An insight into golfers’ mental health struggles as the Memorial Tournament approaches

DUBLIN, Ohio (WCMH) – It’s been a week since professional golfer Grayson Murray withdrew from the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas after the 16th hole of his second round. The next morning, he was found dead by suicide.

Murray had been open about his mental health struggles for years, even expanding on the progress he had made after winning his second career PGA Tour earlier this season. His death has brought the conversation about mental health in the sport of golf to the fore as the Memorial Tournament approaches Muirfield next week.

This week, ahead of the United Women’s Open, LPGA star Lexi Thompson, who burst onto the scene as a teenage phenom, announced her retirement at age 29, citing mental health issues.

Some of these challenges come from the game itself and the pressures on the course. But Kyle Morris, a former professional golfer and co-founder of the Golf Room, says golfers fight a silent battle before putting it on the first hole.

“You’re finishing up with a tour on Sunday at seven o’clock. You’re driving nine hours to the next place to maybe qualify on Monday and then if you get into the tournament, you have to make the cut to get a check,” Morris said.

Morris knows firsthand the hustle and pain of professional golf.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, you’re losing. So 99 percent of the time you walk off a golf course feeling deflated that, oh, you should have done better,” Morris said.

Such constant criticism is hard on anyone, even people who are already the best of the best in the world.

“The only thing about golf that was interesting was the higher you went on the tour, the lonelier it got,” Morris said.

Professional athletic consultant physician Chris Stankovich says talent can mask trouble with some athletes, especially when the sport becomes a person’s entire identity.

“The assumption is if you’re really good at your sport, you can figure it all out or know how to handle situations, but that’s not always the case,” Stankovich said. “I always worry about sports where they are more individual than nature. They don’t have many people to talk to. When you’re worried or depressed about feeling low on things, who do you turn to? Who do you turn to? I think when it’s internalized, it leaves someone really vulnerable.”

Stankovich and Morris both believe that conversations about mental health and awareness need to start with young athletes.

“The biggest signs are the lack of impact,” Stankovich said. “And when they’re not that proud of their accomplishments or excited to get to that game, I think they’re big flags.”

Morris said there is nothing wrong with competition and feeling a sense of frustration after competition.

“There’s a subjective line when moral decline stretches too far,” Morris said. “Find what they’re really passionate about and then let them run really fast at it.”