HONOLULU — 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 with a 40-foot birdie putt in a playoff is simply a small purpose for that.
Murray has been sober for eight months, uninterested in alcohol fueling his conceitedness in public and making him really feel like a failure for losing expertise in his non-public moments.
He feels renewed by means of Christianity and is getting married in April to a lady who turned a giant a part of a small assist group.
No, profitable did not change his life. However it positive offered a giant enhance to his profession.
“My story isn’t completed. I feel it is simply starting,” Murray stated. “I hope I can encourage lots of people going ahead which have their very own points.”
Murray all the time regarded 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 three ft gave him a birdie on the par-5 18th for a 3-under 67 and allowed him to affix 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 4-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 means again to the PGA Tour with two wins on the Korn Ferry Tour final yr, 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 purses.
“I knew at present was not going to alter my life,” he stated. “However it did change my profession.”
As massive because the win was for Murray, it was a troublesome loss for An and Bradley.
An hit a 3-iron to only inside 15 ft on the 18th in regulation, the most effective 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 outstanding 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 may have occurred on any holes throughout 73 holes,” An stated. “It is a disgrace it ended that means. 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 profitable putt in regulation narrowly missed.
Within the playoff, he was in the most effective 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.
“I performed adequate to win. However generally it is simply not fairly adequate, and that was one in all these weeks,” stated Bradley, who known as it one of many hardest losses of his profession.
Murray, who earned $1,494,000, strikes into the highest 50 for the primary time and has purpose to imagine the trail leads solely increased.
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 along with his consuming. 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 Sunday was a candy odor and allowed time to mirror even within the immediacy of profitable.
“It isn’t straightforward, you already know?” he stated. “I wished to surrender numerous instances — quit on myself, quit on the sport of golf, quit on life at instances. While you get uninterested in combating, let somebody struggle 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 means of the struggles with me. All of them are a part of this. I feel that is simply the beginning of one thing actually particular.”
Carl Yuan and Russell Henley every closed with a 63 and had their possibilities.
Henley was at 17 beneath till he pulled his tee shot left on the sixteenth, made a robust restoration however in the end missed a 4-foot par putt. On the closing par 5, his drive went into such a deep lie within the tough he had no probability to get close to the inexperienced and missed a 10-foot birdie probability.
Yuan made his mistake on the par-3 seventeenth, lacking the inexperienced left and lacking a 4-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 received 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.
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