The tragic and shocking death of Grayson Murray | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition, the guys discuss the tragic death of two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray, including reflections of their time covering him and the legacy he leaves. #GolfChannelPodcast #GolfChannel #GraysonMurray

Chapters:
0:00: The stunning, somber news that Grayson Murray died over the weekend
03:00: The deeper layers to Murray’s story
06:00: Player reaction to Murray’s death
10:00: Davis Riley wins Colonial, but was Scottie Scheffler distracted?
18:00: Updates to Scheffler’s case in Louisville
23:00: Busy week in golf upcoming … and something is “happening” with the Tour
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The tragic and shocking death of Grayson Murray | Golf Channel Podcast
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hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and lav unfortunately we have to start with the tragic news that has happened Rex over the weekend with two-time PJ tour winner Grayson Murray dead at the age of 30 his parents in a statement released to the PJ tour saying that Murray took his own life on Saturday morning just an unbelievably sad story here’s a player in Grayson Murray who won the Sony Open in January for his second PJ tour title was up to 58th in the world was having his best season as a pro he just made the cut in his two prior appearances the major championships this year he was exempt in the next month’s US Open he was sober for nearly a year engaged to be married in late April and Rex the circumstances are still unknown but Grayson Murray was one shot off the cutline this week when he pulled out of the Charles Schwab challenge with two holes to play with what the tour cited as an illness and now the news has come out on Sunday morning uh that Grayson muray died by Suicide what is your reaction to this impossibly tragic story I mean it was so sad and I’m going to actually clear the floor here because you knew him much better than I did you actually I went back and read the feature you did about uh two years ago three years ago now that that you wrot six or seven oh wow been a minute uh really good feature I would recommend everyone to go read it because it does paint the picture of sort of this really talented individual who was clearly dealing with a lot of things um and I immediately went back to at be Hill earlier this year in March I was working on a story specifically kind of June 6 going back to Canada I was just doing some outfront reporting trying to set some things up for what I think next week’s goingon to be like I’m gonna be in Canada next week and we all know what happened on June 6 the framework agreement and we also know that there was a player meeting that day and it was very heated it was very contentious the things we’ve learned since then it was actually more contentious than I think we initially reported but one of the exchanges was between Grayson and Rory maory and it was it was heated from everyone who I’ve talked to about it and so I wanted to talk to Grayson about it and again I’m not nearly as close with him as you are and I was a little apprehensive because you don’t know if he was going to be competitive you didn’t know if he just wanted to go away from this and I was so taken that he was willing to sit down and talk for 10 or 15 minutes about what was clearly a very sensitive subject but it’s the way he addressed the subject it was he no longer was coming at it from a player’s point of view he was very much looking at it from someone who he was on the player advisory Council he was more or less involved with the process now of what the tour is going to look like going forward and I was taken by how here is a person that was portrayed in one way in the media a bit of a hotthead sometimes a bit of a loose cannon some of the things that he did on social media and this version the version I talked to at be Hill the version you go back and read the transcripts from when1 at the Sony Open the version that seemed to have found peace in his life as you pointed out that’s not the player I think everyone knew that’s in my mind it’s always going to be tragic when someone decides that things are so bad that that the best option the only option is to take your own life but in this particular case it seems like he had figured everything out it certainly did uh one of the words that keeps coming up when you talk to Grace mer PJ T Piers was was misunderstood and that was one of sort of the themes of the in-depth profile that I wrote on Grayson in in 2017 and his parents even alluded to it uh today in the statement that they released saying that quote life wasn’t easy for Grayson and although he took his own life we know now that he rests peacefully when I wrote that story back in 2017 that was Grayson Murray’s rookie season on the PJ tour if you had if you remember he had sort of uh become embroiled in a bunch of social media controversies uh but throughout the the course of the reporting for that story um we discussed Grace and I did as well as his parents some of the dark secrets that he’d been hiding uh from some of his PJ tour peers essentially he was dealing for the past decade plus with depression and Social Anxiety which if you don’t know what social anxiety is it’s the fear of being judged and evaluated negatively by other people that can lead to stuff like inadequacy inferiority uh embarrassment humiliation depression all of which Grayson Murray has said openly that he has battled over the past decade or so so that story sort of helped explain some of Grayson’s Behavior as as a junior it explained some of his behavior as a college player uh when he went to three colleges in just a a handful of years explained why he had such a negative reaction graceon Murray did to the concussion that he suffered in 2014 that sent him into a dark spiral and led to him being hospitalized uh for 10 days at a Trauma Center so so