Photo by Tim Heitman/Getty Images
Grayson Murray played on the Korn Ferry and PGA Tour. Both took time on Sunday to honor his life after he passed on Saturday.
Grayson Murray played on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour. On Saturday, the news broke that Murray passed away, and it shocked the sports world. His parents updated the golf world on Sunday and said Murray took his own life.
Murray’s favorite NHL hockey team is the Carolina Hurricanes. On Sundays, he wore red and black to show off his fandom. His parents asked PGA Tour players to wear red or black pins on their hats to honor him during the fourth round of the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Players are wearing red and black ribbons on Sunday at the @CSChallengeFW to honor Grayson Murray.
Murray wore the colors of his hometown Carolina Hurricanes, when competing on Sundays.
His family requested that ribbons with the same colors be worn Sunday. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/zS3V0pwW0N
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 26, 2024
The Korn Ferry Tour also took time before starting the final round of the Visit Knoxville Open. Players observed a moment of silence after the final group teed off.
These two simple actions did not take much to do, but they still chose to do them.
Murray was a stand-out player throughout his life. He won three straight Callaway Junior World Championships from 2006-08. The former Arizona State golfer made his first cut on the Korn Ferry Tour at 16 years old, making him the second youngest.
In 2016, a Korn Ferry Tour event in his hometown of Raleigh, N.C., gave him a sponsor exemption. He finished inside the Top 10 at the Rex Hospital Open, then followed it up with a Top 10 at the BMW Charity Pro-AM. From there, his professional career took off.
That year, he won the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship to finish runner-up on the money list. However, it earned him full status for the 2016-17 PGA Tour season. He would win the 2017 Barbasol Championship at 23 years old. Murray secured a two-year exemption on the Tour and finished 66th in the FedEx Cup race.
He struggled the next few seasons but found his game last year on the Korn Ferry To r. Murray won twice — the Advent Health Championship in Kansas City and the Simmons Bank Open outside Nashville.
Those two victories helped him finish fourth on the money list and earn a spot back onto the PGA Tour. He opened the 2024 season with a playoff win over Byeong Hun An and Keegan Bradley at the Sony Open in Ha aii. That victory vaulted him to a career-high 46th in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
