Ben Griffin believes an ‘overdose’ of creatine played a role in his difficult start during the final round of the BMW Championship on Sunday.
Griffin went 6-over through his first three holes at the FedExCup Playoffs event in Maryland, including a triple-bogey on the first.
He later said the issue may have stemmed from how and when he consumed his creatine supplement shortly before teeing off.
‘I take creatine as a supplement, and this morning I didn’t take it until I basically teed off on one,’ Griffin said.
‘I was at the end of my batch, and I had this like, basically a snowball of creatine. So it had been in my bucket for a month, and broke it up and put it in my water bottle.
Griffin said he began drinking the mixture after his second shot on the first hole, but accidentally swallowed a large undissolved clump of the supplement. That moment, he said, triggered an unexpected reaction.
‘I started taking it after my second shot and I accidentally swallowed one of the big rocks that was in my water bottle,’ he said.
‘I’ve never overdosed on creatine before, but I think I did in the moment because I didn’t really drink any water after that. I basically just inhaled like a snowball.’
Griffin said he quickly began to feel unwell, describing symptoms he hadn’t experienced before on the course.
‘I started getting super shaky,’ he said. ‘I’ve never felt like this before, and I literally felt like I had tremors.’
That type of start would doom just about any golfer, especially with a spot in the Tour Championship on the line.
But remarkably, Griffin managed to recover and, after the symptoms began to subside, he was able to settle back into his round.
‘It was probably more just like, a little bit flustered,’ Griffin said. ‘I was fine after the second shot on two, and I felt good.’
Griffin turned things around in impressive fashion. He closed his front nine with three consecutive birdies and added four more birdies over his final six holes to card a 1-under 69.
That brought him to 3-under for the week and moved him four spots up the leaderboard by the end of the day. He ultimately finished in a tie for 12th.
Looking back, Griffin said the experience has made him more mindful about supplement use during competition.
‘I don’t think I’ll be taking too much creatine in the future,’ he said. ‘I will take it but not in the amount that I probably did on the golf course, which wasn’t probably a healthy amount.’
