Q. When did you first learn about his passing?
JAY MONAHAN: I heard about it -- it was shortly after 11:00 this morning.
Q. Eastern?
JAY MONAHAN: Eastern, correct, yes.
Q. Did it happen here in Fort Worth?
JAY MONAHAN: You know, I don't think I'm in a position to release or comment on any of the details until the family's spoken about it.
Q. In 2021, Grayson had tweeted that the TOUR hadn't helped him enough. What subsequent conversations did you or your staff members have after that? And now when you look back on that, was that kind of a defining moment?
JAY MONAHAN: Yeah, you know, when Grayson said that, I called him right away. You know, over the last several years, I spent a lot of time with him because I wanted to understand what we could do in his estimation, in his opinion, to help everybody else out here. We've made a number of advancements along those lines and, you know, it's become a real point of focus and emphasis. We're proud of the programs we have in place to support our players, to support everybody out here.
You know, I'm devastated by Grayson's loss, obviously, but -- not but -- the conversations I had with him, particularly the last year, I learned an awful lot from him. He was very open and transparent with me. Most importantly, I think back to, he was talking about, you know, how he was interested in real estate and how he had become interested in things he wasn't interested in before. He talked about just the peace he had in his life. He talked about -- you know, go back to that Sony Open transcript. I mean, everything he talked about after he won the Sony Open, he talked to a lot of people about, and I found inspiration in that personally, and I also found inspiration in that as a leader of this TOUR.
Q. Does this show you, though, that there's still a lot of work to be done moving forward in this area of helping TOUR players?
JAY MONAHAN: Well, I mean, the question you're asking, I just want to be clear. We don't know the circumstances around Grayson's passing. My conversations with Grayson in the past, you know, in the area of mental health, we're always challenging ourselves to make certain that we're on the front edge of being able to provide the support that we can for everybody out here.
Listen, these are some of the best athletes in the world. They think they're -- you know, and they are, in many respects, invincible. I think one of the things that I think back about Grayson's openness is -- and I speak about courage, he taught us all a lesson on that front, and that's something I'll never forget.
Q. You had the opportunity to know him better than a lot of us ever will. What is one thing that he taught you that's going to stick with you and what is the legacy that he's left on this sport that you want others to always remember?
JAY MONAHAN: I think his legacy is -- I think one of the elements of his legacy is his resiliency. So you think of going back to 2017, winning the Barbasol Championship, going back and forth between the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA TOUR, winning three times on the Korn Ferry Tour, taking -- self-assessing, coming back, becoming in his own eyes a stronger human being, and then winning three times in the past year. I mean, it's just, to me, that's a level of resiliency that is extraordinary.
Q. In those conversations over the past year, what was the feedback from him about how the TOUR was doing? Did he seem to indicate the TOUR was doing better in areas of mental health, et cetera, in those conversations?
JAY MONAHAN: You know, he didn't specifically say that. We were always talking about how we could, you know, when we talked, and when we talked about the subject, it was what could we be doing to get better or just updating him on where we were, amongst the many other topics that he and I talked about.
He had very strong opinions, you know, and he challenged us, and I found that to be very helpful because you can learn a lot when people speak their truth in the way that he did.
Q. What does the TOUR have planned for tomorrow to try to honor him?
JAY MONAHAN: You know, we're going to go back and convene as a team. Our focus has been on his family and everybody out here and obviously honoring and respecting him today, and then we'll get to tomorrow, you know, as soon as we're out of here.
And it's not just about tomorrow. It's about the weeks ahead, it's about the months ahead. There are a lot of people that are going to be carrying a heavy heart for a long period of time out on the PGA TOUR, and there's a family that is obviously devastated that we need to support.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports