How Bay Area-adjacent golfers fared over first two days of the 2025 U.S. Open

A number of golfers with ties to the Bay Area teed it up at Oakmont Golf Club for the 2025 U.S. Open. Here’s a look at how they fared over the first two days of competition:

Collin Morikawa – A SoCal native who played for Berkeley Men’s Golf from 2015 to 2019, Morikawa tops the list of golfers with Bay Area connections after the first two days of the 2025 U.S. Open. Rounds of 70 and 74 have him sitting at 4-under, T23, seven strokes back of 36-hole leader Sam Burns.

Morikawa has the strongest major tournament cred of any NorCal player in this year’s Open, with wins at the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park in San Francisco, and the 2021 Open Championship (aka the British Open) at Royal St George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England to his credit.

Maverick McNealy – The young man who was named after a 1970s Ford compact car sits one spot back of Collin Morikawa on the U.S. Open leaderboard after 36 holes. A 2017 graduate of Stanford University, McNealy turned in one of only six below-par rounds on the second day of the tournament, a one-under 69. Added to his opening-round 76, that leaves him in a nine-way tie for 36th at +5.

McNealy, who is the son of Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, grew up at Pebble Beach and in Portola Valley, on the San Francisco Peninsula. He has one PGA Tour win to his credit, the 2024 RSM Classic, and narrowly missed out on a win at the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he finished second to Daniel Berger. His highest finish in a major tournament is T23 at the 2024 PGA Championship.

Sadly, Morikawa and McNealy are the only Bay Area-adjacent golfers who will be playing on the weekend in Oakmont. Others with Bay Area connections who won’t be playing the final rounds include amateur Jackson Koivun, who was born in San Jose but grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is a rising junior at Auburn University; Mark Hubbard, a native of Denver, Colorado who played his college golf at San Jose State from 2007 to 2011; Kevin Velo, a native of Danville and former San Jose State Spartan who turned pro in 2020; and James Hahn, of Alameda, a 2013 Berkely graduate who notched his first PGA Tour win in 2015 at the then-Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club.

2024 AT&T Pro-Am, Day 2: Almost boring…

There is a distinct lack of drama during the Friday round of a no-cut golf tournament. With the exception of the original-format Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which featured a Saturday cut because of the three-course rota, Friday is traditionally go-big-or-go-home day, when players at or near the top of the leaderboard are trying to continue their good play and hang on to their spots, and back-markers are looking to find another gear, up their games and get, or stay, above the cut line in order to make a paycheck.

Five of eight of the PGA Tour’s new limited-field Signature events, of which the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is now one, have no cut (the exceptions are the three player-hosted invitationals: the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, and the Memorial Tournament), so that Friday drama (or desperation, in some cases) that made it my favorite tournament day, after Sunday, is gone.

Of course, even in a guaranteed-payday tournament like this there is an incentive to play well. After all, with a total purse of $20 million, 1st-place money is a life-changing (at least for mere mortals) $3.6 million, and 10th-place still nets the player something north of half a million dollars. Even DFL* money is a mere $32,000, but that will at least cover your expenses for the week with a nice chunk of change left over – and you got to play Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill.

When you add to that picture a near-total lack of wind, and rain-softened greens that held every shot that hit them, the drama factor on the second day of the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was, well – low.

That being said, in some ways the new-look Pro-Am stayed true to its roots, because from early in the day Friday, despite the Signature Events’ promise of “more big names” and therefore “more excitement”, two less-than-familiar names – Thomas Detry and Ludvig Åberg, a Belgian and a Swede, respectively, held sway at the top of the leaderboard throughout the day.

Playing at Pebble, Detry laid a 2-under 70 (which included bogeys at holes 4 and 5) on top of the 9-under he carded Thursday at Spyglass Hill to hang on to a share of first place, while Åberg took serious advantage of the benign conditions at the tournament’s namesake course to rack up an impressive 7-under 65, second-lowest score on the day to join Detry at the top of the leaderboard.

Also crowding onto the top step, at this point, was Scottie Scheffler, who has come a long way since his 2013 USGA Jr. Amateur Championship victory at Martis Camp in Truckee. Scheffler took low-round-of-the-day honors, helped to a tidy 8-under 64 by a 35-foot birdie putt on 17. He rose thirteen spots up the leaderboard today to muscle in on a share of first place.

Where were the rest of the big names?

Rory McIlroy, current world #2 who was touted as the event’s biggest draw, couldn’t buy a putt all day (SG-Putting: 2.6), and seems to have lost the ability to hit any kind of a draw; he doubled down on his previous day’s troublesome 1-under round at Spyglass with a weak-sauce 2-over 74 at Pebble, dropping to T65 at 1-over. Of some consolation, perhaps, is the fact that McIlroy and his amateur partner, Jeff Rhodes, a managing partner at TPG Capital, won the pro-am competition with a 17-under total.

Patrick Cantlay, who sat one stroke behind Detry at the end of the first round, clung on with a 2-under 70 today, also at Pebble Beach; he is currently alone in 4th place.

Justin Thomas, who hasn’t stepped foot on this course in a decade, added a 3-under round on Pebble today to yesterday’s 6-under at Spyglass for a comfortable 9-under T5, two strokes back of the leading trio. Thomas shares the T5 spot with Argentinian Emiliano Grillo, and Frenchman Matthieu Pavon, who was last week’s winner on Tour in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am 2023 champion Justin Rose managed just one more birdie than bogeys today, netting a 1-under 71 that dropped him fifteen spots down the leaderboard to T23, while AT&T spokesperson Jordan Spieth managed a 3-under 69, climbing six spots to T44.

The NorCal-associated golfers in the field finished the day as follows:

• Collin Morikawa and Mark Hubbard – 7-under, T10
• Maverick McNealy – 3-under, T44
• Kurt Kitayama, Chico native and UNV grad – 1-under, T55
• Max Homa, 2013 Cal grad – 2-under, T53
• Patrick Rodgers – 6-over, T78

*  (Dead f--king last)

Thursday at the 2024 AT&T Pro-Am: Detry in the lead, McNealy makes a big recovery

What a difference a day makes. Wednesday at Pebble Beach, the final practice day before competition rounds began, was a day of high winds and little rain – until the evening, when another “Pineapple Express” atmospheric river pounded the Central Coast with over an inch of rain. Thursday morning dawned with a mix of towering cloudscapes, rain showers, and patches of blue sky – a day when a jacket, an umbrella, and sunglasses would all come into play.

