In his first year on Tour, rookie Grayson Murray has made more headlines for his social media use than for his play on the course.
Moving forward, it seems, he may be seeking to reverse that trend.
The 23-year-old Murray deactivated his Twitter handle Monday night or early Tuesday morning, which comes immediately after he split with caddie Mike Hicks mid-round at the Wells Fargo Classic on Sunday.
Murray defended his actions on Twitter Monday night, saying it was a “disagreement, not an altercation, between myself and my caddie. It is a personal matter between the two of us.” That was one of Murray’s final tweets. (His Instagram account is still active.)
Murray’s management team declined GOLF.com’s request for comment. But on Tuesday before a practice round at the Players, Murray told Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner that he “deactivated (Twitter) for now. I don’t want anything to do with it.”
PGA Tour spokesperson Ty Votaw declined to comment when asked if the Tour had any involvement in Murray discontinuing his account. He did say, however, that the Tour does discuss social media use with its players.
“Those conversations, for the most part, stay between us and the players,” Votaw said.
In the past four months, Murray has tweeted his opinions on Bryson DeChambeau withdrawing from the Genesis Open, “boring” Tour pros and the OWGR’s bias. He also asked an Instagram model to caddie for him at the Masters Par-3 Contest via Twitter (she accepted, but Murray never qualified).
Murray is in the field for the Players and tees off at 9:11 a.m. EST Thursday with Ben Crane and Graham DeLaet.