rereading that story now Rex as as you did on on Saturday I mean it was so forboding and it was amazing that he was able to accomplish what he did given the some of the demons that he was battling I mean it it is and one of the things I wrote the story today about the statement that the parents sent out and and you’re right it was very poignant but one of the things I did is I went back and just reread the the transcript from when he won at the Sony Open and he was kind of asked specifically about getting to this point now you’ve been sober I think at that point for eight months you’ve dealt with all of these things like what’s that Journey been like and and the quote was and I’m going to read it I know how how much people hate when we read on the podcast so I’ll make this quick a lot of hard work pays off it’s not easy I want to give up a lot of I want to give up a lot of times give up on myself give up on the game of golf give up on life at times just persevere and when you get tired of fighting let someone else fight for you that to me I mean it was for boting it’s just such a impossibly sad story um and thinking about that story now back in 2017 Grayson also had other demons over the past couple years he was quite open about um how he would self-medicate with alcohol um that when he burst on the PJ tour at 22 he would play some tournaments either drunk or hung over uh that sort of helped with his depression his his his anxiety that he was experiencing uh but he had been sober uh according to Grayson back in January for at least eight months uh by that point again he was engaged to be married uh in late April uh we don’t know what triggered uh the action that took on on Saturday morning but it’s just it’s just so so sad and I think you see from either Peter Mady or web Simpson who were part of the CBS telecast on Saturday um as the outpouring of social media post showed uh over the weekend this has really rocked the PJ tour Community uh to its core and so I’ll be very curious to see what the PJ tour continues to do as they honor Grayson’s memory as we continue in 2024 I’m glad you brought that up about the the CBS uh telecast yesterday having those players on was very poignant and it was important to hear from the other players because they were the ones that knew him the best out of this community it’s a traveling circus but it’s a bit of a family uh and I I tuned in early today right from the start of The Telecast for the specific reason is I wanted to see how CBS was going to handle this and I’ve not been in this particular situation but I’ve been on air when you’re having to sort of make the transition from something very very serious and something very very sad like this back to sports which let’s be honest it’s a bit of a playground what we do like we I think we take it too seriously sometimes and it’s such an impossible thing to do and I was kind of curious like how is Jim Nance and the rest of the team going to do it and I have to admit I I was I was just filled with pride the way they seem to handle it very well it was a very light touch I thought they talked about Harry higs who won for the second consecutive week on the corn fairy tour today he actually they kind of referenced the speech that he gave and clearly he he knew Grace and he was close with him but he talked about be nice to other Harry hgs did in a speech and that was sort of the message that Grayson’s parents were trying to send out in their statement and my guess said it would be a message that Grayson held very close to his heart because it’s important to understand that even though somebody is a professional golfer and has won twice on the PGA tour and seems to have this Gladiator exterior there’s still things going on inside that stands for all of us and Grayson had been so open about some of the demons that he was struggling with and I think that is is helpful I think it’s helpful too that his parents uh came out on Sunday morning about 24 24 hours after the fact uh to say to say that Grayson died by Suicide and you get the hotline um and and those who are in need of help uh now have it if if they can take um some sort of sols and what the family is dealing with uh as well and I think it’s it’s an important moment too Rex to to acknowledge just how prevalent mental health is and uh being able to be open and honest uh with your behaviors with your feelings what you’re battling uh I think Grayson was a a prime example of that and if you see some of the social media clips that have recirculated over the past year uh he can I I think a lot of people can find strength uh from what he was dealing with as well all right we will somehow transition now to golf and the tournament that again was played uh per Grayson Murray’s parents wishes uh players wore black and red ribbons on Sunday for the final round that was a tribute to Grayson and the Carolina uh hurricanes his favorite NHL team near his hometown of Raleigh North Carolina the tournament rexs was run won by Davis Riley I think in somewhat surprising fashion with the golf course uh which was redone over the past year a colonial completely baked out they were dealing with 25 30 m on hour winds obviously the firm Golf Course having just undergone the renovation it was a brutal day uh for golf and Davis Raleigh all he needed was a final round 70 to win by five shots that wasn’t the surprising part if you are a follower of this podcast or a longtime follower of Junior and college golf like the kid has been very good over the past decade was a number one uh ranked Junior player great standout college player as well won with Nick Hardy in the team event last year uh at the zura Classic this was his first individual title the surprise to me was that he beat Scotty Sheffer as soundly as he did Davis Riley playing the final group with Scotty shff I did not see what the odds makers listed Scotty the final round four shots back I I mean that’s that’s crazy and for him to dust them the way that he did