It was in this mixed bag of weather conditions that the first day of competition began in the “new look” Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Even with just 80 pairings and two courses in play, the traditional two-tee (#1 and #10) start was still in play; tee times ran from 8:45 to 10:33 at comfortable 12-minute intervals – still a desirable procedure when amateurs are in the mix. With the weather outlook for the weekend looking less than rosy – and positively nasty on Sunday, conversation around the lunch table in the media center touched on the possibility of play delays, one 36-hole day, a shortened event, or even the dreaded Monday finish. For today’s opening round, however, players and spectators alike enjoyed the light breezes and crashing surf, with – for most of the day – just the occasional brief rain shower bringing out jackets and umbrellas.

Big names in the mix

Ulster’s Rory McIlroy, back at Pebble Beach for the first time since the 2019 U.S. Open, rose to the top of the leaderboard briefly as he hit 6-under through 14 holes at Spyglass – before a bogey, double-bogey, bogey finish dropped him well down the leaderboard (the double-bogey on #8 involved a penalty for an improper drop.) Patrick Cantlay, meanwhile, playing three groups behind him, took over the top spot at 6-under after a birdie on #13, a string of four birdies at holes #17 through #2, and another at hole #5.

Cantlay went on to birdie his 16th and 17th holes to take over the top spot at 8-under. A late charge by Korea’s Si Woo Kim came up short, as a bogey at #9 dropped him to 6-under – but wait, there’s more…

Another “who is that guy” early leader at the AT&T Pro-Am

Late in the day, Thomas Detry of Belgium, also playing at Spyglass Hill, was 6-under through 16 holes and challenging for the outright lead. A birdie at #17 put him level with Cantlay – and then he took sole possession of the top of the leaderboard with a dramatic chip-in birdie from the right rough at Spy’s par-four 18th. With the new format dictating only one round at Spyglass Hill for all players, can Detry, an eighth-year pro still looking for his first win on Tour, follow up with three good rounds at Pebble Beach?

Maverick McNealy’s up-and-down round

Former Stanford Men’s Golf great Maverick McNealy coasted through most of the front nine on pars, with a lone birdie at #6, the par-five hole that plays up a five-story cliff on Arrowhead Point, but came to grief at holes 9 and 10. These two daunting par-four’s form part of the three-hole stretch (holes 8, 9, and 10) that sportswriter Dan Jenkins dubbed “Abalone Corner”, echoing the “Amen Corner” moniker given to Augusta National’s 11th through 13th.

After a par on #8, McNealy bogeyed #9 after going down the left side of the hole bunker-rough-green; he then flipped the script on #10, sailing his approach shot wide right, over the cliff but hanging up in the rough, luckily not falling all the way to the beach below. His recovery shot sailed over the green to the left rough, thence to the green and two putts for a double-bogey six and a mid-round score of 2-over.

After his adventure at #10, another string of routine pars got McNealy to Pebble’s picture-postcard closing hole, the par-five 18th, where in 2021 he narrowly missed a shot at forcing a playoff against Daniel Berger. That year, on the 72nd hole of the tournament, he sailed a beautiful high-draw 3-iron shot to 22 feet above the hole, only just missing the eagle putt that would have put the tournament into extra holes (after Berger did make eagle there, a few minutes later.)

In today’s round he followed a 304-yard drive to the right edge of the fairway, threading the needle between the cypress tree and the bunker complex there, with an absolutely stiffed second shot, a hybrid from 236 yards, to a scant eight feet above the hole. This time he made the eagle putt, making up the two-shot deficit from #10 to finish even for the round. A little more in the way of play of that caliber and we may see another high finish here at Pebble Beach from the young man who literally grew up on this golf course though his early teens.

The other NorCal-associated golfers in the field finished the day as follows:

• Collin Morikawa, former Cal golfer and 2020 PGA Championship winner at Harding Park – 5-under, T5
• Kurt Kitayama, Chico native and UNV grad – 3-under, T15
• Max Homa, 2013 Cal grad – 3-under, T15
• Former SJSU Men’s Golf standout Mark Hubbard – 3-under, T15
• Patrick Rodgers, Stanford Men’s Golf star who tied Tiger Woods’s 11-victory record – 4-over, T77

“Crosby weather” strikes on Day Three of the 2023 AT&T Pro-Am

Despite the best efforts of the PGA Tour in bumping tee times up by an hour in the face of forecast high winds, Mother Nature took the wheel today at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, as increasing winds led to a weather delay being called just after 12 o’clock. Conditions didn’t improve (not that any of the old Crosby hands expected them to…) and play was called at 2:30 p.m.

The current plans announced by the PGA Tour are to return Sunday morning at 8:00 to finish the third round, with final-round play expected to start at 12:30. Amateurs are not required to return for the completion of Round 3 (but are welcome to, if they choose), and only the pros will be playing in the final round. A pro-am champ will be announced after the completion of 54 holes. With the amateurs being excised from the field for the final round the cut will move to the Tour’s normal 65 and ties, from this event’s usual 60 and ties when the pro-am teams are competing.

Chief Referee Gary Young explained that the delay was predicated upon conditions experienced at holes 9 and 15 at MPCC Shore, where the exposed conditions led to instances of unacceptable ball movement on the greens. In multi-course events of this type, every effort is made to maintain identical playing conditions at each course for each round. A minor relocation of a hole, of no more than a yard or so, can be made if necessary, but conditions at MPCC were such that the amount of change in the hole locations that would have been required to mitigate the situation was deemed to be unacceptable.

Before the weather moved in with a vengeance, Saturday morning had gotten off to a good start for NorCal golf fans, as overnight leader Kurt Kitayama of Chico was quickly joined at the top of the leaderboard by two fellow Northern Californians, and Stanford Men’s Golf alums, Joseph Bramlett, of San José, and Brandon Wu, of Danville. Bramlett and Wu played at Pebble Beach Golf Links today, while Kitayama was at Spyglass Hill.

Wu quickly stepped up to the solo lead with a birdie at his fifth hole of the morning, Pebble’s long par-four 14th, and was joined there minutes later by Bramlett, who rolled in a 32-foot birdie putt at the Jack Nicklaus-designed par-three 5th hole.

Bogeys in tough, windy conditions at holes 9 and 10 (#9 is playing hardest today, at nearly half a shot over par) dropped Bramlett back to 9-under, but he got one of those shots back at #11, a strategic uphill par 4 that takes the course routing away from the ocean. He had this to say about the weather conditions after play was suspended:

Chico’s Kurt Kitayama leads after two rounds at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Pebble Beach Golf Links, and indeed all of the Monterey Peninsula, on and off the three golf courses where the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is taking place this week, is utterly spectacular in bright, sunny weather. In gloomy, overcast weather like today, with a little bit of light rain and drizzle thrown in, it takes on an entirely different aspect—calm, quiet, and conducive to introspection and deep thoughts.

OK, enough of that—let’s talk about golf.

