Who is Grayson Murray?

Is he the PGA tour's most outspoken and controversial figure?

Nicolas Passaglia & Manuel Ferrer
January 15, 2024

Hello and welcome to a new edition of GIR: Golf Interesting Reads. The best golf newsletter out there 🏌🏻‍♂️

Today we bring you a different post format by our guest author Manuel Ferrer, where he will answer the question:

Who is Grayson Murray?

Let us provide some context into one of the PGA tour's most outspoken and controversial figures and golf’s latest champion.

The 30-year-old golfer from Raleigh, North Carolina heroically conquered the Sony Open, defeating Ben An and Keegan Bradley on the first playoff hole, after carding a final round 67 - including a clutch birdie on the 18th hole, needed to get into the playoff.
Once he got onto the final stretch, Murray buried a 36-foot bomb for birdie, putting immense pressure on An who later missed a 4-footer and sealed Grayson’s first PGA tour win.

As exciting as winning a close 3 man playoff sounds, this isn't nearly the most interesting thing about Murray. He is raw, outspoken and a lot of times crosses the line of what's considered appropriate or even ok for a professional athlete to say.

Here are our top stories from golf’s latest champion:

He was put on probation three years ago by the tour after a drunken incident at a bar in Hawaii. When confronted by the press he said:

“Why was I drunk? Because I’m a fucking alcoholic that hates everything to do with the PGA Tour life and that’s my scapegoat.”

He accused the tour of providing no the appropriate support for its members with the following tweet:

“No the pga tour didn’t force me to drink. but the pga tour never gave me help. In my 5 years of experience of being on tour not once have i ever had a request been acknowledged by the commissioner or the PAC other than ‘we will get back to you’. I hope not only the PGA tour steps up in the areas they need to step up but i also hope people are held accountable in their roles they serve”

Speaking of money, Kip Henley, Murray's former caddie had an all-time response to his old boss’s win. Henley rode Murray’s bag last year, winning twice on the Korn Ferry tour, but still found himself fired in November. Two months later, his former boss wins, earning his current caddy a 150-grand bonus - enough to drive anyone crazy. Kip's response?

“Ouchy”

There is so much more to cover, from blaring tweets supporting former US president Donald Trump, to online beef with Kevin Na (from all people in the world, weird), to a deleted creepy tweet at a teenager. Murray is divisive, outspoken, and controversial.

We may not agree with him, or even like his personality and opinions, but have nothing but respect for someone who overcame alcoholism, fought his way back onto the tour, and wins in epic fashion. I don’t know if we need to go this crazy, but golf needs stronger personalities and less bland cookie-cutter pros.

Note: with fewer starts on the PGA tour we may have more of this type of content. Here is to a year with more interesting stories

Note 2: Murray joins Chris Kirk as the second guy in a row who wins a golf tournament after struggling with substance abuse. Shame DJ is no longer on the tour, we would have a better chance of stringing three in a row.

Hole-in-one shoutout

Congratulations to Guido Sargiotto (+1 handicap) who scored a hole-in-one on Sunday, January 14th at Cordoba Golf Club on the 8th hole.

That wraps up today's golf story!

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And if you hit a hole-in-one, submit proof and you will be featured and get a shoutout in the next edition. Thanks for joining – happy golfing!