Pro golfer Grayson Murray’s parents are opening up about their ongoing anguish in the wake of their son’s suicide last year.
“He tried to get better,” his father, Eric Murray, told “Today.” “He did everything he could.”
Grayson Murray died by suicide on May 25, 2024, a day after pulling out of a PGA Tour event. The 30-year-old golfer had been open about his struggles with mental health, gambling and alcohol abuse.
His parents hope to help others avoid the same fate with the newly established Grayson Murray Foundation, which aims to foster awareness and support for issues surrounding mental health and addiction.
Murray himself mapped out his vision for the organization, his parents told “Today.” They discovered the plans in his journal entries after he died.
Hailing from North Carolina, Grayson had aspired to play pro since childhood and had grown up to become a PGA Tour regular, with two tournament wins in his career. In 2021 he went to rehab after publicly sharing his struggles with addiction, anxiety and depression. His second tournament win, in Hawaii in 2024, seemed to signal a turning point, and he issued words of encouragement to others who may be struggling.
“I wanted to give up a lot of times,” he said after the victory. “Give up on myself, give up on the game of golf, give up on life at times. Just persevere.”
But those wins did not come without cost, his mother, Terry Murray, told “Today.” She described the toll that his highs and lows took on her son’s career and psyche.
“He would put on a happy face out on the road,” she said. “Our house became his safe haven. If he was depressed, he would go in his room, and he wouldn’t come out for two and three days.”
His father said Grayson would fall into “deep tunnels or dark holes.” After he broke down during a visit home, his father says he urged to quit the PGA Tour and attend to his health.
However, the golf course was his happy place, Eric told “Today,” so in his mind, leaving was not an option.
Last month, the Murrays paid tribute to their son in Hawaii with a group of PGA Tour players at a celebration of life service ahead of the Sony Open.
His gravestone, his parents noted, is engraved with the phrase, “Be kind to one another.”
With News Wire Services
