Maverick McNealy captures long-awaited 1st PGA Tour title

It took 142 starts for the former top-ranked amateur in the world to win on the PGA Tour.

Maverick McNealy might tell you it was worth the wait.

The 29-year-old pro birdied the 72nd hole to win the RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga., on Sunday, a victory that’s been years in the making for someone who several years ago left Stanford for the Tour and immediately became a up-and-coming name to know.

He’s been a full-time Tour player for the past five years, but in that span he’s had just two runner-up finishes and one third. That victory was still elusive, but he started this week’s season-ending RSM Classic with an eight-under 62 and suddenly was right where he needed to be. He was tied for the lead at 14 under heading into Sunday’s final round, still led by one at the turn but momentarily lost the lead on the back nine.

On 18, as the last one still out on the course, he had 5 1/2 feet to win, and he drained it.

“I’ve hit a putt on a putting green to win a golf tournament in my mind thousands and thousands of times,” McNealy told Golf Channel afterwards. “It’s almost like deja vu standing over that last one — and it came off perfect.”

McNealy closed with a two-under 70 to finish 16 under, one ahead of a trio that included Nico Echavarria and Luke Clanton (who were both warming up on the range, hoping for a playoff) and playing partner Daniel Berger.

The RSM Classic, as the Tour’s finale, was the last chance for pros to get inside the top 125 in the FedEx Cup Fall and keep full membership for next year. For players like McNealy, who was safe instead that line, it was about moving further up to get into 2025’s Signature Events and, of course, winning.

McNealy held a one-stroke lead at the turn, but he missed the fairway and the green on 14 and made bogey. That Nico Echavarria, who had birdied 11, 13 and 15, the solo lead.

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Clanton added a birdie and big-time fist pump on 16 to tie Echavarria for the lead, and they both stepped to the 18th tee tied at 16 under — and then both missed the green in regulation from the fairway. Echavarria failed to get up and down and made his only bogey of the day, and Clanton, who pulled his approach into the bunker, missed his par save on the low side. Clanton, the 21-year-old amateur, has now recorded four top 10s this season in just eight PGA Tour starts.

With Clanton and Echavarria both holding the clubhouse lead at 15 under after their bogeys, suddenly a handful of others were in the mix, including McNealy and Berger, who were now tied for the lead with two to play.

McNealy and Berger both missed makable birdie putts on 15 and 17. Then, playing the par-4 18th, Berger stuck his approach to 21 feet away, and McNealy stuffed his to 5 feet, 5 inches.

After Berger missed, McNealy found the center of the cup — and his long-awaited first PGA Tour victory.