McNealy shows us how good those guys are on Tour

NAPA — You’ve been there. Some middle-aged guy will toss in 30 points in a pickup game and then say he could play 12th man on an NBA team. Or one of your buddies will make three or four birdies and suggest seriously he could play on Tour.

To all of the above I respond: no chance. You don’t know how remarkable those guys are.

You want to find out? Go play Silverado, where the Fortinet Championship, the first event of the PGA Tour’s 2021-22 schedule, is underway.

Any other week, the course will be available. Just pay the greens fee. Then, in a matter of speaking, you’ll pay your dues.

Compare your score to that of Maverick McNealy in Friday’s second round. He shot an 8-under-par 64. And at one stretch made three straight bogies.

Of course, in another stretch of six holes he had four birdies and an eagle. Overall he played nine holes 10-under-par (8 birdies and the eagle 3 on the ninth hole).

Maverick McNealy is a fantastic golfer, a former world No. 1 amateur while at Stanford. And in four years, he’s never won on Tour, an indication of how accomplished those Tour golfers are, how difficult the Tour is.

That one-time Tour slogan, “These guys are good”? That’s an understatement.

These guys are great. They power the ball 300 yards, sink 25-foot putts or, like the 25-year-old McNealy did on Thursday and Friday, shoot 68-64—132 and still is a mere two shots ahead with two rounds to go.

So be careful what you wish for, wary of your self-belief. Think of batting against Max Scherzer or going one-on-one against Steph Curry. That’s what it’s like on Tour — not that you could even get on Tour.

And some people wonder why Maverick is on Tour. Not that he doesn’t deserve to be — it’s just that he doesn’t need to be.

He has a degree from Stanford. His father, Scott, was one of the creators of Sun Microsystems, which he then sold for a billion dollars or so. Yes, billion with a “b”.

The British tabloid, The Sun, did a mammoth feature: “Meet Maverick McNealy, super-rich golfer and heir to $1.4 billion fortune that you’ve probably never heard of.”

We’ve heard and read about Maverick for a good while now, heard the dad grew up in Detroit, car country, and so named his sons after various vehicles. Ford built the Maverick.

What Maverick the man (he’s now 25) has built is a reputation as a golfer with panache and potential. He may be wealthy, but he knows well how golf can humble anyone from board chairman to peasant.

“The goal every year, I think, is to make East Lake,” McNealy said about the Atlanta location where the end of the season Tour Championship is held. “I think that’s a fantastic benchmark for the elite players in this game. But I also want to win.”

He’s been close, a second at Pebble Beach, but no closer. He understands how hard and challenging golf can be, even when talented (and don’t you dare say rich).  

At the least, McNealy was brilliant Friday at Silverado. He started on the back nine, which meant the eagle 3 came on the closing hole, something to stay with him until the Saturday round.

“It was crazy,” he said of the day. “It was a tale of two nines. I played flawlessly the front nine, hit it where I wanted to, felt like I was always on the wide side putting for a birdie. Made the turn, and it’s funny how things go.

“I’m the guy that has to earn my own confidence. You just don’t wake up and feel confident. I get up early and get to work.”

Which is only part of the reason these guys are good.

Maverick in 'the coolest office in the world'

By Art Spander

NAPA, Calif. — The issue is less one of ambition than it is of inevitability. Greatness must not be denied. Which is why a half century ago, the big guy from Ohio — Jack Nicklaus, by name — turned pro despite proclaimed intentions of remaining amateur, selling insurance and playing golf for the joy and glory of it.

Which is why Maverick McNealy, who also had so many reasons to stay amateur, made that 180-degree turn you just knew was coming. And, with KPMG on his cap (like Phil Mickelson) and Under Armour as his attire (like Jordan Spieth), suddenly was playing as a pro.

Nicklaus, arguably the greatest player of all time (yes, Tiger Woods supporters will be allowed to disagree), idolized Bobby Jones, who as an amateur in 1930 won the Grand Slam.

So, thought Jack, maybe he could repeat the accomplishment. But the Grand Slam — the U.S. and British Opens and U.S. and British amateurs — has changed, with the PGA Championship and Masters replacing the two amateurs.

Golf also has changed. Like baseball, football, soccer, basketball and hockey, only the very best find room at the top. Nicklaus couldn’t stay amateur if he wanted to conquer the sport. Nor, five and a half decades later, could McNealy, the young star (age 21) from Stanford.

The Safeway Open this week at Silverado Country Club is McNealy’s first tournament since becoming a pro, though not his first pro tournament, since he has competed in the U.S. and British Opens and several other events. Two rounds in after Friday, McNealy is doing well enough, five-under par 68-71—139, seven back of the leader, Tyler Duncan.

McNealy had been high on the leader board, seven under par after his 16^th hole, the 350-yard 8^th since he played the back nine first. But he botched the drive and after taking a penalty shot for an unplayable lie and five more shots including two putts, McNealy had a triple-bogey 7. Stirred but not shaken, he birdied the par-5 ninth.

“I made a mess of No. 8,” agreed McNealy, “but I did a good job of staying level and not getting out of my rhythm. And it paid off with a good birdie on the last hole.”

The kid is very much under control, even if an occasional shot might not be. Asked if in the 80-degree weather on a course surrounded by vineyards and history he was having a good time, McNealy quickly responded, “Yeah, this is the coolest office in the world.”

It was 46 years ago, 1971, when another golfer from Stanford made his pro debut at Silverado, which is located some 80 miles north of the campus.

Tom Watson had earned his PGA Tour playing card — something McNealy hasn’t had the chance to do — a few days earlier in Florida, then zoomed back to California to enter what was called the Kaiser International Open. Watson made the cut and in the following years, winning five British Opens, two Masters and the ’82 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, made his mark.

Watson’s father went to Stanford. So did McNealy’s, as a graduate student in the M.B.A. program. From there Scott McNealy became a dot-com billionaire with Sun Microsystems. He also became a fine golfer, down to a 3-handicap, if not as fine as his eldest son.

In late 2016 and early 2017, Maverick was No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. In 2015 he became the third from Stanford, along with Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers, to win the Haskins Award, presented annually to the best male collegiate golfer in the country.

So many trophies. Now so many expectations.

Asked what he learned as a collegian that will carry him to success as a pro, he said, “I think there’s so much you learn about yourself from being in those situations. I played some of my best rounds ever when the heat is on in the final round.

“Obviously these guys are really good. But being in the mix in tournaments is something I’m very familiar with from college.”

But in a sense he’s graduated, to playing the very best, the pros. It was inevitable.