Golfweek picture/Adam Schupak
McNealy went on to earn his Tour card on the finish of 2019 and has been on a gradual rise ever since.
One of many early highlights got here in the course of the 2020 AT&T Pebble Seashore Professional-Am, the place gamers like Lee Westwood (2013), Graeme McDowell (2014) and Rory McIlroy (2018) had all celebrated Father’s Day in February by enjoying at Pebble Seashore with their fathers.
In 2020, McNealy and father, Scott, joined forces for the second time, and opened with 6-under 66 at Pebble Seashore.
“Someday, we joked, we have to play in this. I’d be the pro and he’d be the am,” stated Maverick, who teamed up along with his dad for the primary time in 2018 and remembers his dad sneaking him contained in the ropes at Pebble Seashore when he was 5 years previous and “still cute.”
This marked the 14th look right here for the elder McNealy, the 65-year-old billionaire founding father of Solar Microsystems who as soon as received the Jack Lemmon Award given to the beginner MVP. Maverick’s favourite reminiscence of the event earlier than becoming a member of the professional ranks is the time he turned on his cellphone when his flight landed in San Francisco late one Saturday night time in February throughout his freshman 12 months at Stanford in 2014. His eyes grew vast as he learn a textual content from his father, Scott. “I’m paired on Sunday with Phil Mickelson at Pebble Beach. Do you want to caddie for me?”
Heck yeah!
With out hesitation, Maverick hopped in his automotive and made the journey to Pebble. Whereas ready on the fifth tee field the next day Mickelson gave Scott his mobile phone digits so they might keep up a correspondence. When Mickelson wandered over to the tee, Maverick whispered to his dad, “OK, you’re officially cool in my book now.”
Scott thought he’d performed for the ultimate time till Maverick’s sponsor KPMG, supplied him a spot. It appears everyone seems to be a sucker for an excellent father-son story at Pebble. One other sponsor, Beneath Armour shipped them matching shirts, pants, and pullovers. They’d performed hundreds of rounds collectively, however this was extra particular and a reminder that Pebble Seashore is a spot the place professionals and amateurs and golf pair collectively fairly like nowhere else. And this 12 months, so do fathers and sons, particularly the sort that dish out pre-round recommendation.
“Dad, just two things tomorrow,” Maverick stated earlier than the opening spherical. “Hit the driver hard. If we find it great. If not, swing hard again next hole. And, don’t leave any putts short. And let’s have fun!”
“What a great pro I got assigned this year,” Scott quipped. “Knows just what to say. Love him to death.”
Maverick went on to complete tied for fifth within the 2020 occasion, his high end on Tour that season, and did one higher by ending runner-up to Daniel Berger on the event the next 12 months. He completed the 2021 season by making the minimize in his closing eight occasions, inserting within the high 30 in all however a kind of, and completed with over $2 million in earnings.