Today’s light rain and drizzle—though it led PGA Tour officials to launch a preemptive strike and call for “lift, clean, and place” for the first three rounds, despite Thursday being mostly clear and dry—did not impede play at any of the tournament’s three courses: Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, and MPCC Shore. The 8:30 opening tee times went off without a hitch at all three, and play was never stopped or delayed over the course of the day.

The stiff onshore breeze that was bending the flagstick on Pebble’s shore-hugging 18th hole late Thursday afternoon died down overnight; only a moderate surf breaking against the rocks at the water’s edge broke the calm.

First-round leader Hank Lebioda, who opened with an 8-under 63 at MPCC Shore on Thursday, started his morning with a birdie at the daunting par-four 10th hole at Pebble Beach, solidifying his lead, while a posse of other players, including Chico, California’s Kurt Kitayama, Harry Higgs, and England’s Justin Rose, moved up to 8-under.

Rose, playing at Spyglass Hill, went out in 32 on the back nine, on the strength of two birdies and an ace—at the par-three 15th hole—with another birdie, at the 3rd hole, pulling him to within a shot of the leader, but two late bogeys dropped him to 6-under and T-11. Harry Higgs carded two birdies and an eagle, at Pebble’s par-four 4th hole, with a bogey at the par-five 6th—after excursions to the left rough, the right rough, and a right greenside bunker—marring his card, also dropping to 6-under and T-11.

The wind came up after lunch, most noticeably at Pebble Beach, but it appeared not to faze Kitayama, who closed his second round at the 9th hole, a tough cliffside par-four, after rolling in a birdie at #8 to tie Lebioda at 9-under.

After moving to 10-under and the solo lead earlier in the day after a birdie at #2, the shortish par-five which has played the easiest today relative to par, Lebioda dropped back to 8-under with a double-bogey 5 at the fifth hole. Designed by Jack Nicklaus and put into play in 1998, number 5 is a deceptively difficult par-three that is playing second-toughest in the tournament to date with an average score of 3.58. Recovering one of his lost strokes with a birdie at the long, intimidating par-five 6th hole, a bogey at #9 dropped Lebioda to 8-under, T2.

With that slip by Lebioda, Kurt Kitayama inherited the lead going into the weekend.

Kitayama’s lead headlines a strong halfway-point showing by NorCal golfers. San José native and Stanford Men’s Golf alum Joseph Bramlett went around the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club in 4-under 67 today to close the day at 8-under, T-2; Brandon Wu, another Stanford Men’s Golf alum and a native of Danville, joined Bramlett at T-2 after completing his second round, also at MPCC Shore.

Martin Trainer of Palo Alto sits T-12 at 6-under; Maverick McNealy, who narrowly missed a win in this tournament two years ago, sits at 1-under after two rounds, T-57, as does Nick Watney of Davis. UCLA graduate Kevin Chappell, a native of Fresno, is even par going into the third round, and James Hahn of Alameda is at 3-over. Hahn, who notched his first win at the 2015 Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, recovered from a 6-over first round at Spyglass Hill with a 3-under 69 at MPCC Shore today.

Tomorrow’s forecast is showing rain, with high winds in the afternoon prompting a one-hour bump in the starting tee times. First balls will be in the air at 7:30 a.m. at the tournament’s three courses, in hopes of concluding play before the worst weather moves in.

Thursday at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Who are those guys?

It’s a recurring theme at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: the first round goes into the books on Thursday evening, and the universal reaction to the name at the top of the leaderboard is “Who?”

Mind you, I’m not talking about the fans walking back to their shuttle buses at the end of the day, or the punters propping up the bar at the 19th Hole—I’m talking about in the media center, where some of the finest minds writing about golf today are gathered to ponder, pontificate, and promulgate their wisdom via the various forms of media, social and otherwise.

This phenomenon has been known to extend through Friday and Saturday, and even persist to the final round—who can forget Vaughn Taylor in 2016; or maybe the ultimate “Who dat?” winner, Ted Potter, Jr., the Orlando Mini-tour King, in 2018? (Potter’s win is even more remarkable when you consider the group that tied for second behind him, which included Jason Day, and multiple Pebble Beach champions Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.)

This year’s first-round leaderboard treated fans and the media to such well-known names as Knous, Hoge, Putnam, Malnati, Lipsky, and Eckroat. You can be forgiven for thinking that this lineup sounds more like a firm of auto-accident lawyers that advertise on local cable than the top of the leaderboard at a prestigious PGA Tour event.

To be fair, the absence of most of the biggest names in PGA tour golf has left the venerable Del Monte Forest beach bash awash in lesser-known players, so the odds are good that this year’s winner could be someone with a low recognition factor.

A veritable who’s-who of men’s professional golf, most of whom could have been reliably counted upon to be in the field here at Pebble Beach, decamped to Saudi Arabia to play for a smaller purse ($5M vs $8.7M) but big appearance fees (reportedly larger, in some cases, than the winner’s share here at Pebble Beach).

The list includes five-time Pebble Beach winner Phil Mickelson; two-time winner Dustin Johnson; Graeme McDowell, the winner of the 2010 U.S. Open, held here at Pebble Beach; and sundry other golf luminaries and recognizable names such as Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, and several more.

The biggest names in the field this week at the Clambake are Jordan Spieth, who is among the stable of players affiliated with presenting sponsor AT&T; #3-ranked Patrick Cantlay, a California kid (if SoCal…) who acknowledged, but resisted, the temptation of Saudi gelt and came to Pebble Beach this week because he loves the place; Maverick McNealy, local boy and Stanford Men’s golf star who grew up in a house on Pebble’s 16th fairway before his family moved to Hillsborough; and former World #1 Jason Day, who showed some long-missing form at the Farmer’s Insurance Open at Torrey Pines last week before fading over the closing holes of the final round.

There is an old saying that goes: “The race doesn’t always go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong—but that’s the way to bet”, so the chances are good that one of the four names I mentioned in the preceding paragraph will top the leaderboard come Sunday evening. The odds are even better that, even if none of them do top the field, one or more of them will be in the hunt on Sunday, and will end up in the Top 5 after 72 holes are played.

As far as Round One went, an 11-year pro from North Dakota by way of Texas Christian University (“Go Frogs!”) named Tom Hoge (pronounced “hoagie”, like the sandwich) topped the leaderboard after 18 holes.

Starting on the tenth hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links under clear skies in a dead calm, Hoge opened with birdies at 10 and 11, carded another at 18, and went on a six-hole birdie run on holes 3 through 8 after pars at 1 and 2. His clean-card 9-under 63 is one off of the tournament course record of 62 that is jointly held by Dave Kite (1983 – win), David Duval (1997 – runner-up), and was most recently equaled by Patrick Cantlay in last year ’s first round.

