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ATLANTA – Maverick McNealy is looking to make a lasting impression at the Tour Championship this week so that U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Keegan Bradley has no other choice but to take him as one of his six picks, which will be named on Aug. 27 for the 12-man team that will take on Team Europe at Bethpage Black.

McNealy, who finished 10th in the Ryder Cup rankings, could feel the weight of the world on his shoulders this week at East Lake Golf Club given that he’s already trying to win the season-ending 30-man championship for the FedEx Cup and a $10 million first prize, but that’s not how he looks at it.

“Pressure is a privilege,” said McNealy. “I’ve trained my whole life to play good golf under pressure. It just makes the good shots more fun.”

McNealy is an interesting study in perseverance. He was the rare No. 1-ranked amateur golfer when he finished at Stanford who debated whether he would turn pro or be a career amateur making his way in the business world. He is the son of Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy, and could have pursued his own Silicon Valley dreams.

Instead, he chose one of the toughest meritocracies, drafting a nearly 1,300-word explanation he posted on the Stanford athletics website why he would be joining the play-for-pay ranks in 2017. Ever since, it’s been a slow but steady climb to his first PGA Tour win at the 2024 RSM Classic in November and a career-best No. 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking earlier this year. (He entered this week at No. 19.)

Of course, there have been hills and valleys in his journey, but McNealy never doubted he would get to the winner’s circle. His former caddie of seven years, Travis McAlister, has witnessed him grow into the player he has become.

“Everyone wants something fast and everything microwavable. No one wants to bake anything anymore,” McAlister said. “With Mav we had to bake it a little bit.”

McNealy’s a throwback in a sense that he is a baked product. He had to get stronger, find the right equipment and tweak his swing with instructor Scott Hamilton, who has turned him into a much better iron player. (McNealy’s improved from 159th in 2022-23 to 118th last season to a career-best 44th in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green this year, the first year he’s gained strokes in that category.)

McNealy has never been afraid of hard work. Stanford coach Conrad Ray recalled on the “Better Than They Found It” podcast how as a walk-on for the Cardinal, McNealy shadowed Patrick Rodgers and adopted many of his training habits.

“He was like Patrick Rodgers’ little puppy dog. He’d watch Patrick practice and he’d watch Patrick think about his game. He’d watch Patrick journal,” Ray said. “One of the things that I still to this day, I encourage my guys all the time, but very few have the discipline to be able to do that. But very few take the time to journal about their games. And that was like Patrick’s, gosh, it was like his superpower in some respects.

“And Maverick started doing that. And that just discipline to the process was something that I think was infectious.”

McNealy has made sacrifices big and small on his path to becoming an elite player – he’d love to drink more coffee but he’s afraid about what it would do to his putting stroke – and qualify for East Lake for the first time in his career, one of seven first-timers in Atlanta. McAlister, for one, is confident he can handle the Ryder Cup pressure.

“He won’t be overcome with it,” McAlister said. “If you’re one of the 11 other guys on the Ryder Cup team, you want Mav as your partner and you want Mav putting your golf ball.”

McNealy was paired with Bradley at the first two signature events and got his version of a tryout in front of the coach. “It’s right where I wanted to be,” McNealy said, breaking into a smile, “there’s no other pairing I’d rather have had.”

Last week’s third-place finish at the BMW Championship could go a long way to solidifying McNealy’s selection on the team. One more top-5 finish at the Tour Championship likely would make it a no-brainer depending on what some of the other competitors still harboring Ryder Cup dreams do. It’s possible that Bradley could come down to choosing whether he should be the first playing captain for Team USA since Arnold Palmer in 1963 or taking McNealy. But McNealy said Bradley should go with his gut feel.

“He’s poured his heart and soul into it,” McNealy said. “I guarantee everyone top to bottom supports whatever move he makes. I’m going to comport myself like I’d be a good asset to the team.”

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