on the twelve man team that consisted of Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English, and Bryson DeChambeau.  On Wednesday, Bradley added Griffin, Cameron Young, Sam Burns, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, and Patrick Cantlay.     

The Ryder Cup takes place every two years with each team hosting on a rotating basis.  This time it will take place on September 26-28 at the Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, New York between the American and European teams.  The Euros have won seven of the last ten events, but the U.S. team has taken the last two matchups in the states  at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, and Whistling Straits in Mosel, Wisconsin.   

Griffin is the first alumni from the University of North Carolina to play in the Ryder Cup since Davis Love III who competed six times, and was a non-playing captain on two other occasions.  Love had a career event record of 9-12-5.  He was an impressive 3-1-2 in singles competition.  He was on the winning team as a player in 1993 and 1999, and was the victorious US captain in 2016. 

Not many remember that Raymond Floyd enrolled for a semester at UNC in the fall of 1960.  He went on to appear in eight Ryder Cups.  He had an incredible 12-5-3 singles record, and went 10-11-0 in team events.  He was on the winning side in 1969, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1983, 1985, and captained his way to another title in 1989.  Â