NOTE: The following article contains references to suicide. Please read at your own discretion.
The parents of Grayson Murray said the 30-year-old pro golfer died by suicide on Saturday morning, just one day after he withdrew from a PGA tournament citing health reasons.
Murray, a two-time PGA Tour champion, was open about his struggles with mental health and alcoholism.
“Life wasn’t always easy for Grayson, and although he took his own life, we know he rests peacefully now,” Eric and Terry Murray wrote of their son’s death in a statement shared by the PGA Tour.
“Please respect our privacy as we work through this incredible tragedy, and please honor Grayson by being kind to one another. If that becomes his legacy, we could ask for nothing else.”
The commissioner of the PGA Tour, Jay Monahan, said he was “devastated to learn” of Murray’s death.
“The PGA Tour is a family, and when you lose a member of your family, you are never the same,” he said.
Last week, Murray played in the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial. He shot 68 in the opening round and was 5 over in the next round when he withdrew, citing an illness, on Friday. The next day he was found dead.
The tournament will continue despite his death, Monahan announced.
“I reached out to Grayson’s parents to offer our deepest condolences, and during that conversation, they asked that we continue with tournament play,” Monahan said. “They were adamant that Grayson would want us to do so. As difficult as it will be, we want to respect their wishes.”
Murray won the Barbasol Championship in 2017 as a 22-year-old rookie, an achievement he called the “best thing and worst thing that ever happened to me,” in a news conference in January. The golfer disclosed that he would drink during tournaments because he felt “invincible.”
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After this early career high, Grayson encountered road bumps on the PGA circuit. In 2021, he was suspended by the PGA for an alcohol-related incident at a hotel bar in Hawaii. He wrote on social media at the time that he was an “alcoholic that hates everything to do with the PGA Tour life and that’s my scapegoat.” He also accused the tour of not giving him proper help, which the tour denied.
Murray briefly lost his PGA Tour card for the 2023 season due to his declining performance on the circuit. He was demoted to the Korn Ferry Tour, where he won two tournaments and regained his PGA eligibility.
In January this year, Murray won the Sony Open in a triumphant return to the circuit, marking his second PGA Tour win. He made a 40-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole of the playoff for an emotional win.
“It’s not easy,” Murray said immediately after winning. “I wanted to give up a lot of times. Give up on myself. Give up on the game of golf. Give up on life, at times.”
Grayson Murray poses with the Sony Open championship trophy after victory on the first play-off hole during the final round play at the Waialae Country Club on Jan. 14, 2024 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
In a news conference after the victory, Murray revealed that he had been sober for eight months.
“I’m a different man now, and I would not be in this position right now, today, if I didn’t put that drink down eight months ago,” he said.
Murray was known to wear red and black, the colours of his favourite NHL team, the Carolina Hurricanes, when competing on Sundays. In honour of Murray, many PGA golfers were seen wearing red and black pins in their caps for the final day of the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge. Davis Riley ended up winning the tournament on Sunday.
“I think one of the elements of his legacy is his resiliency,” Monahan said. “So you think of going back to 2017, winning the Barbasol Championship, going back and forth between the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour … self-assessing, coming back, becoming in his own eyes a stronger human being, and then winning three times in the past year.
“To me, that’s a level of resiliency that is extraordinary.”
When he won on the Korn Ferry Tour last year, Murray talked about his parents having “been through hell and back basically for the last six years for me fighting some mental stuff.”
“Everyone has their battles,” Murray said a year ago. “Sometimes people are able to hide them and function, and sometimes you’re not. I think our society now is getting better about accepting that it’s OK to not be OK. I’ve embraced that mentality. I’m not ashamed that I go through depression and anxiety.”
He also used social media to reach out to others dealing with similar issues in a sport where losing happens far more than winning.
Murray said in January after he won the Sony Open that he often felt like a failure who had wasted his talent.
“It was a bad place, but like I said, you have to have courage,” he said. “You have to have the willingness to keep going. Lo and behold, that’s what I did, and I’m here, and I’m so blessed and I’m thankful.”
He saw that Sony Open victory — which got him into the Masters for the first time — as the start of a new chapter. He said he had become a Christian and was engaged. He said in January the wedding had been planned for late April.
“My story is not finished. I think it’s just beginning,” Murray said in Hawaii. “I hope I can inspire a lot of people going forward that have their own issues.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 911 for immediate help.
For a directory of support services in your area, visit the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.