with Davis Riley shooting a 70 and Scotty shuer coming home with a 71 uh when he was really struggling for much of the day that was to me the biggest surprise on Sunday well I want to separate those two things out because I do do think Davis Riley is interesting and he deserves flowers and all the style points we could possibly give him because you’re right you go head-to-head with the world one on a demanding Golf Course like that and I also want to talk a little bit about the golf course you and I aren’t architecture Geeks but I do think it’s kind of cool what they did at Colonial and it shouldn’t go unnoticed that 14 under won this week’s event and 21 under won last week’s event and last week was a major championship so there is a lesson probably to be learned there not so much at balla but just across golf I I I wanted to actually touch on the idea that Scotty Shel didn’t make a birdie until the 13th hole and I don’t they were even money coming into it I did look actually a degenerate buddy of mine looked last night when we were talking about this uh which made sense to me because it it was Scotty Sheffer and you would think that once he sort of shook off what happened last week and got back between the ropes that the juices were going to stop flowing all that being said I think it’s fair to say it’s impossible to imagine that what happened last Friday well two Fridays ago now at Valla on Shelbyville Road him getting arrested everything that has transpired since then that this is going to be with him for a long time and I’m not saying that’s what that’s why he didn’t win I’m not saying that’s why he didn’t win last week but there’s certainly something to be said for and both of us had a chance to sort of see this firsthand that once it sunk in and he realized that this just wasn’t a traffic ticket this is a felony he’s been accused of assaulting a police officer this is very important and I I kind of see it and I actually spoke with someone inside his Camp last week about this after the the press conference with the mayor of Louisville and the police chief of Louisville because it’s really easy for you and I and those of us sort of on the outside to look and be like come on Ian this is going to work itself out like there’s no way what what the police report says happened happen not with that guy like it’s really really hard to wrap your mind around it but the fact of the matter is it’s still ongoing and it’s still hanging over his head and I I would say with with some degree of certainty that what we saw today and probably what we’ve seen over the last week week and a half is the direct result of that he is he was on a historic tear he had a chance to come in he was the heavy favorite he’d won four or five coming in to the pg Championship like had he won last week we would have started speaking breathless breathlessly about the single season Grand Slam and yet here we are now so I do think the events of Last Friday have impacted him to some degree obviously he can still play really really good golf he finished second but I think to some degree it’s taken a bit of the edge off I think that’s fair to say I mean Scotty had not shot over par in a round of golf in 2024 and now he has done it three of his last six rounds uh one last week the PJ Championship two this week at the Charlotte Schwab challenge including in the final round when again he shot it one over 71 I I’m I’m with that I don’t I’m not sure that it made that that that was the Difference Maker on Sunday he he he flat out just did not play well hit half of the fairways hit half the greens didn’t really make any of those sort of like momentum saving putts uh that he has want to do over these past five months I think this was more a tribute to the difficulty of the golf course the firmness of the golf course and particularly when you’re getting these Crosswinds like he could just he could not find enough Fairways to get that spark and again he began the final round four shots back it was going to take something into mid to high 60s in order to chase down Davis Riley assuming that he was going to get some help from a player who’s largely inexperienced and the fact that he was unable to put that pressure on him early finding the rough having to hit sort of these knuckle ball shots out of the thick barbuta rough to very firm greens that weren’t going to hold I think it was more a case of of of being off his game plus a difficulty the golf course as opposed to him thinking about his arraignment that has now been rescheduled for for June 3D uh well and again I’m I’m gonna push back on that a little bit because the idea that he just wasn’t on okay that’s one way to put it I mean there’s could could the reason he just wasn’t on be yes it was a very difficult golf course yes he he was up just shot 63 on Saturday well and again he shot 66 on Friday after he got out of the Department of Corrections in in louville so clearly he he has the ability to compartmentalize but I think it would be it would be almost unhuman of him not to let this in the back of his mind like he he’s not that good at compartmentalizing nobody is that good at compartmentalizing and in in The Quiet Moments when you’re walking down a fairway waiting to get to your next shot it’s going to creep into your mind it’s only human it’s only natural those things to be hanging over his head and for him to be the person look we wouldn’t be having this conversation if it would have happened to I’m not even going to name other players but if it was another player I can probably tell you that yeah they’re going to dismiss it because they know that nothing’s going to come of this and they’re going to be fine I think because of the person Scotty is and because of the reason that we all think that I don’t think that’s the way it went down on that dark road that morning that’s going to be the part that makes it difficult for him I don’t yeah I I I certainly see your point in the fact that he did not have can we