George McNeill ready for PGA Tour Champions debut at ‘home’ in Naples

George McNeill is back at home this weekend in more ways than one.

The Fort Myers resident, who turned 50 last October, will be making his PGA Tour Champions debut at the 39th annual Chubb Classic at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples. He’ll be surrounded by a vocal throng of Southwest Florida supporters in the gallery and a slew of familiar faces in the clubhouse.

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“It’s awesome. Everybody has been more than welcoming, especially the guys that I haven’t seen in a long time,” McNeill said. “I feel like I’m back at home almost. I am kind of at home being in Naples, but being back with all the guys on tour I know and recognize is good.”

McNeill is also eyeing the Chubb as his return to playing a full golf schedule, something he’s been working toward for the past 18 months.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, and I’ve tried to prep my game and my body and everything else for this tournament, for this week, to get ready and obviously hopefully a long career,” he said. “We’ll see how my game and my body hold up. But if that does, I feel like I can be competitive and be relevant for a while.”

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McNeill will be one of 78 golfers competing in the 54-hole championship for a share of the $1.8 million purse. Among them are World Golf Hall-of-Famer and five-time Chubb champion Bernhard Langer, former World No. 1 players David Duval and Tom Lehman, past Major champions Angel Cabrera, Mark Calcavecchia, Darren Clarke and David Toms, and former Chubb winners Stephen Ames (2024), Scott Parel (2020), Miguel Angel Jimenez (2019), Joe Durant (2018), Lee Janzen (2015), Kirk Tripplett (2014) and Kenny Perry (2012). Defending Chubb champion Justin Leonard will also be back to defend his crown.

McNeill, a 1993 North Fort Myers High School graduate who later went on to a standout golf career at Florida State, made 324 career starts on the PGA Tour. He posted 21 top 10 finishes and two victories, winning the 2007 Frys.com Open in Las Vegas and the 2012 Puerto Rico Open. In preparation for his Champions debut, McNeill played in 13 PGA and Korn Ferry tournaments in 2025, his busiest season in five years.

“My plan the whole time was to keep playing to get competitive and competition ready for this,” McNeill said. “It’s hard to just show up when you haven’t played in a golf tournament in a long time. Last year on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour was about getting ready and being competitive and tournament tough. We’ll see when it comes Friday, but I feel like I’m ready to play.”

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McNeill, who is a member at Calusa Pines Golf Club in Naples, said he’s only played Tiburon’s Black Course a handful of times during his career. The first came in 2009 when McNeill, then in his third year on the PGA Tour, partnered with former Florida State teammate Jeff Sluman at the Shark Shootout.

“Maybe if I’ve played here five times in my career, that might be about it,” he said. “So I don’t have a ton of familiarity with it. But between Monday, (Wednesday), play again (Thursday) in the pro-am in the afternoon, three practice rounds, that’s plenty to get familiar with the golf course and hopefully that’s enough to get me around for the weekend.”

Seventeen years after playing his first PGA event in Naples, McNeill said it’s special to have the opportunity to begin the next stage of his professional career so close to home. While that understandably produces some nervousness and excitement, those emotions will subside once the tournament gets underway.

“Once I get inside the ropes, that’s my office, my area of expertise,” McNeill said. “Hopefully, I can block out all the outside noise and get back to basically playing tournament golf, which is what I do for a living. Hopefully, that’ll take over when it comes time. But I know there’s going to be plenty of people here, friends, family, everything. I’ll see them, whether it’s in between holes or whatever…but at the end of the day, this is my job.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: George McNeill tees off PGA Tour Champions career at Chubb