Butch Harmon’s magic touch (and texts!) fueling surprise Players contender

On paper there was little reason to be bullish about Maverick McNealy’s chances at the Players Championship this week. In three previous starts in this event, he has missed the cut (2021), T46’ed (2022) and T60’ed (2023). His results thus far this season also would have done little to convince punters to back McNealy at the Stadium Course; in seven starts in 2024, he has just one top-10 finish, and that came more than a month ago at the WM Phoenix Open.

Fast forward to Friday afternoon, though, and after rounds of 67-68 McNealy is at eight under and tied for second in this 50th edition of the PGA Tour’s flagship event, five back of runaway leader Wyndham Clark.  

“It’s one of those days where you just kind of cruise around, your heart rate gets up that high and you play a lot of shots from the fairway,” McNealy said after his second round. “This place gets really exciting when you’re out of the short grass.”

Hitting fairways and greens is the only way to enjoy success on this exacting, hazard-laden Pete Dye design, which was another reason why McNealy didn’t appear destined for a standout performance. Before this week, he had hit just 58.49 percent of his fairways this season (109th on Tour) and 64.73 percent of his greens (165th).

So, what gives? In large part, the counsel of one of the game’s teaching legends: Butch Harmon.

First some back story. In his early days at Stanford, McNealy — whose father, Scott, co-founded Sun Microsystems — ascended the amateur ranks with what he described as a “steep cut.” His swing wasn’t “the prettiest thing ever” (his words again), but it worked. In 2015, he was named the top player in college golf and earned a spot on the Walker Cup team.

By 2019, McNealy had graduated from Stanford with a degree in management science and engineering and played his way onto the PGA Tour. But his swing was evolving and he eventually replaced his go-to fade with a draw. His new move put pressure on his left shoulder and, in 2023, he was forced to take off more than four months to let the injury heal.

Enter Harmon, who McNealy first met in 2019 through his then-girlfriend, LPGA pro Danielle Kang. Harmon said he’d be happy to inspect McNealy’s swing, and the pair began a fruitful partnership that resulted in Harmon convincing McNealy to return to his trusty fade.        

“It’s not super complicated,” McNealy said Friday. “But in terms of just my swing direction, I’ve moved mountains, going from four or five out to four, five, six left. It’s really weird to aim that far left, and there’s still a few times where I feel like I’m really going to miss it left, but getting more and more comfortable every day, it’s way easier to flight the ball, and I’ve been driving it so much better.”

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Through 36 holes at the Players, McNealy has hit 19 of 28 fairways and picked up 1.395 strokes on the field off the tee.

Harmon doesn’t get all the credit — McNealy also works with Georgia-based instructor Scott Hamilton — but as McNealy describes it, Harmon does the heavy lifting when McNealy is practicing at home in Las Vegas. “Every time I leave that place, I feel like I’m going to win,” McNealy said.

Harmon doesn’t just help McNealy with mechanics — he also provides moral support.

“I text Butch every week,” said McNealy, who is 28. “He actually just texted me in all caps, ‘YOU ARE THE MAN,’ which makes me feel great. He just checks in, asks what I’m doing, and I say, ‘Butch, I’m keeping the arms outside, swinging left, hitting cuts, and the ball is going at the flag.’ It’s one of those things where, when your instructor says, ‘Looks good, aim at the flag, go play good,’ that you’re right where you want to be.”

Harmon has helped a Rolodex full of A-listers refine their swings, from Greg Norman to Seve Ballesteros to Tiger Woods, and more recently has helped bring Rickie Fowler back to relevancy. But we rarely get so much color from one of his pupils — certainly not in post-round press scrums, anyway — about the little things that Harmon does that make him such an effective teacher.    

McNealy said congratulatory texts from Harmon aren’t uncommon, but whether he hears from Harmon or not, McNealy knows his coach is “always watching.”

And if McNealy doesn’t play well?

“He’ll text me something like, ‘What happened today, Maverick? What’s going on?’ I’ll send him some golf swings and it’ll be something really quick. The great thing is with our last couple years of work — and my work with Scott — is I was hitting it left through eight holes today, and when I pulled that 4-iron on No. 8, I knew exactly what it was. It was just coming out of the posture. Butch always sees it with my right foot coming up early, and that’s when that club gets stuck and flipped and miss it left. Walking to 9 tee, I said, ‘For the next 10 holes I’m just going to stay in my posture a little better.’”

McNealy added: “It’s pretty fun to be able to stand up on some of these uncomfortable shots and smash down and left and hit a trap cut, which is the shot I see when I’m under pressure, an uncomfortable shot, or a challenging shot, and that’s impossible to do from stuck underneath. I’m just excited because my little teddy bear shot is back, and I can get that ball in play if I need to.”

Oh, he’ll need to. Weekend pressure at TPC Sawgrass will demand nothing less.