clip that wrinkling my nose and everything and doing them you yeah we probably should that one can go viral for for four months did not shoot overpow now three of his last six rounds has been overpar and they have all been after the incident I totally get that and in tournament golf there’s a lot of idle time where your mind can go a whole lot of places keep in mind he just had a kid uh less than a month ago he’s dealing with all of that uh the the legal drama the uncertainty that’s surrounding that obviously he is going to have to appear uh in court June 3rd we’ll get into that in just a second I do not discount the fact that has been an incredible distraction I actually think it is a testament to Scotty’s resilience and his focus and his concentration that he has been able to finish in the top 10 in a major championship after getting after spending time in jail finish the top 10 and then now tied for second uh just a week later and a few days removed from a press conference in which uh the police chief and the mayor uh both said that they there’s zero indication that these charges against Scotty shler are going to get dropped I think anyone else that leads to either a withdrawal a miscut a weekend implosion I think this week it leads to to a miscut and your head’s going elsewhere and you just kind of shut it down to the memorial and some of your US Open prep the fact that Scotty Sheffer is still highly competitive with all of this swirling around to him I think is a is actually a tribute to his concentration and focus and his ability to stay in the moment and the golf shots that are that are on hand oh I don’t disagree with that I just say there’s a finite amount of that within anyone even Scotty Sheffer even like look we saw this from Tiger Woods on numerous occasions where he was able to compartmentalize things going on off the golf course and still do magical things on the golf course I I do think he’s got a an element of that that gear some part of it but there are limits to it I truly believe that in an update since we last potted as mentioned Louis V and police chief gave a press conference on Thursday in which they discussed the ongoing Scotty case and released some video footage not of course of the initial interaction between Scotty Sheffer and detective Brian gills which of course is the source of much debate three takeaways Rex let’s see if you agree from the press conference with the police chief and the mayor W again they did not give an indication the charges against Scotty sheffler would be dropped there’s still time of course for that to happen before June third the arresting officer Brian gills did not have his body cam activated and he was subsequently reprimanded for that and Scotty Sheffer per his attorney is not interested in a settlement and will either go to trial or have the charges dismissed because it is a felony charge that Scotty is facing he does have to appear in court on June 3 which is the Monday of Memorial week so eight days from now when we are recording this podcast what is your take on these latest developments in the case oh I I I think there’s a there’s a fourth element however it is oti outside looking in whatever the case may be uh and and that’s because that’s the videos don’t show anything what we see from both angles there’s a still camera that’s on a pole across the street and from a dashboard camera from one of the law enforcement officers cars but all you see is sort of the after aftermath of whatever happened behind that bus and so we still don’t have any idea a clue it’s it’s clearly on one side you had the police report and and you pointed out detective Gillis and that side side of the story we have not heard Scotty sheffler’s side of the story other than it was a big misunderstanding and he felt like it was all going to get cleared up but that didn’t bring us any closer to Clarity than we were before that press conference so that was my first and foremost takeaway and the second one is to your point detective Gillis was reprimanded for not having his body camera footage per Department policy you can go through the policy and it’s very very specific as a matter of fact they actually referenced the idea that the second you get in that car your your Cruiser and you’re in uniform and you’re on your way to work you probably need to activate it and even though in this particular case it’s easy to dismiss okay he’s just directing traffic he probably didn’t need to have it on the second it turned into not about directing traffic but chasing after someone to arrest them I we still don’t have a very good understanding of why he never activated this body cam footage the pants per his statement were damaged Beyond repair $80 pants roughly I I mean what case do you have if there is no body cam footage or no dash cam footage of the initial interaction which again is a source of much debate of what actually happened because right now it’s a he said he said gu said it was a big misunderstanding and he was just trying to get to the gym to work out ahead of his tea time detective Brian Gill said that he was per his per the incident report was dragged 10 or 20 yards until Scotty shuffler stopped accelerating forward what case do they possibly have if we do not have video evidence of the initial interaction uh you and I went round and around about this in Louisville before we left if you remember correctly where you you kind of made the same comment and I said under normal circumstances many cases are brought to courts where it’s one side is the law enforcement officer and his side of the story and the other side is is the defendant and their side of the story and so it’s always a matter of interpretation there’s not always video evidence there’s not always Witnesses like sometimes this is what these types of things come down to as as kind of a rule of law you’re going to lean towards the law enforcement officer this is the person that’s been tasked the community to uphold the law so