A year on from Grayson Murray’s tragic death, his long-term caddie and friend has shared his reminiscences of the pair’s relationship and time together.
Mike Hicks dropped the bag on Grayson Murray at the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship after overhearing Murray tell his father that he was done with him as a caddie.
It was the final round and when Murray confirmed to Hicks what he had told his father Eric in North Carolina, Hicks left the course and a replacement looper was brought in. The man who carried for Payne Stewart at the 1999 US Open, and throughout the decade before that, was gone.
It was the end to a flourishing bond that saw Murray progress from the Web.com Tour, now the Korn Ferry, to the PGA Tour for the first time in the 2016/2017 season.
Seven years later to the month that Murray and Hicks split, the golf world was devastated by the news that Murray had taken his own life.
At just 30 years old, Murray’s death marked an end to a battle with depression and alcoholism, but also a super PGA Tour career that saw him win twice and compete in three of the four major championships. Both through work and family, Hicks knew Murray and straight from their earliest encounters, he recognised his golfing brilliance.
“I met Grayson when he was 10 years old,” Hicks said to NCG. “My son Jacob and he played tons of junior tournaments against each other. Jacob’s first-ever junior tournament was a US Kids tournament, and they were paired together.
“I knew after watching Grayson play that day that he was something special. His father, Eric, a great man – started a junior tour in North Carolina and it expanded all over the southeast. Jacob played on his tour every summer and in the fall. Grayson played in a lot of those tournaments, so I got to know the Murrays really well.
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“I went to the tour Q-school with him (Grayson). He got conditional status on what was then the Web.com Tour. I was working on the PGA Tour and I was in between jobs and Grayson had qualified for the Playoffs, and I went out with him, and we won the tournament at Ohio State (the 2016 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship). He ended up winning the money list and got exempt on the PGA Tour the next year. We had decent success starting out.”
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After winning the Sony Open in January 2024, earning a place at the Masters and breaking the world’s top 50 players, Murray revealed he was once in rehab tackling alcoholism, anxiety and depression. He said he used to drink during tournament weeks, and the rehab lasted a month at the Betty Ford Centre in Minnesota.
In a heartbreaking account written by Joel Beall for Golf Digest at the end of 2024, it was reported that Murray cried with his father on May 5, saying, ‘I don’t want to be here anymore’. 24 hours later, Murray remarkably travelled to the Wells Fargo Championship and finished in tied for 10th. He played in two events after that before his death.
In previous years, Murray walked off the course at an amateur event in 2014 after feeling dizzy and being unable to swing. He was later diagnosed with social anxiety, and his mental state became more unstable after a bike accident in the same year.
He had a reputation for throwing clubs and showing anger on the golf course in his teens, which might now be interpreted as symptoms of his anxiety.
“Grayson was a troubled young man from an early age,” Hicks added. “Even at age 10, he did some things on the course that my kid’s clubs would’ve been locked up for a while, had he done that, and Eric knew that.”
Fluctuations of form and the typical loneliness of tour life and travel fuelled Murray’s psychological struggles and his interaction with gambling and drinking. He also struggled with irregular sleeping patterns and withdrawal when he came off alcohol.
“He lost a battle that a lot of people lose,” Hicks said. “It’s sad. You wish it could have been addressed earlier in his life – just an incredible talent. It was fun to watch him when he was on. It was special.”
Among the demons was inherent kindness. Murray would contribute to fundraisers, offer clothes to his old high school for the most underprivileged children and support the First Tee of the Triangle – an initiative that helped children learn golf in his home city of Raleigh in North Carolina.
At the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Ohio last year, following Murray’s death, several players joined tournament host Jack Nicklaus and his wife for a remembrance gathering.
Tributes were paid by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and the then-reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, who had recently played a practice round with Murray at TPC Sawgrass – the host venue of the Players Championship.
“What a talent he was. Unbelievable length, unbelievable touch and like I said, I knew at age 10 that he was going to be special.” Hicks added, believing Murray had the potential to be a top-five player in the world.
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