Grayson Murray’s dad and mom say the two-time PGA Tour winner died of suicide

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story features a dialogue of suicide. When you or somebody you already know wants assist, the nationwide suicide and disaster lifeline within the U.S. is on the market by calling or texting 988. There may be additionally a web based chat at 988lifeline.org.

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FORT WORTH, Texas — Grayson Murray’s dad and mom stated Sunday their 30-year-old son took his personal life, simply in the future after he withdrew from a PGA Tour occasion. The household requested for privateness and that folks honor Murray by being type to 1 one other.

“If that turns into his legacy, we might ask for nothing else,” Eric and Terry Murray stated in an announcement launched by the PGA Tour.

Murray, a two-time PGA Tour winner, spoke in January after successful the Sony Open in Honolulu about turning the nook in his life, his golf and battles with alcoholism and psychological well being. He died Saturday morning.

Murray needed to undergo the Korn Ferry Tour to get his PGA Tour card again. After which he birdied the final gap on the Sony Open to get right into a playoff, and made a 40-foot birdie putt on the primary further gap for an emotional win.

“It is not simple,” Murray stated instantly after successful. “I needed to surrender a number of occasions. Surrender on myself. Surrender on the sport of golf. Surrender on life, at occasions.”

Murray tied for forty third final week within the PGA Championship, which enabled him to carry his place among the many high 60 to earn a spot within the U.S. Open subsequent month at Pinehurst No. 2 in his native North Carolina.

He shot 68 within the opening spherical at Colonial. The subsequent spherical, he was 5 over and coming off three straight bogeys when he withdrew citing an sickness.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan stated he spoke with Murray’s dad and mom about halting play at Colonial they usually insisted the golf event proceed.

Monahan flew to Fort Price, Texas, to be with gamers. A lot of them wore black-and-red pins on their caps Sunday in honor of Murray. These are the colours of the Carolina Hurricanes, his favourite NHL staff.

“We’ve spent the final 24 hours attempting to return to phrases with the truth that our son is gone. It is surreal that we not solely need to admit it to ourselves, however that we additionally need to acknowledge it to the world. It is a nightmare,” his dad and mom shared of their assertion.

“We’ve so many questions that don’t have any solutions. However one. Was Grayson beloved? The reply is sure. By us, his brother Cameron, his sister Erica, all of his prolonged household, by his associates, by his fellow gamers and — it appears — by lots of you who’re studying this. He was beloved and he shall be missed.

“Life wasn’t all the time simple for Grayson, and though he took his personal life, we all know he rests peacefully now.”

Grayson was a uncooked expertise after taking on golf at age 8. He received his age division three straight years on the prestigious Junior World Championship in San Diego. However he struggled to slot in in school, going to Wake Forest, East Carolina after which Arizona State.

His first coach was Ted Kiegel in North Carolina, who like so many others was devastated.

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“Phrases can not specific the tragedy of this second,” Kiegel stated in an announcement despatched to The Related Press. “Grayson got here from one thing that was bizarre and made it EXTRAORDINARY. … He burned vivid for the 30 years he gave us.”

Murray received as a 22-year-old rookie on the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky, and frustration started to set in as he did not enhance as rapidly as others whom he routinely beat as amateurs.

He was all the time open about melancholy and nervousness, and his bouts with alcohol. Certainly one of his darker moments was on the Sony Open in 2021 when he was suspended for an incident in a Hawaii bar. Murray took to social media to say, “Why was I drunk? As a result of I am a (expletive) alcoholic that hates every part to do with the PGA Tour life and that is my scapegoat.”

He additionally accused the tour of not giving him correct assist, which the tour denied.

Monahan stated Saturday at Colonial that he referred to as Murray proper after that posting and subsequently spent a number of time with him.

“I feel one of many parts of his legacy is his resiliency,” Monahan stated. “So that you consider going again to 2017, successful the Barbasol Championship, going forwards and backwards between the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour. … self-assessing, coming again, turning into in his personal eyes a stronger human being, after which successful 3 times previously yr.

“To me, that is a stage of resiliency that’s extraordinary.”

When he received on the Korn Ferry Tour final yr, Murray talked about his dad and mom having “been by hell and again principally for the final six years for me combating some psychological stuff.”

“Everybody has their battles,” Murray stated a yr in the past. “Typically persons are in a position to cover them and performance, and generally you are not. I feel our society now’s getting higher about accepting that it is OK to not be OK. I’ve embraced that mentality. I am not ashamed that I am going by melancholy and nervousness.”

He additionally used social media to succeed in out to others coping with comparable points in a sport the place shedding takes place excess of successful.

Murray stated in January after he received the Sony Open that he usually felt like a failure who had wasted his expertise.

“It was a nasty place, however like I stated, it’s a must to have braveness,” he stated. “You need to have the willingness to maintain going. Lo and behold, that is what I did, and I am right here, and I am so blessed and I am grateful.”

He noticed that Sony Open victory — which received him into the Masters for the primary time — as the beginning of a brand new chapter. He stated he had change into a Christian and was engaged to Christina Ritchie. He stated in January the marriage had been deliberate for late April.

“My story is just not completed. I feel it is simply starting,” Murray stated in Hawaii. “I hope I can encourage lots of people going ahead which have their very own points.”