Hoge is trailed by Irishman Seamus Power, who carded an 8-under 64 at Spyglass Hill, and NorCal’s own Austin Smotherman, a native of Loomis, CA, a small town straddling Hwy 80 just east of Sacramento, who carded a 7-under 65 at Pebble Beach, more than offsetting a pair of bogeys with eagles at the par-5 sixth and eighteenth holes. Swede Jonas Blixt, who played at Spyglass Hill today, is tied with Smotherman at 7-under.

Patrick Cantlay is the highest-place of the bigger names in the field, T-5 at 6-under after his opening round at Spyglass Hill; Jason Day is T-14, 3-under at Pebble Beach; Jordan Spieth sits at T-31 after a 3-under round at MPCC, and Maverick McNealy is T-51 with a 2-under round, also at MPCC.

Late-Sunday Cal-Stanford alumni matchup at Fortinet Championship goes Cal’s way as Max Homa wins

“I’d rather be lucky than good” was one of my late father’s favorite sayings, but what’s hard to beat is someone who’s both—and that sums up 8-year Tour pro Max Homa’s final round at the Fortinet Championship pretty well.

Opening the tournament with a 5-under 67 was a good start for the 2013 Cal grad, but following the 67 with an even-par 72 must have made for a tense Friday evening—he was not to know this, of course, but no one else who carded an even-par round on Friday finished better than T-22, and 18 of those who did, missed the cut.

Still, Homa’s five-under standing was good enough to make the cut with a shot or two to spare, and a Saturday pairing with fellow SoCal native and notable positive-thinker Phil Mickelson may have been just what the doctor ordered for him. After a so-so one-under opening nine in which he balanced two bogeys against three birdies, Homa and Mickelson had a chat and decided that they both needed to get something done on the back nine.

It worked. Mickelson ran off a string of five birdies after a bogey on the 12th, and Homa birdied six of the nine holes, including a string of three to close out the round, with no bogeys, for a back-nine 30. The “moving day” 65 put Homa in a five-way tie for 3rd, two strokes behind co-leaders Maverick McNealy and Jim Knous.

Homa and McNealy ran off identical 33s on the front nine on Sunday, and Homa slipped back by a stroke with an untimely bogey and the par-4 10th hole—but it was at the 12th, a relatively straightforward 393-yard par-four, that things began to get interesting.

Homa’s drive strayed right and ended up in a reasonable lie in the right rough, leaving him 94 yards to the back-center flag. Trusting in the advice of his caddy, Joe Greiner, Homa lofted a shot to the center of the green that took three hops and rolled on a curving left-to-right path right into the cup for an eagle—and all of a sudden he was one back of the leader McNealy. Skill? Yes, but even Homa admitted after the round that it was a lucky shot.

Stanford grad McNealy, whose game had cooled off after a second-round 64, opened his fourth-round back nine with a string of six pars, while Homa followed the pitch-in eagle on 12 with a birdie on 13 to tie the lead. For the next three holes nothing changed, as the two carded identical pars on holes 14 through 16—and then came the 17th hole.

Max Homa hit two pure shots, one from the tee and one from the fairway that landed 18 feet above the hole, and rolled in a tricky right-to-left downhill slider to make birdie, and take over the lead, by a stroke, from McNealy.

McNealy, on the other hand, fared rather less well on the 17th hole than his namesake automobile—a nondescript compact marketed by Ford in the 1970s—ever had in the marketplace.

Coming over the top with probably the only bad swing he had made all day, McNealy’s tee shot at the 361-yard par-four hit a tree on the right and dropped well short, leaving him farther from the hole—189 yards—than he was from the tee. His second flew the green, and his chip from the trampled-down rough behind the putting surface raced by the hole on the downslope and ran off the front of the green. Another chip, from the front apron, left him an 11-foot bogey putt down the hill, which narrowly missed, followed by a two-footer for double-bogey that finally dropped.

And just like that, Max Homa was the tournament leader by three strokes.

A sloppy but routine par at the 18th by Homa put McNealy in the unenviable position of having to hole out from the fairway to tie the round and force a playoff. That fairytale scenario didn’t pan out, but the young man who literally grew up on Pebble Beach Golf Links before his family moved to Hillsborough, on the San Francisco Peninsula, when he was a teen, and who was more interested in hockey than golf before walking on to the Stanford Men’s Golf team, showed his fortitude on the final hole. With a calm that showed that he had put the relative ugliness of the previous hole behind him, he striped a center-cut drive down the final fairway, followed by a beauty of a shot to the back of the green at the par-five 18th, rolling in a 32-foot eagle putt to cement a solo second-place finish.

It was an exciting final-round tussle between a SoCal kid who came north to play college golf for public university Cal-Berkeley, and a NorCal native who made his mark on the team for the exclusive private university across the bay. This was Homa’s third win, and second in his home state, and while McNealy is still looking for his first PGA Tour victory, this tournament, and his narrow miss to finish second at last year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, show that his fans are not likely to have to wait long before he hoists a trophy on the PGA Tour.

Day One is in the books at the 2021 Fortinet Championship

Given the variety of weather and playing conditions stress that has plagued the PGA Tour’s Napa Valley stop in recent years—high winds, fires, smoke-filled skies—a day that begins under a cool, grey overcast and finished under clear, sunny skies, with only light, fitful breezes, has to be considered a total win. Such was Day One of the 2021 Fortinet Championship at the Silverado Resort and Spa.

Tournament spokesman Phil Mickelson had a fair first round, opening with a 2-under 70, slotting him in at T-34 at the close of play; it was a good fit with his opening round record here at Silverado from 2016 through 2020: 69–69–65–75–71. The two other most notable names in the field, and the two top-ranked players at Silverado this week, World #1 Jon Rahm, and 2021 Masters champ and #20-ranked Hideki Matsuyama, had mixed results, due mostly to moderate to poor performances on the greens. Matsuyama closed out the day with a 3-under 69, T-23; while Rahm carded an even-par 72 to sit T-104 at the end of the day.

Sitting atop the leaderboard at the end of the first round was Kansas native and ASU grad Chez Reavie, who carded a 7-under 65 on the strength of Top 10 rankings in both Strokes-Gained-Approach and Strokes-Gained Putting. Tied for second behind Reavie are American Cameron Tringale and Canadian Adam Hadwin, both a stroke back at 6-under 66.

Among NorCal-adjacent players, SoCal native and former Cal Men’s Golf player Max Homa got his tournament off to a strong start with a 5-under 67, T-4. This is by far his best first-round performance on Silverado’s North Course, where he has opened with rounds of 72, 80 (ouch!), 72, and 70 in his past recent appearances.

Three Stanford Men’s Golf alumni, Patrick Rodgers, Maverick McNealy, and Joseph Bramlett, are next in the pack of NorCal-connected players, at 4-under, 3-under, and 3-under, respectively.

