Griffin Third at Sun Bowl Classic

University of North Carolina senior Ben Griffin shot a final-round 68 and finished tied for third at the Andeavor Sun Bowl All-America Classic held at the El Paso Country Club.

Texas's Doug Ghim, a finalist in the 2017 U.S. Amateur, won the event at 18 under after rounds of 67, 64 and 64. Texas Tech's Hurly Long was second at 16 under, and Griffin tied Vanderbilt's Will Gordon at 13 under.

Griffin shot 68-64 in Monday's first two rounds and had five birdies and two bogeys today in the third round to finish with a three-round total of 200. That is the second-lowest number of strokes in Griffin's career and the third-fewest in UNC history (he set the record at 197 in October in winning the Tar Heel Intercollegiate). His 13-under total for 54 holes equals the seventh-best tournament in Carolina history. Griffin lowered his career stroke average to 72.04, the lowest in school history.

Thirty of the top collegiate players in the country competed in the event.

"I played pretty solid the last two days and had a good shot at winning the tournament," says Griffin. "I gave myself a lot of good chances at birdies and only made a couple minor mistakes. All I needed was a few more putts to drop and I would've gotten it done. Overall, it was a great experience and I hope to build off of it heading into the spring season."

The Chapel Hill native was a shot off the lead and playing in today's final group. He birdied the second, fifth, eighth and ninth holes and was 3-under par on the front side, and had one birdie and a bogey on the back nine.

Ghim eagled the ninth hole to cap a 5-under par front side, then closed with birdies on three of the final five holes to win by two strokes.

Griffin's 64 in the second round was the second-lowest score of his college career. This was the second tournament this fall and fourth in his career in which he shot in the 60s in all three rounds.

"It's an honor to earn your way into this event and it's something that Ben has done twice," says Carolina head coach Andrew DiBitetto. "It's even better to take advantage of the opportunity to compete with some of the best players in the country and that's what Ben did. Ben's confidence should grow from his third-place finish and so should the rest of our guys since they all practice and compete with one another."

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