Maverick McNealy celebrates his 72nd-hole birdie and first PGA Tour victory.
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It took 142 begins for the previous top-ranked beginner on this planet to win on the PGA Tour.
Maverick McNealy would possibly inform you it was well worth the wait.
The 29-year-old professional birdied the 72nd gap to win the RSM Traditional at Sea Island Golf Membership in St. Simons Island, Ga., on Sunday, a victory that’s been years within the making for somebody who a number of years in the past left Stanford for the Tour and instantly grew to become a up-and-coming title to know.
He’s been a full-time Tour participant for the previous 5 years, however in that span he’s had simply two runner-up finishes and one third. That victory was nonetheless elusive, however he began this week’s season-ending RSM Traditional with an eight-under 62 and immediately was proper the place he wanted to be. He was tied for the lead at 14 below heading into Sunday’s remaining spherical, nonetheless led by one on the flip however momentarily misplaced the lead on the again 9.
On 18, because the final one nonetheless out on the course, he had 5 1/2 toes to win, and he drained it.
“I’ve hit a putt on a placing inexperienced to win a golf event in my thoughts 1000’s and 1000’s of instances,” McNealy informed Golf Channel afterwards. “It’s nearly like deja vu standing over that final one — and it got here off good.”
McNealy closed with a two-under 70 to complete 16 below, one forward of a trio that included Nico Echavarria and Luke Clanton (who had been each warming up on the vary, hoping for a playoff) and taking part in accomplice Daniel Berger.
The RSM Traditional, because the Tour’s finale, was the final likelihood for professionals to get inside the highest 125 within the FedEx Cup Fall and hold full membership for subsequent 12 months. For gamers like McNealy, who was secure as a substitute that line, it was about transferring additional as much as get into 2025’s Signature Occasions and, after all, successful.
McNealy held a one-stroke lead on the flip, however he missed the green and the inexperienced on 14 and made bogey. That Nico Echavarria, who had birdied 11, 13 and 15, the solo lead.
Clanton added a birdie and big-time fist pump on 16 to tie Echavarria for the lead, they usually each stepped to the 18th tee tied at 16 below — after which each missed the inexperienced in regulation from the green. Echavarria did not rise up and down and made his solely bogey of the day, and Clanton, who pulled his strategy into the bunker, missed his par save on the low facet. Clanton, the 21-year-old beginner, has now recorded 4 high 10s this season in simply eight PGA Tour begins.
With Clanton and Echavarria each holding the clubhouse lead at 15 below after their bogeys, immediately a handful of others had been within the combine, together with McNealy and Berger, who had been now tied for the lead with two to play.
McNealy and Berger each missed makable birdie putts on 15 and 17. Then, taking part in the par-4 18th, Berger caught his strategy to 21 toes away, and McNealy stuffed his to five toes, 5 inches.
After Berger missed, McNealy discovered the middle of the cup — and his long-awaited first PGA Tour victory.
