The inside story of Maverick McNealy, the pilot, and flying to the Genesis Invitational
Adam Schupak- McNealy, a recently licensed as a pilot, flew himself to San Diego.
- This is the second tournament McNealy has flown to, but the first time he flew directly to the location of the event.
- McNealy plans to continue flying to tournaments when possible, using it as a training opportunity and to escape the Las Vegas heat.
LA JOLLA, Calif. – Maverick McNealy is named after the Ford Maverick car but he flew up the leaderboard in the final round of the Genesis Invitational like Maverick, the Top Gun pilot, by making nine birdies in his first 13 holes. He eventually finished second.
McNealy learned to become a pilot earning his private license in 2023 while he was sidelined with an injury, and this week he flew to a PGA Tour event for the first time in a Cirrus SR 22 single-engine piston prop plane.
McNealy, 29, said he flew from his home in Las Vegas out to Torrey Pines last month for the Farmers Insurance Open but landed in Palm Springs to practice with his team for a few days ahead of the tournament at La Quinta and drove the rest of the way.
This time, he treated the trip to San Diego as a training opportunity and had a flight instructor fly with him because he's heading to the next Tour event on a chartered plane headed for Mexico.
“It was a really fun way to get here,” McNealy told Golfweek on Saturday. “Kind of unique for me on the PGA Tour. I’m going to use it a ton to get to La Quinta for better weather practice and up north to Tahoe in the summer when it gets too hot in Las Vegas.”
Flying has become more than just a hobby for McNealy, a modern-day Arnold Palmer flying to tournaments. [Morgan Hoffmann was the last player to do so on Tour.] His wife, Maya, told PGATour.com, "He is watching airplane videos any time he doesn’t have a golf club in his hand. I don’t know how he has the time or the mental patience to get better at both things consistently … but he’s one of the most determined people I know.”
At the Genesis Invitational, he nearly flew off with the title.