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NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CHAMPIONSHIP

September 25, 2016

Grayson Murray

Columbus, Ohio

Q. Your first win out here on the WEB.COM TOUR, with this win you move into No. 1 on the finals Money List. Can you just sort of summarize what went on out there today that enabled you to shoot a 68?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I birdied the first hole, which is a dream start. Just made a lot of pars. Didn't take care of the par-5s, 4 and 6, which I felt, with my length I need to make birdie on those holes. But stayed patient all day. Made a bogey on 8, and that birdie on 10 really got me going on my back nine and made a great couple par saves on the back nine that I was giving myself five, 6-footers it seemed like on every hole on that back nine, but I was confident stroking it well and it's just a dream scenario, walking up 18 with a one-shot lead.

Q. Talk about how your confidence has just been building and building as this season's gone along.
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah, I racked up so many top-10s this year I was knocking on the door and I knew if I kept putting myself in position on Sunday it was going to just be a matter of time before I won. Just credit to everyone around me keeping me positive through those stretches where I did miss the cut this year, and my parents, my swing coach, some mentors back home, just it couldn't be possible without all them.

Q. Can you possibly envision what it's going to be like when you tee it up in your first PGA TOUR event as a member?
GRAYSON MURRAY: No, because I dreamed about it since I was seven years old. I worked so hard to get to this point, I don't know what those feelings are going to be like, but I know it's going to be one of the greatest feelings I've ever had.

Q. You've been knocking on the door all season and congratulations on your first win out here and you really deserve it.
GRAYSON MURRAY: Thank you. I can't put it into words right now.

Q. I watched all year, it seemed like I would sit down for lunch and you would go on a streak. You were top-10ing it all year.
GRAYSON MURRAY: This whole year was one heck of a run, but I don't think, when I reflect on it, I probably thought I would win and I was a little disappointed, so this one is huge in terms of hopefully opening doors and open the flood gates.

Q. I can't let you out of here without telling folks a couple things you did this year. You told me not to make a big deal. First of all, you donated money for every birdie and eagle that you made this week and I think you made 18 birdies. So that's going to be matched as well by Nationwide. So thank you for that. And earlier in the year you visited a hospital. And talk to us about what happened there.
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah, I visited sick children there that day and one little kid especially just kind of took my heart away and just seeing him five years old going through chemo, no parent should ever have to watch their five year old go through chemo treatments and that's tough. I'm lucky enough to be able to be healthy and there's a lot of people that aren't and I just wanted to take care of that family, take a little stress off of them, make sure that they don't have to worry about the medical bills they have to pay and focus on their son.

Q. Did you give them $5,000?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I did.

Q. That's a lot of money. That shows the kind of heart you have and I think that makes you even more of a deserving champion and no better place to be than here?
GRAYSON MURRAY: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Q. Talk about getting the win.
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah, I want to think that this is only the beginning of what could be on the PGA TOUR. I need to keep working really hard and keep going. It's very, very tough to win out here and I'm going to enjoy this win for sure, but I know the great champions keep working even harder after they get that first win so that's my plan.

Q. You said you dreamed about this since you were 7 years old.
GRAYSON MURRAY: My dad put a club in my hand when I was 7 at the driving range and I took off from there.

Q. Did you play any other sports growing up?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I played other sports growing up. I probably liked baseball, but I broke my wrist when I was eight or nine and that got me into golf. Which is weird, because you use your wrist for golf. But it was an independent sport and I didn't have to worry if my other teammates didn't play well or anything, I like that you get rewarded if you play well.

Q. Talk about playing on the WEB.COM TOUR.
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah there's a lot of great players out there playing on the TOUR.

Q. What's it like to get this first win you obviously had seven top-10s coming in here but to not even have a start and to have one start going into may and then all of a sudden you're a PGA TOUR member, next thing is the win. You get it done.
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah, it's a dream come true. I wanted to just think that this is just only the beginning of hopefully a good career out on the PGA TOUR. I need to keep working really hard and not get content out here. It's very, very tough to win out here and I'm going to enjoy this win for sure. But I know that great champions don't get content and keep working even harder when they do get this first win. So that's my plan.

Q. You said you started when you were 7 years old?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I did. My dad put a club in my hand at the driving range when I was seven and just took off from there.

