Trouble viewing this email? View in web browser

Monday, 17 February 2025
By Joy Chakravarty

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.

THE WEEK THAT WAS:

PGA TOUR:

Tournament: The Genesis Invitational
Winner: Ludvig Aberg (SWE)
Winner's Scores: 74-66-70-66 (12-under)
Prize fund/Winner’s Cheque: $20 million/$3.6 million
Indians in the field: None
Event this week: Mexico Open at VidantaWorld
Results Report

LIV GOLF:

Tournament: LIV Golf Adelaide
Individual winner: Joaquin Niemann (CHI/Torque GC)
Winner’s score: 67-71-65 (13-under)
Team winner: Fireballs GC (Garcia/Ancer/Puig/Masaveu)
Team scores: -6-3-12 (21-under)
Individual Prize purse/Winner’s cheque: $20 million/$4 million
Team Prize purse/Winner’s cheque: $5 million/$3 million
Indians in the field: Anirban Lahiri T7th (71-70-69)
Event this week: LIV Golf Hong Kong
Results Report

ASIAN TOUR:

Tournament: No event last week
Next event: New Zealand Open presented by Sky Sports

DP WORLD TOUR:

Tournament: No event last week
Next event: Magical Kenya Open 

LPGA:

Tournament: No event last week
Next event: Honda LPGA Thailand

KORN FERRY TOUR:

Tournament: No event last week
Next event: 118 Visa Argentina Open

LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR

Tournament: PIF Saudi Ladies International
Winner: Atthaya Thitikul (THA)
Winner’s score: 67-64-69 (16-under)
Prize purse/Winner’s cheque: US$5 million/US$675,000
Indians in the field: Aditi Ashok T53rd (69-72-75); Pranavi Urs MC (70-73); Diksha Dagar MC (75-69); Tvesa Malik MC (73-73)
Next event: Australian WPGA Championship
Results Report

ASIAN DEVELOPMENT TOUR:

Tournament: No event last week
Event this week: None
Next event: ADT Rumanza Open Pakistan

PGTI:

Tournament: TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship presented by The Tollygunge Club
Winner: Yuvraj Singh Sandhu 
Winner’s score: 63-61-68-68 (20-under)
Prize purse/Winner’s cheque: INR1 crore/INR15 lakh
Top scores: Jamal Hossain (BAN) 2nd (65-62-66-69); Rahil Gangjee 3rd (63-67-66-70);Abhinav Lohan 4th (70-65-65-67); Arjun Sharma T5th (63-67-69-69); Shamim Khan T5th (67-64-67-70); Dhruv Sheoran T5th (68-67-70-63)
Event this week: Glade One presents Gujarat Open Golf Championship 2025

Results Report
     

Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here.

Written and edited by Joy Chakravarty (@TheJoyofGolf).

Get the Hindustan Times app and read premium stories
Google Play Store App Store
View in Browser | Privacy Policy | Contact us You received this email because you signed up for HT Newsletters or because it is included in your subscription. Copyright © HT Digital Streams. All Rights Reserved