Among the former winners of this event that are in the field this year, Emiliano Grillo (2015), Brendan Steele (2016, 2017), and Kevin Tway (2018) all came in at 2-under 70, while Cameron Champ (2019) struggled to a 1-over 73.

A leavening of big names enriches the field in Napa this week for PGA Tour season opener

Before the PGA Tour’s changeover to the split schedule in 2013–2014, the events which were played in the Fall and early winter, after the Tour Championship, were known as the Fall Series. These tournament were generally played by a mix of young guns, mid-packers, and former greats who had slipped off their game—players who had to scramble for starts in the regular season and were looking for opportunities to play their way into, or back into, the mainstream events of the Tour.

With the onset to the split schedule some things changed, and some things stayed the same. FedEx Cup points and a shot at a Masters berth were added to the plate for these events, adding further incentive for their traditional fields, but the fields generally remained the same, with few of the big names wanting or needing to tee it up and play before the traditional season-openers in Hawaii in January.

The newly revamped Fortinet Championship (formerly the Safeway Open; before that the Frys.com Open) sits in a somewhat precarious spot in the schedule this year—after the FedEx Cup and the week-long PGA Tour “off-season”, and immediately before the Ryder Cup. The crème de la crème of American players are in Wisconsin practicing at Whistling Straits with Ryder Cup skipper Steve Stricker, so some of the big names that golf fans would love to see this week won’t be in the field. Despite that, there will still be plenty of talent, and a few big names, striding the fairways of the North Course at the Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa later this week.

One big-name early commit is fan favorite Phil Mickelson. Mickelson was the official tournament spokesman for event during its four-year run as the Safeway Open, thanks to his association with tournament organizers Lagardère Sports, and has remained in that role after the handover to cyber-security company Fortinet as presenting sponsor of the event. Presumably he doesn’t need to be in Wisconsin this week to prep for his role as a Ryder Cup vice-captain.

One surprising, and very welcome, name in the field this week is Jon Rahm, the current holder of the World #1 ranking and a member of the 2021 European Ryder Cup team that will be in Whistling Straits next week.

You have to read down the OWGR list to #20, Hideki Matsuyama, for the next top-tier name that is appearing in the field at Silverado this week, hopscotching over a bunch of guys who will be teeing it up at Whistling Straits next week, on both squads. Webb Simpson and Kevin Na round out the rest of the Top 30 players who are in the field this week.

Plenty of other notable, recognizable names are in the field, though, such PGA Tour stalwarts as Charley Hoffman, Charles Howell III, Matt Kuchar, Pat Perez, Jason Dufner, Brandt Snedeker, and Harold Varner III.

Former champions of the event who are in the field this year include Sangmoon Bae (2014) and Emiliano Grillo (2015) from the Frys.com Open days; Brendan Steele (2016, 2017), the first Safeway Open champ, who liked it so well he came back and did it again the next year; and Kevin Tway (2018). Other players of note whom fans will be able to see this week are Danny Willett, who benefitted from Jordan Spieth’s 2016 Masters meltdown to take home that year’s green jacket; and newly named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, Will Zalatoris.

Players of particular interest to Northern California golf fans include 2019 winner Cameron Champ, of Sacramento; Kevin Chappell, out of Fresno and UCLA; former Stanford Men’s golf team members Patrick Rodgers, Brandon Wu, San José native Joseph Bramlett, and Hillsborough’s Maverick McNealy; Cal Men’s golf graduates James Hahn, of Alameda, and Max Homa; former SJSU Spartan Mark Hubbard, and Sacramento native and Fresno State grad Nick Watney.

Daniel Berger seals the deal, in style, for 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am win

The eagle must be Daniel Berger’s favorite bird—especially after he made four eagles this weekend at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, including two in the final round. The second eagle of the fourth round, on Pebble’s world-famous par-five 18th hole, was clinched by a 31-foot putt that cemented his victory when two putts would have done the job.

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 14: Daniel Berger of the United States celebrates his eagle putt to win on the 18th green during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links on February 14, 2021 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Local boy Maverick McNealy—very local, in fact, given that he grew up in a house overlooking Pebble’s 16th fairway before his family moved to Hillsborough, in San Mateo County—produced his fourth round in the 60s to take second, his highest finish on the PGA Tour.

Berger, who won at Fort Worth’s Colonial Country Club in the opening event of the post-lockdown return of professional golf last spring, trailed Jordan Spieth by two strokes going into the final round, but while Spieth wobbled to a two-under round of 70, Berger carded the low round of the day, a 7-under 65, to take the win.

An eagle three at the short par-five 2nd hole set the tone for Berger’s round, followed by birdies at the 3rd and 6th holes. The only misstep he made was a bogey at the notorious par-4 eight hole, where his approach shot landed long and left, on a slope above the green, leaving him a tricky pitch to a green that sloped away.

As Spieth and another contender, Patrick Cantlay, fell away in the latter stages of the round, journeyman pro Nate Lashley stepped up to challenge for the win. Lashley, whose sole victory on the PGA Tour is the 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic, started the day in a three-way tie with Berger and Cantlay, two strokes back of Spieth. Four birdies on the front nine saw him briefly in the lead before Berger’s birdie on the par-4 ninth, then reclaiming the top spot with a birdie on the tenth hole.

Berger and Lashley remained tied, with Spieth and Cantlay struggling to right their ships and make a move, through the fifteenth hole. In the meantime, Stanford University alumnus McNealy put together a string of four birdies from holes 11 through 15 to make up ground on the two co-leaders, pulling within a stroke of the pair.

And then came the 16th hole. A downhill, left-to-right turning par-four with trees and a tank-trench bunker guarding the front of the green, #16 has rarely been cast in the role of a make-or-break hole in this tournament. Berger assayed the hole with a drive to the edge of the left rough, an approach to the bottom of the green and two putts from 25 feet—nothing special, nothing memorable. Lashley, on the other hand, will remember this hole for a long time; in fact, it may haunt his dreams for years to come.

Playing from good position on the upper tier of the fairway, about 150 yards from the flag, Lashley’s approach shot hit the back of the green just past the hole and bounded over the edge into the rough, leaving a touchy little punch-pitch to a tucked flag. His pitch back to the green rolled out to about 12 or 13 feet past the hole, from where he proceeded to putt one, two, three… and yes, four times before closing out the hole.

Just like that, the one-time real estate agent who is, appropriately enough, sponsored by Rocket Mortgage, played himself out of the running to win the tournament, and ultimately into a T5 finish that cost him $1,102,725 compared to a potential win, or $392,925 if he had parred in to finish tied for second with (as it turned out) Maverick McNealy. That’s $367,575 or $130,942 per putt, depending on the scenario.

