Grayson Murray Wins While Rory McIlroy Gags Things Away, Tommy Fleetwood Still

On the surface, Grayson Murray winning the Sony Open doesn’t exactly sound like an exciting headline, but in reality, his victory in Hawaii on Sunday created a storyline that legitimately spanned the globe after Rory McIlroy’s disaster of a finish in Dubai.

Murray and McIlroy have a history, albeit a brief one, that is impossible to ignore which makes Sunday’s festivities one of the more memorable non-major finishes we’ve seen in quite a while.

It was also a Sunday to remember for Tommy Fleetwood, but even with his latest victory, it’s still not right to throw the ‘elite’ tag on him just yet. You could make the argument that Fleetwood is the Joe Flacco of professional golf, but that would be doing Flacco a disservice given he owns a Super Bowl ring.

Last, but certainly not least, there is an update in the world of PGA Tour – Saudi PIF merger talks that is truly ridiculous, which is par for the course in the situation that has been bizarre from day one.

Grayson Murray Winning The Same Day Rory McIlroy Chokes One Away Is Beyond Ironic

The thought of Rory McIlroy probably never crossed Grayson Murray’s mind on Sunday, but the same can’t be said for golf fans around the world.

To get the full picture here we have to go back to June 2023 after the PGA Tour and Saudi PIF announced their agreed-upon framework agreement for a merger. Shortly after the announcement the Tour held a players meeting with Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.

Not all that much came from the meeting, except for a bit of drama, and it was Murry and McIlroy in the middle of it.

According to countless reports, Murray allegedly called on Monahan to resign from his post as commissioner while shouting “We don’t trust you, Jay!” in front of everyone present.

McIlroy, who at the time was Monahan’s sidekick, replied by saying “Just play better, Grayson” before Murray promptly told McIlroy to “fu-k off.”

Well, Murray took McIlroy’s advice about playing better and earned PGA Tour win No. 2 on Sunday at the Sony Open about 12 hours after McIlroy completed the worst meltdown of his entire career at the Dubai Invitational. ‘Karma’ is certainly a word that comes to mind.

39 FEET FOR THE WIN!

Grayson Murray is victorious @SonyOpenHawaii in dramatic fashion! pic.twitter.com/C86sTS4O7a

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 15, 2024

In all seriousness though, Murray’s win in Hawaii was inspirational after he was in a very dark place not too long ago.

Now eight months sober, Murray battled alcoholism over the years while claiming each time he reached out to the Tour for help, it never came to fruition. He was put on probation by the Tour, has been in countless arguments with fellow pros on social media, and suffered an almost fatal scooter accident ahead of the Bermuda Championship in October 2022.

The odds were stacked heavily against him to continue having a career on Tour, let alone finding the…