as as a rule the courts normally lean in that that direction however I would say in this case there’s a couple of things acting against not specifically detective Gillis but certainly the Louisville Metro PD first and foremost among them is that in March of this year just two months ago the Department of Justice came down with multiple violations of civil rights violations and one of them was undo arrest undo process all of the things that you can imagine Scotty is going to bring out and if this ever does go to court so already the Department’s got a strike against it and I don’t want to I don’t want to try this case in public but I can understand where his lawyer Steven ralin is coming from when it’s like I’m not we’re not settling like we’re not going to do this this is outrageous this is a department that’s already found itself in trouble for multiple reasons being a little over aggressive uh arrests that weren’t quite above board whatever the case may be and now you have the world number one who according to multiple reports that I read had been told to do One Thing by One law enforcement officer and then then when he ran across detective Gillis everything unraveled it’s behind the bus we can’t see it so it’s not quite clear-cut and I don’t know I I I would imagine that we’ never see this get to trial but if it does it would be an interesting argument on both sides should be a busy week in the world of golf this week Rex the US Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club the men’s NCAA Championship get started at least on Golf Channel it’s already been underway for a couple days now this is the first NCS I’ve missed I was about to say uh since 20 since 2010 uh so it has been a long time and you were heading up for the RBC Canadian open in a new spot it has always uh been the Prelude to the US Open a different spot on the schedule it does not sync up perfectly with June 6 of last year which is when uh the golf world blew up but what are you anticipating as Roy maroy Nick Taylor and Company ahe north of the border for the Canadian open this week uh I mean we’re going to revisit it you’re right it doesn’t sync up perfectly but as I pointed out I mean that was such a big and pivotal day in golf just the announcement itself and then the player meeting that followed and all of the Fallout and everything that’s happened since then and sort of swept under the rug of everything else that’s happened over the last seven days or so it seems to me things are moving along at a different clip when it comes to the negotiations between the public investment fund and the PGA Tour there was an emergency board meeting last week I believe it was on Tuesday the pack met last week at Colonial as well commissioner J Monahan was on property multiple times he flew back actually on Saturday he was meeting with players from what I’ve been told he was meeting with agents there’s a lot of whispering going on so uh I guess the best thing to say is it’s happening whatever it is it it’s happening what does that mean what does that possibly mean what does that possibly mean uh my understanding and and look this is this is all going to this is going to play out one way or the other however my understanding is that the PGA has sent a proposal of what they think the world of golf would look like if you find a way to get the piff invested in PGA Tour Enterprise and of course that would bring live golf in so whatever that option is and I I can only imagine you know we can sit here and go through all the different Optics I mean all the different options I can only imagine what that looks like they haven’t heard back for quite a while from the public investment fund so my guess is they they received some sort of feedback from the piff about maybe they want to do this and maybe there’s some non-starters whatever the case may be depending on who you ask I mean again Jordan speed has kind of become the outspoken spokesperson of the the PGA Tour policy board if you ask him things are moving along perfectly everything’s great everything’s great false narrative false narrative that that there’s so much infighting and yet Jimmy Don retired less than two weeks ago now he was instrumental he was the architect of the framework agreement he retired from he stepped down from the policy board last weekend under the cover of darkness and no one reported it Mark flarity stepped down from the PGA to a policy board no that’s right someone did reported it was me but you apparently weren’t paying attention you were too busy writing under the radar under the under the radar yeah no it wasn’t it it wasn’t it was it was above the radar it was right on top of the radar that’s the way it worked out um but yeah so whatever that means and that that’s some that’s some terrible reporting that that’s that’s some really bad Insider stuff right there something’s happening but that’s that’s the best I got right now thankfully you’ll be our man on the ground at the RBC Canadian open of course we will do the podcast on Wednesday where you going to be you’re still going to be in that rustic lodge wherever it is you are right now I will be home uh my wife is heading on a bch bachelorette party in Jackson Hole so I’ll be hunkered down with my two children uh without any assistance pray for lav most certainly typically at this point of the podcast Rex we do something silly I do not feel that is appropriate uh given the news that we had this weekend so I will sign off with one final message hug your loved ones check in with those who are dealing with life you don’t know what sort of message you can leave with them and what sort of impact you can have all right that is going to do it for this edition of the golf CH podcast with Rex and lab you guys know the drill MC sports.com golf for all L’s news notes and updates on the developing story that we have been covering over the past 48 Hours Rex and I will be back on Wednesday he in Canada me and Pon aidra until then be well be kind