With Lashley out of contention, Maverick McNealy, playing a group ahead, could potentially force a playoff with an eagle-three at the final hole. With the 18th hole playing from a more-forward tee position, the bold and the accurate were given the incentive they needed to risk a two-shot approach on the finest par-5 in existence.

McNealy did just that. After a 277-yard drive to the left fairway, he slung a high-draw three-iron shot (a three-iron!) 232 yards to the green, putting the club away with a flourish, like D’Artagnan sheathing his rapier, as he watched the ball soar toward its target through the California sky. That target is a 4,400-square-foot green guarded by bunkers and a cypress tree that looks like it was planted there by Mother Nature with her own two hands, and McNealy’s golf ball went after it like a lawn dart heading for your cousin Billy’s left foot.

Left with a 22-foot putt for eagle, McNealy narrowly missed his chance to force a playoff in the event of a birdie by Berger. His ball slid past the hole on the high side so closely that some of the left-side dimples were rolling over air, finishing less than a full turn outside the hole. He tapped in for a birdie and a mortal lock on solo second.

Now it was up to Berger. Taking on the right side of the fairway, as he had the day before with disastrous results, he squeezed his drive between the infamous fairway tree and the bunkers on the right, leaving himself a longer shot, at 253 yards, for his eagle try than McNealy had had just a few minutes before. What followed was, in Berger’s words, “…one of the best 3-woods I’ve ever hit in my life.”, a swinging draw that ended up 31 feet above the flag.

It was the type of finish that Tour pros dream of at night, tucked up in their Florida tax-haven mansions: two putts to win on the most famous finishing hole this side of St Andrews—and Berger played it like a boss.

For all its length it was a straightforward putt, straight down the fall line, as Johnny Miller used to say, and the young man from Florida who started out as a tennis player before switching to golf (which is a very Florida thing to do) rolled it in like it was the winning putt in a Saturday-morning Nassau.

The 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was one for the ages. For as much as we love this event, and the iconic landscape over which it is contested, it has produced some ho-hum finishes in the past—do you remember Ted Potter, Jr’s three-stroke win in 2018, or Vaughn Taylor in 2016? Neither does anyone else.

But despite the weak field, which had pundits (mostly of the sports-betting variety) wringing their hands and clutching their pearls in the lead-up to the event, and despite the lack of fans, and amateur playing partners for the pros, this year’s tournament had drama and pathos in equal measure: Jordan Spieth’s pursuit of a renewed grasp of his game, which had made a long-overdue reappearance the previous week in Phoenix; local kid Maverick McNealy’s dashing run for his first Tour victory, literally in his old backyard; and journeyman-pro Nate Lashley’s surge to the top and ignominious crash in four putts at the 16th hole, all eclipsed by Daniel Berger’s three-step climax—driver, 3-wood, 30-foot putt—on the most beautiful finishing hole in the game of golf.

Young guns rule after 36 holes at 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

After the first round of the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was played under a gloomy grey overcast, blue skies predominated for most of the day on the Monterey Peninsula during Round 2, but at the cost of breezy conditions. At Spyglass Hill, where 14 of 18 holes are sheltered by the massive pines and cypress trees of the Del Monte Forest, the average score increased by less than a full stroke from Day 1 to Day 2, but at Pebble Beach Golf Links, which runs in a narrow out-and-back band right along the shore of Carmel Bay, the scoring average jumped by a little over two strokes.

Pebble Beach, California – February 12: Jordan Spieth on the eighth tee at Spyglass Hill in the second round of the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Statistically speaking, players who drew Pebble in Round 1 and Spyglass Hill in Round 2 enjoyed a one-stroke advantage over those who went the other way, a fact that is borne out by the composition of the top of the leaderboard after 36 holes. Of the 13 players between 1st place and T8, 11 played Pebble/Spy. After a lot of adding and subtracting and squinting at the numbers, the conclusion that comes out of all this is that Spyglass is harder than Pebble, but Pebble gets harder, by more, when the wind blows.

Another conclusion that jumps out from a long, hard look at the scoreboard is that the young guns are pretty much in charge of this tournament.

Of those top 13 players I mentioned before, one is 19 years old, five are in their 20s, five are in their 30s, and two geezer-codger 40-somethings snuck in there when no one was looking. Looking at the full field, players in their 40s that finished above the cut line were as rare as affordable housing in Carmel; Jim Furyk, at 50, is the elder statesman of the weekend crew, followed by 49-year-old Brian Gay. Furyk’s position comes as little surprise, though; he won the PGA Tour Champions event here last September, taking home a little more than what a two-way tie for 5th will net this weekend.

The name at the top of the leaderboard today, Jordan Spieth, is one that was much spoken of coming into this tournament. Spieth wowed PGA Tour fans and sent the golf-betting tyros back to their spreadsheets last week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open when he went 67–67–61 before losing the plot and closing with a 1-over 72. Despite the stumble in the final lap, that performance showed that his long search for the game that abandoned him after seeing him to eleven wins in his first four years on Tour, including three majors, is finally bearing fruit.

On the strength of the showing in Phoenix, and keeping in mind that he is a past champion of this event, in 2017, there were high hopes for his performance this week. After closing out the first round with a more-than-respectable 65 at Pebble Beach, which was still three strokes behind 18-hole leader Patrick Cantlay’s record-tying 62, Spieth backed it up with the low round of the day today, on either course, a 5-under 67 at Spyglass Hill, for a two-day tally of 12-under.

First-round leader Cantlay found Spyglass Hill a more difficult proposition than Spieth did, having a much tougher day there than he did on Thursday at Pebble. After opening his round with a double-bogey six at the 10th hole, he could only set three birdies against the double and two bogeys, to card a 1-over 73, leaving him leaning heavily on his first-round 62 to keep him within three strokes of the new leader, Spieth.

The third twenty-something in the top four is 27-year-old Daniel Berger. Playing the tougher Spyglass/Pebble draw, Berger managed to better his first-round score by a stroke at Pebble, even in the breezy conditions, bucking the trend that saw Pebble play two strokes more difficult today, on average, than it had on Thursday. His 67-66–133 sees him in second-place behind Spieth, whom he will join in the final grouping, along with third-place Henrik Norlander, tomorrow.

The other Spyglass/Pebble player who bucked the scoring trend today was Paul Casey, who posted 68-67–135 to share T4 with Cantlay, fellow Brit Tom Lewis, and Scotsman Russell Knox. Casey also bucked the youth trend as the only player over 40 sitting T4 or better after 36 holes.

Rounding out the under-30s at the top end of the scoreboard are Stanford alum Maverick McNealy, 25, and 19-year-old Akshay Bhatia, of Wake Forest, North Carolina.

McNealy, the oldest son of Silicon Valley tech legend and Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, put together rounds of 68 and 69 at Pebble Beach and Spyglass, respectively; at 7-under he heads into the weekend five strokes back of leader Spieth.

