Grayson Murray (-17) achieved his second career victory on the PGA Tour this Sunday. Six and a half years after his first win at the Barbasol Championship, the 30-year-old golfer from Raleigh, North Carolina, triumphed at the Sony Open in Hawaii with a thrilling three-way playoff against Keegan Bradley (-17) and Byeong Hun An (-17), giving himself a second chance in elite professional golf… and in life.
Because, as fate would have it, three years ago in Hawaii, where he now savours the taste of success alongside his fiancée, the person who has accompanied, supported and helped him out of a very delicate personal situation (he plans to marry in April, although he may have to postpone the wedding after securing an exemption for the Masters), a dark spiral began for Grayson, a personal nightmare that nearly ended his career and perhaps something more.
39 FEET FOR THE WIN!
Grayson Murray is victorious @SonyOpenHawaii in dramatic fashion! pic.twitter.com/C86sTS4O7a
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 15, 2024
Not much is known about the night everything started to go wrong for Murray. A lot of alcohol was involved, an incident in a hotel bar in Waialae, a hearing with the PGA Tour directors before he was put on probation, and a few months later, some very worrying statements that seemed to indicate his situation was simply dramatic.
“Why was I drunk? Because I’m a damn alcoholic who hates everything about life on the PGA Tour and that’s my escape route,” he posted on a social network. A way to escape from a complicated sporting situation, after three months without making a cut on the tour and with his status in the FedEx Cup up in the air. “No, the PGA Tour didn’t force me to drink, but they never helped me. In my five years of experience on the circuit, not once did the commissioner or the PAC give me an answer other than ‘we will get in touch with you’,” he said.
The PGA Tour denied these words from Murray, who finally found help by checking into a treatment centre for alcoholism, stopping playing for the rest of 2021 and trying to return a year later, with ups and downs, in search of regaining the life he had lost. In 2023, at last, he seemed to find in his family and, above all, in his fiancée the inspiration to make an effort, stop drinking (this week he confessed to being eight months sober) and strive to try to be that promising young player again.
He worked intensively, both on the field and mentally. He won the AdventHealth Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. He repeated in September at the Simmons Bank Championship. And with one of the 30 PGA Tour cards for the top 30 of the second division of American golf in his pocket, he showed up this week in Hawaii, where his life started to go wrong, with the intention of turning it around 180 degrees. And he certainly did. Big time.
Four rounds under 70 strokes, with a sensational 63 on Friday and a great 64 on Saturday, allowed him to go out today in the star match, sharing the lead with Keegan Bradley. And although in the desperate race for the first ‘regular’ victory of 2024 (first tournament after the champions), with countless alternatives at the top of the leaderboard, he had to live through some difficult moments, he resolved them like a champion, with two moments that will forever be etched in his memory.
The first, after a bad start on hole 18, the 72nd for him in the tournament, sending his ball to the rough and forced to recover to the fairway without the option of reaching the green in two. There he pulled out a spectacular iron shot, leaving the ball stuck half a metre from the flag, to make an impressive birdie that, after Bradley missed an eight-metre putt that could have given him the win, allowed him to sign a 67-stroke card to get into the title playoff.
Keeping hope alive!
Grayson Murray goes right at it for a chance to tie the lead @SonyOpenHawaii. pic.twitter.com/I4aqXIRoaW
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 15, 2024
South Korean Byeong Hun An had become the ‘outsider’ capable of coming back in the final round to dream of victory, with a sensational round of 64 strokes. And he was the one who seemed to have the win in the bag in the playoff, again on the par five of the 18th, with a good start, to the first cut of rough, and a second shot that, although it didn’t reach the green, did get quite close and allowed him to chip to leave himself a putt of just over a metre for birdie.
Bradley, who had found the centre of the fairway from the tee, executed a catastrophic second shot, sending his ball to the stands, with the fortune of being able to drop without penalty in a rough-free zone. But his third shot fell too short. Meanwhile, Murray, whose ball had gone to the tall grass far to the left off the tee, was forced to repeat strategy, recovering to the fairway, but without the same precision on his third shot, so he seemed to be out of the running.
There, at the most unexpected moment, good old Grayson rose from his ashes and managed to leave behind with a stratospheric putt, from more than 12 metres, three years of suffering, treatments, doubts and misunderstanding. An unexpected and celebrated birdie that gave him the opportunity to continue in the fight. Keegan missed and was eliminated. And when everything pointed to a second playoff, the South Korean missed his ‘match ball’, giving Murray his most coveted and celebrated victory.
To extend the playoff, Ben An narrowly missed from 4 feet. pic.twitter.com/e4QhzA5vnA
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 15, 2024
Two more years on the PGA Tour card (three, in fact, because they would start in 2025 and this season is assured), a place in the upcoming designated events, with high purses, and among other exemptions, access to the Augusta Masters next April, the month in which he planned to get married. “Today I learned that hard work pays off. It hasn’t been easy, you know? I wanted to give up many times, give up on myself, give up on golf, give up on life sometimes. And I just persevered. When you get tired of fighting, let someone else fight for you, and that’s what happened,” he said just after winning.
“Jesus Christ is first and foremost. Without him, none of this would be possible. And he just gave me a chance to write a new story. Write my own story. And I hope that everyone at home watching can be a little inspired by me. If it helps even one person, that’s all I need,” he confessed.
Writing a new story.
Grayson Murray was emotional as he remembers the road that brought him to victory @SonyOpenHawaii. pic.twitter.com/v20ff6vX2m
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 15, 2024
“I knew today wasn’t going to change my life. My fiancée was the one who changed my life. Jesus Christ changed my life. Today wasn’t going to change, but it did change my career. And I’m really excited,” concluded the brilliant winner of the Sony Open, who also awaits the THE PLAYERS, along with the best of the tour, and the PGA Championship. What Hawaii took away, Hawaii gives back in abundance. Such is life and golf.
