The news of Grayson Murray’s death on Saturday has hit his fellow PGA Tour players hard.
“It was a huge shock. My heart sank,” Webb Simpson told reporters at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, where Murray, who was 30, withdrew during Friday’s second round with an illness.
Murray and Simpson had known each other for more than 20 years; Simpson said Murray was 8 or 9 the first time they met, and Murray was the first winner of the Webb Simpson Challenge, a junior tournament Simpson started 14 years ago.
“When you hear news like that over the phone, you don’t think it’s real at first,” Simpson said.
Murray was candid about about his battles with depression and alcohol earlier in his career and said in January he had been sober for eight months.
“Life’s not easy. I think Grayson would put his hand up first and say it’s not easy,” Simpson said.
Murray won the Sony Open in January and was ranked No. 58 in the world.
“My story is not finished. I think it’s just beginning,” Murray said in Hawaii after winning the Sony Open. “I hope I can inspire a lot of people going forward that have their own issues.”
Peter Malnati, who played with Murray during the first two rounds of the Charles Schwab Challenge, fought back tears during an interview with CBS’ Amanda Balionis on Saturday.
“We’re so competitive out here, we all want to beat each other, and then something like this happens, and you realize, we’re all just humans,” Malnati said. “It’s just a really hard day.”