Bhatia, who joined an elite group that includes Jack Nicklaus and Davis Love III when he hit all 18 greens in regulation at Pebble Beach in the first round, found Spyglass Hill a tougher row to hoe in Round 2, carding a 1-over 73 to put up against his first-round 64. Bhatia and McNealy are tied with Americans Brian Stuard, Nate Lashley, and Tom Hoge, and 46-year-old Aussie Cameron Percy, in 8th place going into the weekend.

With no amateurs in the event this year, and only two courses in play, the usual 54-hole cut is by the board, and Saturday and Sunday will see all 69 players remaining in the field playing Pebble Beach Golf Links both days. Saturday’s forecast is for intermittent light-to-moderate rain in the morning, clearing but turning breezy in the afternoon—conditions that do not bode well for players who are hoping to make a move up the leaderboard before the final round.

Don’t give up on the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

 Circumstances have really piled it on to the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Public health restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic mean that there will be no fans allowed on the property this year. There will be no amateurs—celebrities or CEOs— playing in the event, and the resulting reduction in the size of the field means that the scenic Monterey Peninsula Country Club Shore Course will be left out of the mix, leaving just the pros to duke it out on Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill. Not only that, but the field is not just lacking star power of the celebrity kind; for the most part the stars of the golf world are staying away, too.

Still, for the fans watching from home—which is all of them—there are still a lot of reasons to tune in Thursday through Friday. With a polar vortex and yet another oddly named winter storm pounding much of the country east of the Rockies, the prospect of seeing golf being played on your TV set against the backdrop of the picturesque coastal scenery of the Monterey Peninsula isn’t a bad thing to look forward to.

Of course, the weather is always a consideration here in Steinbeck Country in early February—they don’t call it “Crosby Weather” for nothing—but the forecast as I am writing this is calling for a chance of rain Thursday after sundown, partly cloudy skies Friday, another chance of rain Saturday, and partly cloudy conditions again on Sunday. Compared to the deep freeze most of the country is being subjected to, this forecast is heavenly.

But who are the fans going to be seeing this week? One of the criticisms that has been leveled at this year’s event is a less-than-stellar gathering of golf talent. The tournament could initially lay claim to only one player in the Top 10 of the World Golf Rankings, World No. 1 Dustin Johnson, a two-time winner of this event; the next highest ranked players in the field were #11, Patrick Cantlay; #15, Daniel Berger; and #17, Paul Casey.

With ranking points available in the event determined by the strength of the field, and Pebble’s points running down in the low 30s, the tournament was starting to look like an opposite-field event—one of those also-ran tournaments like the Puerto Rico Open or Puntacana that are put on against a WGC event to give the “other” players something to do that weekend.

The dearth of higher-ranked players can be partially attributed to the absence of the CEOs and other high-rolling hotshots that make this tournament a top-tier networking event. Pebble has always been a draw for Tour players who are on the lookout for corporate sponsorships to carry them over those hard times when the top-ten finishes aren’t coming thick and fast. The fact that Pebble is followed in short order by the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, an event sponsored by Tiger Woods; and a WGC event in Florida is another excuse—oh, I mean reason—that has been cited by some of the higher-ranking players for taking this week off.

And then the somewhat weak field at this year’s event got even weaker with the withdrawal of Dustin Johnson, who cited jet-lag and a need to rest after winning a European Tour event in Saudi Arabia the previous weekend. Johnson’s withdrawal dropped the OWGR points for Pebble to 30—an all-time low.

Still, there are a number of players in the field that have drawing power for even the casual golf fan. Phil Mickelson, who shares the record for most wins in the event, at five, with Mark O’Meara, will be there. Jordan Spieth, who last week in Phoenix showed some of the fire that powered him to 11 wins in his first four years on Tour, including three majors: the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015, and the Open Championship in 2017, is in the field. Former World # 1 Jason Day, who has placed T5 or better in five of his last six starts in this tournament, is back, along with 2018 Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari. Both are looking to break long-running winless streaks. Perennial fan favorite Rickie Fowler is making his first appearance in the AT&T Pro-Am since 2012.

For Bay Area golf fans the chance to see some locally familiar names is also a draw. Former Stanford Men’s Golf standouts Patrick Rodgers, Maverick McNealy, and Joseph Bramlett are in the field, along with former Cal players Max Homa, and James Hahn, and San Jose State Men’s Golf alum Mark Hubbard.

It’s been a tough year since the previous AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but I trust that the event that has weathered World War II, hail storms, tornados, and even a snow delay in 1962, will still put on a great show for golf fans this week.

Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula showcased by glorious weather on Day 1 of 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Do you hear that? It’s the sound of Monterey/Carmel real estate prices rising as a worldwide television audience is treated to views of Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, and Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course in gorgeous, Chamber-of-Commerce weather on Day 1 of the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

The vista of these three immaculately prepared courses under a brilliant, jewel-blue California sky is sure to have well-heeled residents of the storm-ridden, snowbound portions of the country looking to their 401K’s, calling their brokers, and checking real estate listings. But when I say well-heeled, I mean it – the median price of a home in Monterey hovers just under $800k; in Carmel it’s just north of $1.3M.

But enough about real estate, let’s talk about golf. The clear, calm weather that is producing the awe-inspiring views here in the Del Monte Forest is also allowing the players in the field to put up some impressive scores.

Canadian Nick Taylor parlayed a windless day on the easier of the three courses in the tournament rota into an eight-under 63 and the 18-hole lead. Playing MPCC back-side/front-side, the 31-year-old native of Winnipeg opened with an eagle-three on the par-5 tenth hole, then went on to card a pair of birdies before making the turn. He then bookended the front nine with matching pairs of birdies to close out the opening-round lead in his seventh appearance in this event.

Asked about the closing birdies, Taylor noted, “Finished with two great shots, a 5-iron and 3-iron on the last two holes to set up two birdies there; … 5-iron into 8, 3-iron off nine tee, the par-3.”

“This is one of my favorite events of the year every year. You just can’t beat these three golf courses; they’re so fun to play.”

Patrick Cantlay, the SoCal phenom who fought back from back issues early in his pro career, rode a roller coaster around Spyglass Hill today – alternating birdies and bogies for the first five holes, then lighting up the back nine with five birdies against one bogey, posting a first-round 66 (6-under) on the acknowledged most-difficult course in the tournament rota.

Six-under rounds were also put up on Pebble Beach and MPCC Shore by Chase Seiffert and Harry Higgs, respectively.

Harold Varner III, who is making his first appearance at Pebble Beach since playing in the Champions Tour First Tee event 13 years ago, posted a 5-under round at Pebble Beach, carding three birdies a side, with a lone bogey on #12, the longest par-three on the course – and a deceptively difficult hole that has stunned more than one player over the years.

