Grayson Murray always knew he had the talent to win on the PGA Tour.
That was part of his problem.
“The way I carried myself, the way I was very … maybe a little arrogant at times,” Murray said. “I think the alcohol brought a side out of me that wasn’t me. It was kind of the monster in me in a way.”
The monster that kept Murray from developing his talent is probably gone for good, especially after what happened Sunday at Waialae Country Club.
Murray, 30, won the Sony Open in Hawaii with a 38-foot birdie putt in a playoff over Keegan Bradley and Byeon Hun An. He earned $1.5 million, 500 FedEx Cup points, full exempt status on the PGA Tour through the 2026 season, and guaranteed spots in all remaining Signature Events on the 2024 PGA Tour schedule, plus the Masters, The Players Championship and the PGA Championship.
This was Murray’s second PGA Tour victory — but first since his rookie year of 2017, when he won the tournament the guys who don’t get into The Open Championship play in, the Barbasol Championship.
It is also the first since he quit drinking alcohol eight months ago.
“I would drink during tournament weeks. It was my outlet. I thought I was invincible coming out here as a 22-year-old, winning as a rookie, played three days hungover when I won,” Murray said. “Best thing and worst thing that ever happened to me was winning my rookie year.”
Since then, Murray was labeled as a troubled bad boy. Some of it stemmed from a drinking incident here in 2021, some from Twitter blasts, including at the Tour, and a fellow player. Anxiety, depression and jealousy were root causes, said Murray, who added that rehab helped him reset to sobriety and devotion to his faith and loved ones — and refining his golf game.
“It took me a long time to get to this point. That was seven years ago, over seven years ago. I’m a different man now. I would not be in this position right now today if I didn’t put that drink down eight months ago.”
Murray said that in younger days he would just hit his tee shot as far as he could and let the rest take care of itself. Now he knows it takes a lot more to succeed at golf’s highest level, and elements of that showed Sunday.
Murray came into the final round tied for first with Bradley, with plenty of others in striking range on a calm day at Waialae. He played patiently amid the chaos of a crowded leaderboard, parring the first eight holes. But when the time was right, he was ready to strike. His birdies on 9 and 10 kept him in the hunt. On 18, with the pressure on, Murray hit a sweet wedge 80 yards to set up a 3-foot birdie.
“Working with Josh Gregory now with my short game,” Murray said. “He even came up to me this week and said, ‘Man, we’re going to have some fun this year. You have a lot of shots that I didn’t know you had in your arsenal.’ That makes me feel good, knowing that I’m getting a lot out of my game that was there all along but maybe wasn’t giving myself the best opportunity to show it.”
Meanwhile, Bradley, who was one shot ahead of the field going into the 18th hole, had to scramble to save par to make the playoff.
“Playing in the last group with the lead is hard on the Tour. I’ve done a really good job of doing that the last couple years,” said Bradley, a six-time Tour winner. “Proud of the way I played today, but I just needed a 4-iron on that 18th that one time there. But next time — I’ll learn from what happened today. I know I can hang in there with not my best game.”
An had been waiting, the clubhouse leader after a birdie on 18 gave him 6 under 64 for the day and one shot ahead of the other contenders at 17 under.
About a half hour earlier, An, Bradley, Murray, Carl Yuan and Russell Henley were momentarily in a five-way tie for first.
“I thought I needed maybe an eagle or at least birdie to give myself a chance,” An said of 18. “Hit a good putt (for eagle), just was a bad read.”
On the playoff hole, An missed a 7-foot putt and Bradley a 17-footer for birdie after Murray rolled in his 38-footer.
He said he had a feeling he was going to make a key big putt at some point in the round, maybe for an eagle, maybe for the win.
“I hate it for Keegan and Ben. They played awesome golf,” Murray said. “Sometimes it’s just tough to be in a playoff when it’s sudden death and only one person can win.”
For a while, it looked like that person might be Henley, who is remembered for breaking the tournament record with 24 under while dominating this event in his 2013 PGA Tour debut, and two years ago falling in a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama.
Henley started Sunday five shots off the pace, but played the front nine in 5 under, including an eagle on No. 9. Three consecutive birdies early on the back nine put him at 17 under by himself.
But he didn’t make up for bogey on 16 on either of the two closing holes.
J.T. Poston created some early excitement. Starting at 6 under, he made four birdies to close out the front nine, and tore up the back nine, too. But even the tournament-best 9-under-par 61 didn’t get him low enough to have a chance.
Adam Svensson’s scorecard included the rarity of back-to-back eagles. He had one on the par 5 ninth followed by another on the 353-yard par 4 10th when he drove 330 yards into the right-front greenside bunker and then found the cup with a 30-foot shot from the sand.
Alas, Svensson finished his round with a double-bogey at No. 18, netting him 1-under 69 for the day, and T30 at 9 under for the event.
