For guys like Maverick and Arjun, life as a professional golfer is way tougher
Picture: Joy Chakravarty
American golfer Maverick McNealy was named after the popular Ford model. Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun had nothing
to do with it, but the 29-year-old was literally and figuratively flying high after finishing second at last week’s
Genesis Invitational on the PGA Tour.
Ahead of the $20 million tournament, which was relocated to Torrey Pines from its home venue of Riviera Country Club
this year because of the Los Angeles wildfires, Maverick decided to put his newly acquired flying license to use and
hopped on to his Cirrus SR 22 single-engine twin-seater with his instructor. San Diego is only a couple of hours from
downtown LA by car, but Maverick intended to put some flying practice before getting on with the golf practice.
At a time when NetJets and chartered flights seem to be the in thing with professional golfers, McNealy’s decision to
fly himself in was a throwback to the time when the swashbuckling Arnold Palmer would regularly travel to Tour venues in
similar style.
However, the choice of transport by the world No26, who is expected to break into the top-20 following his Genesis
heroics that included a stunning final-round 8-under 64, came in for some criticism.
On a post by Golf Digest that showed visuals of McNealy making that trip, a user replied: “The perfect example of how
Daddy has millions so the kid can play golf every day and spend whatever he wants on whatever. Normal people will never
have the money to get a pilot’s license or have your life freed up to play golf every day and do nothing else.”
He was referring to Maverick’s father, billionaire Scott McNealy, the man who co-founded Sun Microsystems along with
Vinod Khosla and others. When Oracle acquired Sun for a whopping $7.4 billion way back in 2009, the McNealys banked
enough money to take care of generations.
The comment bothered Scott enough to jump on to X and post a reply.
“He earned every penny of that plane. I have never hit one shot for him his entire golf career. And correct, he is not a
normal golfer. He is very good. And he is smart, takes care of himself, and works very hard. Great role model for
success,” he said of his son.
Courtesy: PGA Tour
A Cirrus SR 22 single-engine plane costs around $1.17 million, and that’s not a sum Maverick needs to borrow from his
billionaire father. The 2024 RSM Classic champion has already earned over $15 million in his short and promising PGA
Tour career.
The whole incident reminded me of a time early in my golf journalism career when I was reporting on the 1999 Indian Open
in Kolkata, which was won by Arjun Atwal.
During one of the rounds, a spectator told me it was “so easy” for ‘Richie Rich’ Atwal (still remember him using that
term) to dominate. His contention was that Atwal could afford the best of facilities and coaching in the US, and never
had to bother about earning money, given his dad’s successful business.
It incensed me because in one casual statement, that man made a mockery of the countless hours of blood, sweat and tears
that Atwal had put in to become that good.
Now that I know Atwal much better, I have even more arguments and facts to support my views. And, I think many of those
apply to Maverick as well.
To be honest, it would have been “so easy” for the two of them to get into their father’s business – a whole lot less
painful process than pursuing the life of an elite athlete, and something that would have been a lot more rewarding
financially. And yet, they truly took the road less travelled by deciding to do something that nobody in their family
had even thought of, and then to have and maintain this utter conviction to chase their dreams.
Both are champions on the PGA Tour. That’s something their father could never have ‘fixed’. It requires plenty of
talent, skills, mental toughness, physical abilities and hard work to beat some 140 odd battle-hardened professionals,
who care two hoots about how much money your family has.
One line that Scott would often use during his time with Sun was “disagree and commit”. It later became a management
mantra. Slightly twisted from what Scott originally meant, but both Maverick and Atwal disagreed with what the society
thought would be best for them and committed to a different route.
In 2002, I was covering the US Open at Bethpage and stayed at Atwal’s house in Long Island for more than a week. That
was when I saw first-hand just how legendary his work ethics were. He’d drop me to Bethpage around 7am, head to a nearby
club and spend the whole day beating balls and practicing and pick me up almost 12 hours later at 7pm. This was his
schedule for every day that week.
Hats off also to their fathers for letting them go and then adapt to a whole new way of bringing up their kids as
athletes.
Yes…rags-to-riches stories are always special. But some riches-to-riches stories are endearing and inspiring as well.
And Maverick and Arjun’s are just that.
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