Grayson Murray background and history in golf and life | This Week In Golf Jan 16-2024 with host Chris McKee @mrmckee on NewsTalk Sauga 960 in Toronto following his win at the Sony Open.
as mentioned off the top last week’s winner Chris Kirk has been very open and candid about his issues with alcohol and his depression and his recovery Kirk is about four or five years sober now so he’s a little bit more advanced than where Grayson Murray is this week’s winner Grayson Murray on the same path but he’s only eight months sober according to what he was saying this weekend so for those unfamiliar the 30-year-old Grayson Murr was once one of the best players in the world for his age winning the IMG Junior World titles in 2006 7 and 8 at 16 he became the second youngest to make the cut on a corn fairy Tour event and at 19 he played in the 2013 Us open at Marion and then on July 23rd 2017 he earned his first ever win on the PGA tour winning the barbasa championship but that’s when things started to go downhill from there and he was on a bit of a slippery slope the first time Murray said he probably should have gotten sober was when he spent a month as an inpatient at Betty Ford Minnesota that was 2 years ago but then he said you know after treatment I got out he did pretty well for a while and then like everyone you think you can go back to having a couple drinks and it was just a slippery slope and he got back into he said and then the second time when he might have straightened up was when he drove his rented scooter into oncoming traffic at the Butterfield Bermuda championship in the fall of 2022 he took 50 stitches and a bunch of them to his face and so still not the wakeup call he needed but then last April Murray was playing on his past Champion staus exemption of the winner of the 2017 barbasol he posted a first round 68 in Mexico and then the wheels fell off for him Murray said quote I went out to the pool played pool volleyball had a few too many and then woke up the next day before my round and started to chug some alcohol before the round just to get rid of the Jitters he went out there and shot like 80 according to reports he actually shot 79 he said shot 80 but then he got home had an anxiety attack that lasted 4 days he said it was the worst feeling ever and that’s when he decided to get some help well following his round this Saturday in Hawaii where Murray was tied for the lead heading into Sunday he spoke about his low points in the past and said he’s given up a few times before um you know I’ve been out here my rookie year was 2017 and uh I was young and thought I was invincible and um wasn’t doing the correct stuff off the court to uh to to really give myself the best chance to succeed out here and um over the years I’ve uh you know I I I’ve kind of given in I’ve given in a few times and then um you know right when I give try to give up it’s like uh you know someone gives me a little more inspiration saying hey you got it you can do it and um those are just the people that are close to me that I uh really lean on in hard times and um you know I just got to keep pushing through that’s the only way I know how well Grayson Murray also explain some of the low points he’s had in life prior to getting back on track yeah I mean I think there are multiple low points um my scooter accident in Bermuda was really a low point in my life and um you know I’ve obviously been vocal about the alcohol use in the past and um you know I’m over eight months sober now and um I have a beautiful fiance that I love so much and who’s so supportive of me and my parents are so supportive of me and um my caddy J is uh just one of my biggest cheerleaders and um it just makes everything so easy when I get out here inside the ropes um when all when everyone is just in my circle just really pulling for me and um and and you know they’re they’re they’re right there with me when uh I do have those hard days and I still have hard days but um I feel a lot more at peace inside the RS now well Marie seemed to leave all that behind him when on Sunday he ended up in a three-man playoff of the Sony Open along with byong Honan and Keegan Bradley on the first playoff hole Murray had a 38 and a half foot putt that would put him in a great spot to win and he stepped up and did [Music] this WOW Grayson Murray’s done it again sometimes it feels like it’s meant to be and watching Grayson Murray today that’s the feeling he might have and that a lot of people have well Keegan Bradley had a chance to tie but he couldn’t match Murray’s efforts so Murray gets his first win on the PGA tour since 2017 you know I I was just so fortunate to be in that situation I feel like um you know I think uh I think a lot of um a lot of things are going right in my life right now and I’m at peace and um I was at piece with the 40-footer in the playoff and um you know I expected Ben to make it and like I said this game’s crazy um but I knew I had to give it a chance I wasn’t going to leave it short and um you know obviously uh 100% of 100% of the puts that you leave short don’t go in so uh you know I just gave him my best stroke and obviously it went in but um yeah I stayed positive and um it’s all you can do you know I think um there’s so many ups and ups and down throughout the round and um you just got to play your game I know it’s so cliche but it’s true you just really have to focus in on what you’re trying to do and um know that uh you’re good enough is good enough well much like Chris Kirk you know Grayson Murray’s is not afraid to discuss his past and hopes maybe he can be a motivator for someone else out there going through the same thing yes I would I would drink during tournament weeks um it was my outlet I thought uh thought I was invincible coming out here as as a 22-year-old winning as a rookie um played three days hung over when I won um best thing and worst thing that ever happened to me was was winning my rookie year but also feeling like I was invincible and um you know I I it took me a long time to get to this point this was that was seven years ago over seven years ago and um I’m a different I’m a different man now and um I would not be in this position right now today if I didn’t uh you know put that drink down eight months ago you mentioned your faith and your girlfriend fian um and other support people uh were you ever in a program or anything like that to specifically for alcohol yeah I did go to rehab for uh for for the uh for a month and um it was by choice um it was time and um you know the Lord was looking out for me then and he’s definitely looking out for me now and U my my story is not finished uh I think it’s just beginning and I hope I can inspire a lot of people going forward that have uh that have their own issues well I mentioned a few moments ago about the touch of irony of Grayson Murray winning the same weekend that Rory mroy choked away his win over in Dubai so the issue with mroy and Murray happened at a meeting following the PGA Tour live golf merger announcement you know it was announced that the PGA Tour and live were going to merge and all the players met I believe that was right here in Toronto when all this happened and then the meeting got heated pretty quickly so according to reports during the meeting Murray reportedly told mroy who was one of the loudest detractors for Liv to f off that’s the quote he told him where to go and then according to a report from an anonymous PG Tour player quote Rory only responded to grayon when Grayson was going off on tangents Outburst saying things like we don’t trust you Jay you should resign now you lied to our face and he says I forgot exactly what led to this but Rory goes just play better Grayson and that got a bad response from the crowd so all the PJ tour players upset with Rory for you know trying to slag Grayson Murray uh and he’s saying you know go out and play better if you want things to change you know basically just kind of slagging J Monahan like a lot of players were feeling Murray was probably just one of the guys to openly say it and then Rory steps up trying to defend J Monahan and says play better so Murray definitely did play better this weekend I only wish Murray had gone on Twitter and posted video of Rory three putting from two feet to blow his WI with the caption just play better Rory but alas he didn’t he’s gone the high road I would imagine probably if Murray was still drinking he probably would have had a few on Sunday night and posted a video something like that but he’s not and so golf the golf world missed out on there but a lot of guys on Twitter were kind of going back and forth on this pointing out the heated rivalry between the two and the irony that Murray gets his win and uh Rory choked one away but still nice to see Grayson Murray get that win and get that monkey off his back and also get Rory mroy off his back as well
