Grayson Murray is a PGA Tour winner once more and feels higher than ever about his future. The gold trophy he received Sunday on the Sony Open in Honolulu with a 40-foot birdie putt in a playoff is just a small motive for that.
Murray has been sober for eight months, uninterested in alcohol fuelling his conceitedness in public and making him really feel like a failure for losing expertise in his personal moments.
He feels renewed by way of Christianity and is getting married in April to a lady that turned a giant a part of a small help group.
No, successful did not change his life. But it surely certain offered a giant enhance to his profession.
“My story is just not completed. I believe it is simply starting,” Murray stated. “I hope I can encourage lots of people going ahead which have their very own points.”
Grayson Murray’s successful second <a href=”https://twitter.com/SonyOpenHawaii?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>@SonyOpenHawaii</a> is unreal ⚡️ <a href=”https://t.co/mXWlIaU3Dr”>pic.twitter.com/mXWlIaU3Dr</a>
—@PGATOUR
Murray all the time seemed just like the odd-man out in a three-way battle on the finish of the Sony Open till he delivered the products.
His wedge right into a breeze to a again pin to a few ft gave him a birdie on the par-5 18th for a 3-under 67 and allowed him to hitch a three-way playoff with Keegan Bradley and Byeong Hun An. After which he buried a birdie putt from simply inside 40 ft with An going through a four-foot birdie.
Bradley missed from 18 ft. An’s quick putt grazed the lip. Murray had one other PGA Tour title, the opposite coming greater than six years in the past at an opposite-field occasion when he was a rookie.
The timing could not be higher.
Murray, who earned his approach again to the PGA Tour with two wins on the Korn Ferry Tour final 12 months, now can financial institution on his first journey to the Masters in April and a spot within the seven remaining signature occasions with their $20 million US purses.
Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., completed in a tie for seventh at 14 below — three photographs again of the winner. Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., completed at 13 below and tied for tenth.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., tied for 18th at 11 below, whereas Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., completed tied for thirtieth at 9 below. Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., tied for 57th at 6 below.
Powerful loss
As huge because the win was for Murray, it was a tricky loss for Byeong Hun An and Keegan Bradley.
An hit a 3-iron to only inside 15 ft on the 18th in regulation, the perfect shot of the day on Waialae’s closing gap, and two-putted for birdie an a 64 to be the primary to put up 17-under 263. Within the playoff, he hit an excellent pitch from the thick collar under the inexperienced to 4 ft, solely to overlook.
“Only a poor putt and poor learn on the finish which might have occurred on any holes throughout 73 holes,” An stated. “It is a disgrace it ended that approach. It hurts, however what are you going to do?”
Bradley broke away from a five-way tie for the lead with a 20-foot birdie on the fifteenth, however he needed to accept pars the remainder of the way in which. He missed the green on the 18th and needed to lay up, hitting a pedestrian wedge to twenty ft. The successful putt in regulation narrowly missed.
Within the playoff, he was in the perfect place within the fairway. However he pulled his fairway steel into the grandstand, chipped solely to 18 ft and missed after Murray had made birdie.
Murray, who earned $1,494,000, strikes into the highest 50 for the primary time and has motive to imagine the trail leads solely greater.
He bumped into bother with PGA Tour self-discipline three years in the past in Honolulu. He later took to social media to criticize the tour for not serving to him together with his ingesting. There additionally was a social media spat with Kevin Na when Murray poked enjoyable at Na’s tempo of play.
He was indignant and his profession was going nowhere. The winner’s lei round his neck was a candy odor and allowed time to mirror even within the immediacy of successful.
“It isn’t simple, you realize?” he stated. “I needed to surrender quite a lot of instances — surrender on myself, surrender on the sport of golf, surrender on life at instances. Once you get uninterested in preventing, let somebody combat for you.
“My life is so good proper now. I would not commerce something,” he stated. “Everybody in my life proper now who’s near me who has been by way of the struggles with me. All of them are a part of this. I believe that is simply the beginning of one thing actually particular.”
Carl Yuan and Russell Henley every closed with a 63 and had their possibilities.
Yuan made his mistake on the par-3 seventeenth, lacking the inexperienced left and lacking a four-foot par putt to fall out of the lead. And he appeared to get a break on the 18th when his second shot sailed into the hospitality space.
The ball was by no means discovered, however officers interviewed spectators and decided with “digital certainty” it was in a big a part of a compound that included tents and restrooms and different buildings. He acquired a free drop and escaped with par.
J.T. Poston completed alone in sixth with the spherical of the week. He closed with a 61 and was amongst seven gamers who had a share of the lead at one level.
