After Sunday’s disaster, pro’s dad texted. Here are the 40 thoughtful words

Alex Greyserman was going to text. But could he find the words?

What had just transpired with his son on Sunday was practically unspeakable. During the Wyndham Championship’s final round, over six Sedgefield Country Club holes, Max Greyserman:

— Holed-out for eagle two, from 90 yards out, on the 13th hole, ballooning his top-of-the-leaderboard advantage to four — and lining him up for PGA Tour win No. 1, at age 29, about seven years after he turned pro;

— Quadruple-bogeyed one hole later, after a wicked tee shot that kicked off a cart path and out of bounds, and a fourth stroke that dropped into a bunker, wiping out his lead;

— Birdied one hole later, placing him back on top;

— Double-bogeyed one hole later, after a stunning four-putt. He couldn’t rally after that, and Aaron Rai won by two and Gresyerman was second, just as he’d been two weeks earlier, at the 3M Open.

Afterward on Sunday, Greyserman gamely answered everyone’s questions. Some run from these moments, remember. On national TV, announcer Amanda Balionis asked for a takeaway, and Greyserman figured that he’d hung in there well. “I mean, it’s golf, stuff happens,” he said. Balionis then asked about the minutes after the eagle and before the tee shot that preceded the quad.  

“Yeah, I mean, I felt good, I was obviously pleased to make an eagle — I haven’t holed out with a wedge for a while,” Greyserman said on CBS. “Got to the next tee, everything felt just like it did the first 13 or so holes. I hit a bad drive, didn’t deserve to be in the fairway, but it landed on the cart path and next thing I know, it’s O.B. I wish it didn’t land on the cart path, but also it’s my fault for not executing and making a poor decision after that, after hitting the next drive. I just needed to lay up, take my medicine short of the bunker and I was kind of caught in between and made a huge mental blunder there because I still could’ve walked away with a six pretty easily, or even a seven pretty easily. 

“I don’t know, it kind of feels like my own 2006 Phil Mickelson moment so hopefully that equals good things to come like it did for him.”

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Greyserman also took questions from the reporter herd. They, too, wondered what was going through his head.  

“Yeah, played really, really well this week,” Greyserman said. “Played good enough to kind of run away with it. Obviously stuff happens in golf that sometimes it’s not meant to be sometimes.

“I’m just going to walk away that I played really, really good golf, executed really well, had probably a four-, four- or five-shot lead, I don’t know, four-shot lead. I had a four-shot lead with five holes to go. If you’re doing that in a PGA Tour event, you’re doing something exceptionally well so that’s what I’m going to walk away with.”

This week, Greyserman’s back. He’s playing the FedEx St. Jude Championship, where he also talked with the PGA Tour social media team.  

He said his dad had sent him a text on Sunday night. 

He seemingly pulled some of the thoughts from his background. An online bio said Max’s parents — Alex and mom Elaine — emigrated from the Soviet Union [what is now Ukraine] as teens and met at Rutgers University, before Alex became a math professor at Columbia University and a portfolio manager. 

Alex’s message was five sentences and 40 words. Maybe they can help you in some manner.

[To help, Alyssa is Max’s wife, and Lilly is their dog.]

“He said: ‘The higher level you play at, the more misses and frustrations will hurt. … Happens in life and in business all the time. … Will happen to you many more times. Great playing. Hug Alyssa, pet Lilly and move on.’ 

“Yeah, I know my parents have my back. My friends and family have my back, so it was obviously a difficult day, but like he said, like Rory had a tough day at the U.S. Open, you know. He had a tough day at the Masters back in the early 2010s. The higher level you go, the more that’s going to happen just as much as the successes happen too. Not everyone can just play like Scottie [Scheffler]. Didn’t sleep. Didn’t sleep Sunday night at all, really. I think I slept from like 11:30 to 3. I was basically up all night., so that was kind of tough.

“But I mean, I was just petting my dog all night, so I felt fine.”