Breakfast Ball #21: A Dark Weekend for Golf

This week’s relatively short newsletter comes to you from Greece, where I am currently on holidays. Greece only has eight 18-hole golf courses, which is incredibly surprising for a country with beautiful weather most of the year.

In This Week’s Newsletter:

PGA Tour player Grayson Murray passes away at the age of 30

The golfing world was brought to a halt for all the wrong reasons last weekend. The PGA Tour announced that Grayson Murray had passed away early on Saturday morning. Murray had been open about his difficulties with depression and alcoholism throughout his time as a professional. On Sunday, Murray’s family released a statement announcing that Grayson had taken his own life.

Murray won the Sony Open in January, his second win on tour since he became a professional in 2015. After the win, he spoke about his mental health struggles and it seemed like he was heading in a positive direction. He was playing in this week’s tournament and withdrew suddenly on Friday with two holes to play, citing an illness. His final hole was a bogey that brought him below the cut line.

Many golfers paid tribute to Murray including Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, Bubba Watson, and Scottie Scheffler. The most harrowing tribute came from Peter Malnati, who had played with Murray over the first two days of this week’s tournament.

This is just horrendous. There are no words to describe what Murray’s family must be going through at the moment. I will leave you with these words from Harry Higgs, the winner of this weekend’s Korn Ferry event:

Davis Riley wins the Charles Schwab Challenge and Nacho Elvira wins the Soudal Open

Davis Riley got his first individual PGA Tour victory after winning the Charles Schwab Challenge by five shots in Fort Worth, Texas. Riley began the final day with a four stroke lead over world number one Scottie Scheffler, and despite having four bogeys in his round, he countered them with four birdies to card an even par 70. His best finish so far this year was a T14 at the Houston Children’s Open, so it was a badly needed win for Riley. “It's been a slower start to the year than I've been wanting and obviously this helps a lot, catapulting me in the right direction.”

Scheffler was not at his best on Sunday after shooting a 7-under 63 on Saturday to catapult him up the leaderboard. His first birdie of the day came at the 13th hole as he struggled to remain consistent. “I just wasn't able to put as much pressure as I would have hoped to put on Davis early in the round and he just kind of cruised all day. He played great golf.”

The best European in the field was Sepp Straka, who continued a good year with a top five finish, nine shots off the winner. Bob MacIntyre missed the cut after impressing over the last few weeks, while Justin Rose, Aaron Rai, and Martin Laird all posted top 40 finishes.

Nacho Elvira won the Soudal Open by one stroke for his second DP World Tour victory. The Spaniard began the final round with a four stroke lead, but the chasing pack narrowed the gap over the final round. Denmark’s Niklas Nørgaard had a 12-foot putt on the final hole to force a playoff but it didn’t find the cup. Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald played in the event and finished in a respectable T24, eight shots off the winner.

Interestingly, LIV golfer and former Ryder Cup player Thomas Pieters played in his home tournament. Although this is not the first time a LIV player has participated in a DP World Tour event, it is one of the earliest instances of a LIV player competing in a lower-tier event on the tour, signifying the DP World Tour's acceptance of LIV players in its tournaments. It will be interesting to see if higher profile LIV golfers partake in any of the late season events once LIV wraps up this summer.

Other News and Results:

• Many European players nailed down US Open spots last week as final qualifying began

  • At Walton Heath in Surrey, players such as ☘️ Tom McKibbin, 🇮🇹 Edoardo Molinari, and 🇮🇹 Matteo Manassero won spots in the tournament

  • 🇮🇹 Francesco Molinari joined his brother in the tournament as he qualified in the Dallas, Texas edition of final qualifying

  • 🇪🇸 Sergio Garcia missed out on qualification by one shot, but will be one of the alternates for the event

  • Qualifying will finish on June 3rd across the US and Canada

Coming up this week on Tour

• Rory McIlroy will tee it up at the RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour

• The DP World Tour moves to Germany for the second stop on the European swing at the European Open

If you have any feedback for the newsletter or would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you! Email [email protected] or message us on Twitter/X at @BlueHorizonGolf. Thank you for reading!