Sports
This pro is going the gear free agent route, except for this one piece
Ben Griffin won’t call himself a gear nerd and he doesn’t like to tinker with his setup, but he does love to test.
“I’m friends with a lot of the reps out here on Tour, and I like going into the trucks and talking with them and learning about their new equipment,” Griffin told GOLF earlier this month. “I’m open more than other players to just hit products for different companies, maybe to give them feedback or whatever. So I’m just more open that way.
“I’m not really trying necessarily to change anything, but I’m just testing for fun,” he continued. “Just to see what’s out there. And if something is significantly better, I’m not afraid to make that switch.”
That’s what he was doing Monday of the WM Phoenix Open this year, testing Ping’s new G440 K driver with different shafts, seeing if anything could beat his gamer. By the end of that session, despite seeming like he had the new 440 K grooved, he seemed inclined to keep his older G430 Max 10K in the bag. That club led him to the best season of his career in 2025, winning his first three PGA Tour titles.
Three days later, on Thursday, he reversed course and the new 440 K was in the bag.
That’s the freedom Griffin has now, as a gear-free agent after previous contracts with Mizuno and UST Mamiya golf shafts expired at the end of last season. The world’s 11th-ranked player can play whatever clubs he likes this year.
But there’s one spot in the bag where Griffin is locked in and it’s the piece of gear that he believes is the most important in the game: his golf ball.
Earlier this season, Griffin signed a three-year extension with Maxfli, now part of Dick’s Sporting Goods, as the company’s only golf ball endorser on the PGA Tour.
“It’s the one product that I definitely believe in the most,” Griffin said. “Since I kind of got started using the Maxfli product, it’s just been like a super natural fit. It’s also been kind of a part of my brand out here on Tour. Everyone kind of refers to me as a guy who plays a Maxfli.”
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Griffin only started considering using a Maxfli golf ball two years ago when he saw Lexi Thompson become the LPGA’s only Maxfli endorser in 2024. He signed with the company later that spring.
Since then, he’s gradually risen from a scrappy journeyman young tour pro who briefly gave up the competitive game and got into the mortgage business to a U.S. Ryder Cup team member and one of the best on the PGA Tour.
It could have been assumed that Griffin, then a second-year PGA Tour pro when he signed with the company, was doing it just for the money. But he said the decision was based on both the performance of the ball and how the brand aligned with his values.
“I’m not trying to just partner with this person because they’re paying me X amount or try to sell a spot on my bag because I have it open,” he said. “I want to partner with companies that I believe in and companies that I can associate myself with and use their products, and Maxfli aligned perfectly for that.
“It’s funny, when you first start on Tour, you’re almost seeking sponsors. Now I’m at the point where I have a lot of options in front of me, and it doesn’t come down to money.”
In some ways, Maxfli’s story of reintroduction to professional golf through himself, Thompson and PGA Tour Champions player Fred Funk, mirrors Griffin’s own comeback story before he earned his PGA Tour card on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2022.
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That isn’t lost on him.
“It’s a really good product that kind of got a little bit lost in time with the way the economics worked with the company dating back to the 1990s,” he said. “Now with what Dick’s is doing, they’re really trying to make a push and a comeback, and it resonates really well with me and my story of making a comeback to professional golf.”
Partnering with Maxfli and not a brand with a whole line of clubs allows him the freedom and flexibility that he wouldn’t otherwise have if he were locked in to 8-, 10- or 14-club contract.
“I have six categories I think about (driver, fairway woods, irons, wedges, putter, and golf ball) and I believe in the Maxfli ball the most of any product, so I’ve already got that locked down,” he said. “That’s never going to change.”
It also allowed him to create a ball that fit his specific needs, which the company did with a new Maxfli Tour X-LS golf ball. The new model keeps the same feel and high speed Griffin loves from the Tour X, but lowers spin at the top end of the bag, giving Griffin the freedom to swing away and not worry about spin going out of control.
If a golf ball is the most important part of the bag, Griffin’s does exactly what he wants it to do and, from there, he can choose the 14 clubs that best complement it.
Best for golfers seeking more spin and speed with a higher launch, from every club in their bag.
Maxfli Tour X Golf Balls
His bag this season remains largely unchanged, and what has changed, he simply describes as updating to a newer model, as he did with his driver. He still has TaylorMade Qi10 fairway woods and he’s still playing Mizuno Pro S-3 irons, although his 3- and 4-irons are the newer and more forgiving M-13, recent additions for this season. He did finally move away from a Scotty Cameron blade putter to a TaylorMade Spider at the end of last season, but he won with that too.