ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — Maverick McNealy has learned in his five years on the PGA Tour that trying to win a tournament is “designed to make you feel as uncomfortable as you possibly can.”
Standing in the 18th fairway Sunday in the RSM Classic, part of a four-way tie for the lead that included Florida State sophomore Luke Clanton, the 29-year-old McNealy had every reason to be uncomfortable.
He had gone nine hole without a birdie. From 185 yards away he chose a 6-iron, a club that had gone anywhere from 120 yards to 240 yards during a week of big wind and cold weather, and at that moment as warm as it had been all tournament.
The shot made it look like he had been there before, covering the flag and landing 5 feet away for a birdie and his first PGA Tour victory in his 134th start as a pro. It sends him to Maui to start next year and to the Masters in April for the first time.
“A moment I'll never forget,” he said.
Daniel Berger missed a 20-foot birdie attempt on the 18th that preceded McNealy's winner. He tied for second with Nico Echavarria and Clanton, both of whom missed par putts from inside 8 feet on the final hole that created the four-way tie.
Berger got a small consolation prize, moving inside the top 125 to keep a full PGA Tour card for 2025 when the fields will be smaller and only the top 100 keep cards.
Henrik Norlander, who was No. 126 in the FedEx Cup last year, had a 63-68 weekend and joined Berger as the two players who moved into the top 125.
For Joel Dahmen, it was a matter of staying there.
He was at No. 124 coming into the final tournament, had to make a 5-foot par putt just to make the cut on the number and then delivered a tee-to-green clinic — along with holing a 113-yard sand wedge for eagle early in his round — for a closing 64. It was enough to stay at No. 124 with nine points to spare.
“Two of the biggest pressure moments of my career I showed up, and I can take that going forward,” Dahmen said.
Clanton was a shot away from joining Nick Dunlap as amateur winners on the PGA Tour this year. Clanton, who has taken over as the top-ranked amateur in the world, now has two runner-up finishes and four top 10s in the seven PGA Tour starts the last five months.
He had the look of a winner, especially with McNealy stuck in neutral, when he poured in birdie putts on the 14th and 16th holes to tie for the lead. But he tugged his approach to the 18th into bunker, blasted out to 7 feet and missed his par putt. He shot 66.
“It’s going to be a tough one to definitely take, for sure, after bogeying the last,” Clanton said. “But I think it’s proven to me that out here I can win, so I’ll be training for that.”
Echavarria, who won in Japan a month ago, had not made a bogey all day until going long on the 18th, chipping to 9 feet and catching the lip with his par putt.
Michael Thorbjornsen was poised to move into the top 125 until he pulled his approach into the water on the par-5 15th hole and made bogey, closing with three pars for a 69. He tied for eighth and finished at No. 129. Thorbjornsen still has a full card next year from being No. 1 in PGA Tour University, but his status won't be as high.
Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., was the low Canadian, tying for fifth two shots back of McNealy.
McNealy, son of Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, had been doing some of his best work outside the ropes, particularly effecting a change in FedEx Cup points distribution to make it more equitable.
Missing was a victory, and this one came down to the wire. He went out in 33 and led by two going to the back nine, and then it became a grind. He holed a 15-foot par putt from the fringe on the 11th to stay in the lead, and saved par after going bunker-to-bunker on the 13th.
But he dropped a shot with an errant drive on the 14th, and when Echavarria birdied the 15th ahead of him, McNealy was out of the lead for the first time all day. He answered at just the right time, a 6-iron that covered the flag and settled just over 5 feet away.
The victory gets him into three $20 million events over the first two months of the year starting with The Sentry at Kapalua, along with his first trip to Augusta National.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press