SUNDAY’S FINAL ROUND SCORES
At Waialae Country Club • Purse: $8.3 million ($1.494 million to winner). Yardage: 7,044; Par 70 (35-35). x-won on first playoff hole
Player Score vs. par
x-Grayson Murray (500), $1,494,000 69-63-64-67—263 -17
Byeong Hun An (245), $738,700 67-64-68-64—263 -17
Keegan Bradley (245), $738,700 67-66-63-67—263 -17
Russell Henley (123), $373,500 69-66-66-63—264 -16
Carl Yuan (123), $373,500 66-65-70-63—264 -16
J.T. Poston (100), $300,875 70-66-68-61—265 -15
Emiliano Grillo (85), $260,758 71-66-63-66—266 -14
Matthieu Pavon (85), $260,758 66-66-67-67—266 -14
Nick Taylor (85), $260,758 69-67-65-65—266 -14
Harris English (70), $209,575 66-67-70-64—267 -13
Taylor Pendrith (70), $209,575 69-67-66-65—267 -13
Andrew Putnam (70), $209,575 68-65-70-64—267 -13
Akshay Bhatia (55), $153,135 69-64-68-67—268 -12
Eric Cole (55), $153,135 66-72-64-66—268 -12
Tyrrell Hatton (55), $153,135 70-65-67-66—268 -12
Patton Kizzire (55), $153,135 68-65-68-67—268 -12
Taylor Montgomery (55), $153,135 64-68-69-67—268 -12
Brian Harman (44), $106,102 69-68-65-67—269 -11
Billy Horschel (44), $106,102 68-68-68-65—269 -11
Stephan Jaeger (44), $106,102 65-67-69-68—269 -11
Chris Kirk (44), $106,102 66-66-67-70—269 -11
Ben Silverman (44), $106,102 67-68-64-70—269 -11
Brandon Wu (44), $106,102 68-70-64-67—269 -11
Stewart Cink (33), $67,645 67-65-69-69—270 -10
Kurt Kitayama (33), $67,645 70-62-68-70—270 -10
Denny McCarthy (33), $67,645 68-70-66-66—270 -10
Troy Merritt (33), $67,645 68-66-66-70—270 -10
Patrick Rodgers (33), $67,645 70-66-68-66—270 -10
Sam Stevens (33), $67,645 67-67-63-73—270 -10
Ludvig Aberg (21), $44,751 70-65-70-66—271 -9
Zac Blair (21), $44,751 70-65-68-68—271 -9
Cameron Davis (21), $44,751 62-70-70-69—271 -9
Ben Griffin (21), $44,751 70-62-70-69—271 -9
Ryo Hisatsune (21), $44,751 69-68-66-68—271 -9
Seonghyeon Kim (21), $44,751 71-64-66-70—271 -9
Kyoung-Hoon Lee (21), $44,751 69-68-66-68—271 -9
Hideki Matsuyama (21), $44,751 70-68-67-66—271 -9
Keith Mitchell (21), $44,751 68-64-72-67—271 -9
Adam Svensson (21), $44,751 71-67-64-69—271 -9
Brendon Todd (21), $44,751 66-69-68-68—271 -9
Taiga Semikawa (0), $44,751 68-65-66-72—271 -9
Austin Eckroat (11), $25,913 65-66-69-72—272 -8
Will Gordon (11), $25,913 69-67-69-67—272 -8
Harry Hall (11), $25,913 68-68-70-66—272 -8
Nick Hardy (11), $25,913 69-69-67-67—272 -8
Charley Hoffman (11), $25,913 70-67-70-65—272 -8
Michael Kim (11), $25,913 69-69-66-68—272 -8
Si Woo Kim (11), $25,913 69-66-70-67—272 -8
Alex Noren (11), $25,913 66-69-67-70—272 -8
Scott Stallings (11), $25,913 66-70-72-64—272 -8
Dylan Wu (11), $25,913 67-69-70-66—272 -8
Joseph Bramlett (7), $19,771 69-65-69-70—273 -7
Ben Kohles (7), $19,771 66-69-71-67—273 -7
Robert Macintyre (7), $19,771 71-66-69-67—273 -7
Erik Van Rooyen (7), $19,771 69-67-68-69—273 -7
Matt Wallace (7), $19,771 67-67-69-70—273 -7
Corey Conners (5), $18,592 70-68-66-70—274 -6
Mark Hubbard (5), $18,592 70-67-70-67—274 -6
Maverick McNealy (5), $18,592 68-69-69-68—274 -6
Chandler Phillips (5), $18,592 70-66-70-68—274 -6
Aaron Rai (5), $18,592 65-69-70-70—274 -6
Justin Rose (5), $18,592 67-70-67-70—274 -6
Robby Shelton (5), $18,592 69-67-72-66—274 -6
Davis Thompson (5), $18,592 73-65-69-67—274 -6
Tyler Duncan (4), $17,845 68-70-69-68—275 -5
Nicolas Echavarria (4), $17,430 68-68-68-72—276 -4
Luke List (4), $17,430 67-68-72-69—276 -4
Greyson Sigg (4), $17,430 67-69-71-69—276 -4
Webb Simpson (4), $17,430 65-70-72-69—276 -4
Jake Knapp (3), $16,932 69-65-72-71—277 -3
Alejandro Tosti (3), $16,932 66-70-77-64—277 -3
Joel Dahmen (3), $16,600 71-67-68-72—278 -2
Lanto Griffin (3), $16,600 70-68-70-70—278 -2
Parker Coody (2), $16,019 68-70-68-73—279 -1
Justin Lower (2), $16,019 70-68-70-71—279 -1
Seamus Power (2), $16,019 72-66-69-72—279 -1
Martin Trainer (2), $16,019 71-67-71-70—279 -1
Yuto Katsuragawa (0), $16,019 68-68-76-67—279 -1
Norman Xiong (2), $15,521 66-71-72-71—280 E
Garrick Higgo (2), $15,272 72-66-76-68—282 +2
Matthew NeSmith (2), $15,272 69-69-71-73—282 +2
Tyson Alexander 70-66-72-WD
