With a sensational birdie on the last hole and a card of 68 strokes on Sunday, Maverick McNealy (-16), at 29 years of age, has opened his victory record on the PGA Tour by winning the RSM Classic. The golfer from Portola Valley, California, who a decade ago won the prestigious Haskins Award as the best collegiate golfer in the United States, becoming the third Stanford player to achieve it after Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers, has closed a brilliant season in which he accumulated five top-10 finishes and defended his spot in the Aon Next 10 during this fall calendar, earning a place in the first two designated events of 2025.
Son of the famous businessman Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems (company acquired by Oracle Corporation for 7.4 billion dollars in 2010), he had accumulated until today 141 tournaments played on the circuit, with 99 cuts made, two runner-up finishes, and a third place. In his fifth season in the top category of American golf, to which he arrived from the Korn Ferry Tour, he finally achieves his goal of lifting a title and secures playing rights for two more years, until 2026 inclusive.
A birdie to win on the 72nd hole!
Maverick McNealy is a first-time PGA TOUR winner 🏆 pic.twitter.com/z4eh8utuIR
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 24, 2024
His next season will include the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am in January and the Genesis Invitational in February, two elevated tournaments that distribute more points and money than those on the regular calendar. He will also have a reserved spot in THE PLAYERS, the Masters Tournament, which he will play for the first time in his career, and the PGA Championship. And until then, he can enjoy the cheque he takes home this Sunday, of 1,368,000 dollars, with a victory that he began to build on Thursday with a brilliant 62 and certified today with three birdies and a bogey, resisting the attack of his pursuers and leaving the best shot of the tournament for the end, a tremendous approach from the 18th fairway to stop the ball a metre and a half from the flag.
Among those who saw their playoff dream vanish at the last moment, the Colombian Nico Echavarría (-15), who closed the season at a very high level by winning the ZOZO Championship in Japan and finishing tied sixth in the World Wide Technology Championship, and the amateur Luke Clanton (-15), who tried everything until the end with a round of 66 strokes trying to emulate what Nick Dunlap did earlier in the year when he won the American Express as an amateur. The young American, who at 21 shows promise with three top-10s in seven appearances on the PGA Tour.
185 yards ➡️ 5 feet
Maverick McNealy hits a CLUTCH approach and will have a birdie putt on the 72nd hole.
📺: GOLF Channel pic.twitter.com/IDl6j4I44D
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 24, 2024
Although this final podium at the Sea Island Golf Club in Georgia leaves one more winner, Daniel Berger (-15), who manages to climb from 127th place in the FedEx Fall to 100th, securing full playing rights for 2025. He joins Henrik Norlander (-10), whose tied 17th place this Sunday allows him to jump from 126th position and sneak into that top 125 players who will be able to compete in all regular events next year. The ones affected, Zac Blair and Wesley Bryan, who will have to settle for the Korn Ferry Tour card and play some standalone tournaments on the PGA Tour with their conditional status.
Regarding positions 51st to 60th, with the two designated tournaments in January and February 2025 at stake, only one change from how the week started. Kevin Yu (-12) enters after a great performance in this RSM Classic where he rescued an 11th tied place and Justin Rose is left out, who did not compete in this tournament that serves to close the 2024 season on the American tour. Ahead only the Tiger tournament, with no points distribution, and the Christmas events for pairs and father-son before the action returns in the Sentry of the champions in January.
