Grayson Murray's parents said Sunday their 30-year-old son committed suicide, only a day after he withdrew from a PGA Tour event. The family asked for privacy and for people to honor Murray by being kind to 1 one other.
“If this is his legacy, we couldn’t ask for anything else,” Eric and Terry Murray said in an announcement released by the PGA Tour.
Murray, a two-time PGA Tour winner, spoke in regards to the turning point in his life, his golf and his battle with alcoholism and mental health problems after his victory on the Sony Open in Honolulu in January. He died on Saturday morning.
Murray needed to undergo the Korn Ferry Tour to get his PGA Tour card back, after which he made a birdie on the ultimate hole on the Sony Open to get into the playoff and made a 40-foot birdie putt on the primary extra hole for an emotional win.
“It's not easy,” Murray said immediately after his victory. “I wanted to give up many times. Give up on myself. Give up on golf. Sometimes give up on life.”
Murray finished forty third on the PGA Championship last week, maintaining his position in the highest 60 and securing a spot in next month's U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in his native North Carolina.
He shot 68 within the opening round at Colonial. He was 5 over par in the subsequent round and had three bogeys in a row when he retired as a result of illness.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said he had spoken to Murray's parents about pausing play at Colonial and so they had insisted the golf tournament should proceed.
Monahan flew to Fort Worth, Texas, to be with the players, lots of whom wore black and red pins on their hats in honor of Murray on Sunday. Those are the colours of the Carolina Hurricanes, his favorite NHL team.
“We have spent the last 24 hours trying to accept the fact that our son is gone. It is surreal that we have to not only admit it to ourselves but also share it with the world. It is a nightmare,” his parents said of their statement.
“We have so many questions that have no answers. But one. Was Grayson loved? The answer is yes. By us, by his brother Cameron, his sister Erica, his entire extended family, by his friends, by his teammates and – it seems – by many of you reading this. He was loved and we will miss him.
“Life wasn’t always easy for Grayson and although he took his own life, we know he is now resting in peace.”
Grayson was a raw talent after starting to play golf at age 8. He won his age group three years in a row at the prestigious World Junior Championship in San Diego. But he struggled to find his feet in college, going to Wake Forest, East Carolina and then Arizona State.
His first coach was Ted Kiegel in North Carolina, who, like so many others, was devastated.
“Words cannot express the tragedy of this moment,” Kiegel said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Grayson got here from an peculiar world and made it EXTRAORDINARY. … He burned brightly within the 30 years he gave us.”
Murray won the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky as a 22-year-old rookie and gradually became frustrated that he was not improving as quickly as others he regularly defeated as an amateur.
He has always spoken openly about depression and anxiety, as well as his addiction to alcohol. One of his darkest moments came at the 2021 Sony Open, when he was suspended for an incident at a bar in Hawaii. Murray posted on social media: “Why was I drunk? Because I'm a (expletive) alcoholic who hates all the pieces to do with life on the PGA Tour and that is my scapegoat.”
He also accused the tour of not helping him adequately, which the tour denied.
Monahan said Saturday at Colonial that he called Murray immediately after that deployment and spent a lot of time with him afterward.
“I feel one in every of the weather of his legacy is his resilience,” Monahan said. “Think back to 2017 when he won the Barbasol Championship and was bouncing between the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour. … assessing himself, coming back, becoming a stronger person in his own eyes after which winning 3 times up to now yr.”
“For me, that’s a level of resilience that is extraordinary.”
When he won the Korn Ferry Tour last year, Murray said his parents “have mainly been through hell for me for the last six years and have struggled with some mental issues.”
“Everyone has their struggles,” Murray said a year ago. “Sometimes persons are capable of hide them and still function, and sometimes they're not. I feel our society is more accepting now that it's OK to not be OK. I've embraced that mentality. I'm not ashamed of going through depression and anxiety.”
He also used social media to connect with others struggling with similar issues in a sport where there are far more losses than victories.
Murray said in January after his victory at the Sony Open that he often felt like a failure who had wasted his talent.
“It was a horrible place, but like I said, you may have to have courage,” he said. “You should be willing to maintain going. And lo and behold, that's exactly what I did, and now I'm here. I'm so blessed and grateful.”
For him, winning the Sony Open – which allowed him to play in the Masters for the first time – was the beginning of a new chapter. He said he had become a Christian and was engaged to Christiana Ritchie. In January, he said the wedding had been planned for the end of April.
“My story isn’t over yet. I feel it’s just starting,” Murray said in Hawaii. “I hope that in the longer term I can encourage many individuals who’ve their very own problems.”
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