Another half-dozen players closed out their first round at five-under, including former Cal Men’s golf player Max Homa and Stockton native Ricky Barnes.

Former Stanford Men’s Golf star Maverick McNealy opened strong at Pebble Beach, carding three birdies on the front nine, but went a little flat on the second nine with no birdies, a bogey on the 11th hole, and a four-putt double-bogey seven on the 18th – a disappointing effort that was made even more painful by the two-foot bogey putt that horseshoed around the hole to leave an 18-incher for double. McNealy goes into the second round at even par.

San Jose’s Joseph Bramlett, another player who has battled back problems early in his career, closed in even-par 71 at MPCC Shore, with two bogies per side against a total of five birdies.

Second-round play starts Friday at 8:00 AM, with the weather forecast calling for continued clear and slightly cooler conditions.

Maverick McNealy makes strong start to pro career in first round of 2017 Safeway Open

Maverick McNealy, the former Stanford men’s golf standout who is making his first start as a professional golfer this week at the Safeway Open, at Napa’s Silverado Resort and Spa,  brings a unique background and point of view to a pro golf career. McNealy, who ended his amateur career ranked #2 in the world, after a stint at #1, is not your typical highly ranked college golfer using college golf as a springboard to a pro career.

Former Stanford men’s golf star Maverick McNealy lines up his birdie putt on the par three 15th hole at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, California during the first round of the 2017 Safeway Open. (photo by author)

The 21-year-old graduated from Stanford with a degree in Management Science and Engineering—not a more typical future-Tour-pro soft option such as Communications or Sports Management—and for the first couple of years of his college career had looked forward to following college golf with a career in business.

There’s precedent for his early direction—McNealy’s father is Scott McNealy, co-founder and former CEO of Sun Microsystems, a well-known (if not legendary) figure in Silicon Valley. With a Stanford degree in a rigorous dual-business/engineering discipline, and his father’s example to follow, the younger McNealy anticipated following his college golf career with a career in business.

In a statement he posted on the Stanford’s collegiate sports website, McNealy explained his decision to pursue a professional golf career. “It wasn’t until after my sophomore year that it even crossed my mind that I might be good enough to give it a shot …my top priorities in college lay with my team and my studies. I wouldn't have traded one day with my teammates wearing the Cardinal red for anything.”

A former junior hockey player as well as a golfer, McNealy signed with Stanford in November 2012, and through his sophomore and junior years he stood out even on the traditionally strong Stanford squad. Winning six times in his sophomore season, and four more times as a junior, McNealy won the 2015 Fred Haskins Award as the top male college golfer.

McNealy struggled with his game starting in the spring of his junior year, the result of equipment changes he made in the wake of Nike Golf’s exit from the golf hard goods market. A tough playing schedule combined with a rigorous school schedule saw him stepping away from golf for a rest in the summer before his senior year. He won only once as a senior, which left him in a three-way tie for the school wins record with Patrick Rodgers and another familiar name in Stanford men’s golf, Tiger Woods (who did it in two years, as an Econ major.)

With a frankly privileged Silicon Valley upbringing—wealthy parents, and an education from the Harker School and Stanford—McNealy could coast through life, but that’s not his way. Using the example of his father, whom he calls his “hero”, McNealy wants to use the opportunities afforded him by a pro golf career to grow the game of golf and “…be a role model and an inspiration to young golfers and athletes.” The elder McNealy employed 235,000 people worldwide during his tenure at Sun Microsystems, and his son would like to have a similar positive impact on the world.

Of his father, McNealy says, “If I could work half as hard as he did, and accomplish a fraction of the things he did, I could make the world a better place.”

McNealy brings a certain level of experience in professional golf to his first start as a pro, having played in nine professional tournaments as an amateur, five on the PGA Tour – making the cut in all five of those events. He has also brought a high level of business acumen to bear on his transition into the pro ranks. Working with his management team at P3SportsReps, McNealy has secured endorsement deals with UnderArmour for apparel, financial services company KPMG for hat space, and Callaway for equipment.

The Callaway decision springs from his struggles with the transition when Nike pulled out of the business, and his education in engineering. “I’m an engineer by training, and I love the way they (Callaway) nitpick and try to make the best possible golf clubs.”

The Safeway Open is the first of seven PGA Tour events for which McNealy has secured sponsors’ exemptions, a list which includes the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (where his father will be his pro-am partner), the Farmers Insurance Open, AT&T Byron Nelson, and Dean & DeLuca Invitational.

The Safeway event is a comfortable start for Bay Area native McNealy, with familiar climate, conditions and course—Stanford played the Gifford Collegiate event at Silverado last fall.

McNealy had a strong showing in his first round as a pro, carding a 4-under 68 to finish the round T-8.

Going out in 1-under 35, McNealy was a little wobbly on the greens on the front nine, taking 17 putts, with a three-putt bogey on the par-three 2nd hole, and a handful of just-missed birdie opportunities. He closed out the front side on a rising note with birdies at holes 8 and 9.

A bogey on the 10th hole opened his second nine, but it was the last over-par number he posted on the day. His tee shot at the over-water par-three 11th hole settled 15 feet from the hole, and he slid the putt right into the throat of the hole for a birdie to go 2-under for the round. McNealy then made a run of three pars on holes 12 through 14.

The pressure didn’t seem to phase the the youngster, but after he made a tougher-than-it-looked downhill/sidehill 4-1/2-foot par putt on #12, his father, who had been following Maverick all day, was heard to say, “This is hard, it’s really hard.”

The younger McNealy seemed to get his game dialed in on the back nine, with closer approaches that contributed to a lower putt-count—14 vs the 17 he took on the front side. Firing up just when it counted, McNealy then put together a string of three straight birdies on holes 15 through 17.

On 15, a 189-yard par-three with water in play right, McNealy played a gutsy shot to the tucked right-front flag. His tee shot hit in the 4-foot gap between the flagstick and the edge of the green, carried past the flag, then rolled back, leaving a 7-foot putt for birdie that he dropped with conviction.

A scrambling birdie from the left greenside rough at 16, and another birdie on 17, after stuffing his approach to the elevated green to 2-1/2 feet, saw McNealy move to 4-under, where he finished after closing the round with a par at the par-five 18th hole for a back-nine 33 and a 4-under 68 final score.

McNealy showed his strength in his Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green and Strokes Gained: Approach The Green stats, where he posted numbers of 4.426 and 3.095, respectively; 3rd and 4th on the day. His Strokes Gained total was 3.965, tied for 8th for the field.

Even a low-key early-season event like the Safeway Open represents a tough transition when making the jump from amateur to professional competition, and if the youngster from Stanford carries on as he began today, it seems a pretty good bet that he will make the kind of mark on the PGA Tour that he did in his Stanford career.