Bryson DeChambeau described the psychological toll golf takes on professional players when looking back on the death of Grayson Murray.
The former US Open champion said golf was “not a forgiving sport” and declared people must take mental health “very seriously,” having also said Murray was a friend following his passing on May 25.
Before becoming a major champion and one of the best players in the game, DeChambeau was an outstanding young golfer who won the California State Junior Championship, played in the Walker Cup and won the US Amateur in 2015.
Ahead of LIV Golf’s event in Houston, DeChambeau was asked about feeling pressure at a young age with the news of 15-year-old Miles Russell being offered a spot at the Rocket Mortgage Classic on the PGA Tour at the end of June.
“I’ll say I knew Grayson pretty well. I haven’t really publicly spoken about this, but my heart goes out to his family. It’s not easy what he’s gone through, what we all go through as professionals. My heart aches for him and his family,” he said.
“Golf is not a forgiving sport. A lot of pressure is put on you at a young age, especially when you’re good. I’m not even seen saying myself – but you’ve got Jordan Spieth, you’ve got Scottie, so many great golfers that have had experiences of pressures at a young age, and relating it back to myself for just a moment, there’s been numerous times where I’ve second-guessed myself on a massive level.
“My team has experienced it. I’ve experienced it. Even just coming out to LIV when I was playing terrible. Not to my standards, when I missed 14 cuts in a row. The pressure out here is immense. We all have to take our mental health very seriously. When it comes to Miles, it’s an awesome opportunity, but giving us players – I think that’s why LIV is so amazing, is because we have that team aspect where we can rely on each other, on your teammates.
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“That’s what I was doing at Singapore last year. I was in a really bad place last year in Singapore, and those guys lifted me up. I’ve talked about it before. Those guys lifted me up, and it would be a different situation if those guys weren’t here. If they weren’t there to push me forward and go, no, come on, Bryson, you can do it.
“Any tour you’re playing on, whether you’re playing mini-tours, challenge tours, it doesn’t matter. The pressure is just massive. For Miles, I think it’s going to be a good test for him. I hope he has the right people around him to continue to push him in a positive direction because we all need that at the end of the day.”
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Bryson DeChambeau: Grayson Murray was a friend
Tributes poured in for Murray who took his own life during the week of the Charles Schwab Challenge, a tournament he was playing in. He was a two-time PGA Tour winner and won as recently as the Sony Open in January.
A large group of players and the PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan gathered at Muirfield Village on Tuesday, the host venue of this week’s Memorial Tournament, to celebrate Murray’s life. A podium was placed down with his golf bag and a large photograph of the 29-year-old too, who had been bravely open and honest with his mental health struggles in previous years.
DeChambeau, a former winner of the tournament but now a member of the LIV Golf League, reminisced at the Golf Club of Houston about the junior golf days he shared with Murray.
“The mental health aspect of golf is super important, and it’s a tragic loss that we had with Grayson because he was a good man, and I just think back to all the times we played junior golf – we played junior golf as a world team championship at Bolingbrook, actually, where we’re going this year,” he added.
“So it’s going to be a hard-hitting moment for me when I go out there because he was a friend. As much as he struggled, he was a friend and he was a good man, and the pressures of golf need to be taken seriously.”
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