Golf world mourns death of Grayson Murray: ‘It’s a huge loss for all of us on the PGA Tour’

Peter Malnati played the first two days of this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge alongside Grayson Murray, who withdrew after 16 holes in Round 2 due to illness.

After learning Murray’s death earlier Saturday morningand after completing his third round at Colonial Country Club, Malnati spoke with Amanda Balionis of CBS Sports.

“It’s a huge loss for all of us on the PGA Tour,” said a shocked Malnati. “As much as we want to beat each other, we are one big family, and we lost one today. It’s terrible.”

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said he learned of Murray’s death around 11 a.m. Monahan said he spoke to Murray’s family and then went to Ft. Worth, Texas.

Three years ago, Murray, who had publicly battled alcohol and mental health issues, posted on social media that he felt the Tour was not doing enough to help players dealing with illnesses like his.

Monahan told the assembled media at Colonial that he and Murray had had several positive conversations since then.

‘When Grayson said that, I called him straight away. You know, over the last few years I’ve spent a lot of time with him because I wanted to understand what, in his opinion, we could do to help everyone else here,” Monahan said Saturday.

“I am devastated by the loss of Grayson. Through the conversations I have had with him, especially over the past year, I have learned a lot from him. He was very open and transparent with me.”

In January, Murray won the Sony Open, his first PGA Tour victory in almost seven years. Then he spoke of greater triumphs, saying he had been sober for eight months, got engaged and became a Christian.

“You look at Grayson and you see someone who has visibly and outwardly struggled in the past, and he’s been open about it,” Malnati said. “And then you see him bring his life back to a place where it makes him feel good about things… it’s so sad.”

The devastation Malnati and Monahan felt rippled through the golf community. These are just some of the responses from those mourning the loss of the 30-year-old:

“Obviously the news hasn’t really sunk in yet, but I’m thinking of his family and praying hard for them all. I can’t imagine how difficult this is. I got to know Grayson a little better. for the past six months and yeah, actually there’s not really a way to put into words how sad and tragic it is, but I’m thinking about his family. – Scottie Scheffler

“My husband has lived a hard life. His struggles are over and I know he is no longer in pain. I hate to lose someone who, no matter what people said, was always so wonderful to me. RIP brother.” — Will Zalatoris

“I think I first met Grayson at my home club when Grayson was probably 8 years old, maybe 9. He was the first winner of the Webb Simpson Challenge Junior Tournament that I’ve had for 14 years. So when you hear news like that over the phone you initially think it’s not real, and you know, you hear the emotion coming out of us [once shared] swing coach [Ted Kiegiel] and then you realize it’s real. But I know his mom was with him at the Wells Fargo championship and I think they hung out together, and I loved those two days we had [grouped] together. So I’m very grateful that I had a nice time with him before today’s bad news.” – Webb Simpson