Q. Why golf and not say basketball or football or baseball?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I played all other sports growing up like every other kid. Soccer, baseball. Probably liked baseball more, honestly, I broke my wrist when I was eight or nine and that got me into golf, which is weird. You need your wrist for golf. But I liked how it was just an independent sport, I didn't have to worry about if I played well and we still lost kind of thing. And this sport you don't win very much, so that was probably -- but I like how it's rewarding when you do play well.

Q. You picked the toughest sport at all. You can be 500 in the world and still be really, really good?
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah, it's tough. There's a lot of good players out there that could be on the PGA TOUR and just need a break, kind of like what I got this year.

Q. You're walking up 18, what's going through your mind?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I knew Martin was behind me at 10, could birdie 17 and 18. And I saw Cameron par, I think he maybe just missed his putt on 18. So I knew I just needed a par, a birdie would seal it off, but a par was probably going to be good enough. And that 8-footer down the hill, I didn't want to hit the high side and go down three or four feet and then have that coming back. So, that was kind of a little lagging kind of putt. Probably first time I ever lagged an 8-footer.

Q. What's it like to get the win with Mike on the bag for the first time, too?
GRAYSON MURRAY: Awesome. Yeah, I don't know else to say it. We were walking up one of the fairways today I said, well, I hope you're a very deserving man and I hope we can get 10 more years out of you on my bag and just 10 more years of enjoyment. Because after Payne Stewart passed away, it was, he's had good players, but I don't think he's really enjoyed his walk like he did with Payne. I'm not trying to compare myself to Payne whatsoever, but I'm really good friends with Mike Hicks and his son and we go back a long ways and I hope we can have many years of enjoyment out on the course.

Q. I was going to say you met him a long time ago, right when Jacob was playing?
GRAYSON MURRAY: Jacob is my age and his first tournament I was paired with him and ever since then we have, we were buddies and Hicksey and my dad are good friends.

Q. And he kind of helped you through Q-School this year right?
GRAYSON MURRAY: He did. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have got through Q-School. I didn't really know what I was doing out there in Q-School. I didn't know how big of a deal it is to make it from pre-qualifying all the way it final stage. We didn't have our best final day down there, but at least we had some type of status to start this year, which gave me the opportunity to do what I did.

Q. Did you think it would come this quick when you got that sponsor invite in Raleigh?
GRAYSON MURRAY: I never put a timetable on anything. I think that's just setting yourself up for failure in a way. I just think that there's a plan that we each have and keep working hard and doing the right things and I think that eventually something good will come out of it and like I've been saying, I don't want to be content here, I want to keep working hard and achieve that dream of being No. 1 in the world one day.

Q. The birdies for charity thing. Is it nice to make a few to benefit them?
GRAYSON MURRAY: Absolutely. I actually did $100 today for every birdie. So it was 700 going into today and I made four. So that's 1,100. Like I told everyone, I love helping people and I love helping kids, but at the same time if I had a lot of birdies this week I knew I was going to play well and I tell people like when we play this game for a lot of money and so any little bit I can give back is what I'm going to do the rest of my career.

Q. (No Microphone.)
GRAYSON MURRAY: It does. We're put on a pedestal where we have a lot of eyes watching us and we get scrutinized and we get praised. My dad was my hero growing up, I didn't have a sport hero, if it was a sport hero it would be Tiger, but my dad was who I tried to mimic out there, not Tiger. I would like to think he raised me to be a humble, classy guy, and if I can't do that every day, I'm going to strive my best to.

Q. What's your dad's first name?
GRAYSON MURRAY: Eric.

Q. E R I C?
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah.

Q. Are you going home to see him?
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah, I'm driving to North Carolina with Hicksey right after this. Sleep in my own bed tonight.

Q. You guys have a lot to talk about.
GRAYSON MURRAY: Yeah, I can't wait. We're going to have a lot of phone calls to make and texted messages to return and it's part of it and I realize that, there's a lot of people that are pulling for me and I have their support and I'm grateful for every minute that we have to get to me.

Q. (No Microphone.)
GRAYSON MURRAY: I did everything pretty well. I would say I got in a rhythm with my driver and stats are a little iffy sometimes with the driver because you can barely miss the fairway and it counts as obviously missing the fairway. So, I would say driver. With my length and hitting it in play, we hit it really well coming down the stretch. We kind of found it, we grooved it starting on No. 9, made some really good swings and those par saves I kind of felt like Tiger a little bit with those par saves. Par saves are so key in winning golf tournaments. I can think of a lot tournaments I played in the past where I hit it better but I didn't make those key par saves on the back nine to get the job done. So that was huge.

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