CARLSBAD, Calif. – Wake Forest head coach Jerry Haas was standing simply off the tenth fairway Saturday afternoon at Omni La Costa, ready for his first participant to tee off within the second spherical of the NCAA Championship, when his telephone buzzed.
It was a textual content from a former participant, and it merely learn:
Grayson Murray died.
Haas was shocked. He had recruited and signed Murray out of highschool, although Murray lasted only one semester in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, earlier than finally transferring twice and logging transient stints at East Carolina and Arizona. Murray turned professional in 2015 and went on to win 3 times on the Korn Ferry Tour and two instances on the PGA Tour, together with most not too long ago on the Sony Open in January. He additionally, in recent times, had been open about his battles with nervousness, despair and alcoholism.
Murray had withdrawn from this week’s Charles Schwab Problem throughout his second spherical on Friday, citing sickness. The Tour introduced at 3 p.m. ET Saturday that he had died, at simply 30 years outdated.
“These are your boys once you recruit them, and so they come to your college,” Haas stated. “I really feel unhealthy for his dad and his mother. Eric is an efficient man. He runs an excellent junior golf tour (Tarheel Junior Golf Tour), and he let my son, Kyle, play so much and get his begin in junior golf. That’s the toughest factor, enthusiastic about his mother and father.”
Haas remembers a second when a 12-year-old Murray raised his hand at a golf camp and requested Haas how one would go about receiving the Arnold Palmer Scholarship. Just a few years later, Murray was flashing tons of potential as a high-schooler – “He seemed like a Tour professional then,” Haas stated – and when it got here time to signal with Wake, he was doing in order the recipient of that prestigious scholarship.
In a 2017 story on GolfChannel.com, Haas revealed a dialog he had with Murray when Murray determined to go away the staff: “I advised him: ‘Younger man, I’m nervous about your well being. I’m not nervous about your golf – that’ll all the time be there. However I’m nervous about you as an individual.’”
Haas admittedly didn’t have a ton of contact with Murray following Murray’s departure from Wake Forest, however he stored shut tabs on Murray’s golf as a professional. Just a few weeks in the past, on the Wells Fargo Championship, Haas watched Murray play a number of holes.
Haas’ present Demon Deacons shot 16 over Saturday to drop three spots to 18th on the leaderboard, 14 pictures again of the highest eight. However as he spoke with a heavy coronary heart, Haas stored issues in perspective.
“It makes you cease and assume,” Haas stated. “I’ve been doing this 26 years, and I most likely had near 100 guys who I recruited and performed for me, and it’s a tragic day. Emotionally, I thought of him so much immediately, consider it or not, through the spherical. We didn’t play very nicely, and I wished to get pissed, however on the similar time…”
His voice trailed off, and after a brief pause, he concluded:
“I’m going to overlook him.”
