American professional golfer Grayson Murray won the 2024 Sony Open and told reporters, “I think a lot of things are going right in my life right now and I’m at peace.” He was eight months sober, engaged to be married, and said his best golf was ahead of him. Four months later, on May 25, 2024, he died by suicide at age 30. Golf Insider Joel Beall, who profiled Murray for Golf Digest, wrote that Murray went into that win better known for his public missteps than for his golf.

On Golf Channel’s 5 Clubs, posted on October 25, Beall said the saddest part for him is this: “I think it was just knowing that the whole world, me included, didn’t understand the depth of what he was carrying until he was gone.”

Beall’s profile, “The Misunderstood Life of Grayson Murray,” ran in Golf Digest in November 2024. When Murray won the Sony Open, Beall wrote, he was better known for public missteps than for his golf, and Beall says he had judged him the same way.

“I saw him through a handful of public missteps instead of the full picture of the person,” he told host Gary Williams.

What surprised Beall most was how much Murray gave. “There were all these things he was doing to help people far from the spotlight,” he said. “A lot of things that even his family and friends didn’t know.”

In Golf Digest, Beall wrote that mini-tour players shared stories of help Grayson Murray gave during tough times. He also reported that struggling caddies received anonymous help with medical bills, and that a former college teammate said Murray drove six hours to help him move after a divorce.

Beall also questioned how people talked about Murray after his death. “We tend to frame depression as this fight,” he said, “and I don’t know if that’s the right prism, because depression doesn’t fight fair.”

He pushed back on a familiar phrase: “In the aftermath, we reached for this phrase of, well, he lost his courageous battle with depression. And I don’t think he lost.”

His reasoning: “To me, he won. Every morning, he woke up knowing what was staring back at him, and he chose to keep going, chose to keep helping other people because of his own fortitude and the love of his family and friends. To me, that’s the highest form of winning.”

Williams asked whether Murray’s generosity was a way of helping himself. Beall said anyone who volunteers probably has some of that, since helping others can help the helper too. But after speaking with so many people in Murray’s circle, he landed somewhere else.

“My take is that it was just pure altruism from his standpoint,” Beall said. “I don’t think he was looking for anything of himself when he was doing these things.”

Grayson Murray spoke openly about alcohol and mental health. After the Sony Open, he said he wouldn’t have been in that position “if I didn’t put that drink down eight months ago.” He had been to rehab in 2021. His parents said after his death that he “touched the hearts of so many” by “sharing his own mental health challenges.”

That openness mattered to other players. Gary Woodland, who played with Murray on the final day of the 2024 PGA Championship, said Murray was “very open about his struggles.” Woodland recalled a spectator who broke down and thanked Murray for that openness.

The Grayson Murray Foundation launched in January 2025 to raise awareness of mental health and addiction. Beall’s profile won first place in the long-profile category in the 2025 Golf Writers Association of America contest, with one judge saying it “deftly” explored mental-health issues.

For Beall, the lesson is also about his own job. “Part of the job is holding people accountable for their actions, and I believe in that,” he said. “But I think there are ways to do it that are kinder and more human, and I try to remember that every time I sit down to write going forward.”

Murray’s parents say they live by the phrase “be kind to one another,” which is on his gravestone plate.