Extensive traveling is an essential part of being a PGA Tour pro, with players clocking up thousands of miles a year in pursuit of their craft.
Some pros, including Michael Kim, settle for commercial flights as they crisscross North America and beyond throughout the season, whereas some of the most successful may even have a private jet, but it’s not often you find a player flying himself to a tournament.
However, that’s exactly what Maverick McNealy opted to do for the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines, with video footage published on X by Golf Digest showing the 29-year-old boarding his aircraft, presumably from close to his Las Vegas home, before heading to San Diego for the signature event.
Maverick McNealy flew himself to Torrey Pines this week. ✈️[Insert Top Gun puns] pic.twitter.com/ymuIK3ZlnOFebruary 13, 2025
McNealy earned his private pilot’s license in September 2023 when he was in the midst of a spell out of the game with injury. Per PGATour.com, at the time, he stated his ambition to fly to PGA Tour events in the southwest and he has made good on that promise this week.
In the article, he also explained how there elements of flying an aircraft that can be applied to golf. He said: “The decision-making and execution under pressure; there are ways you feel the airplane, you feel the power the engine’s producing, you’re judging airspeed and pitch angle and glide path and power, all the stuff coming into land, you’re judging the wind, you’re taking the information from a lot of different factors. It’s a lot more reactionary than golf, but the same kind of factors you’re looking at.”
Whether or not McNealy’s interest in flying has helped him better understand golf, it’s not just his aircraft that has been taking off in recent months. His golf career is also on the up.
He claimed his maiden PGA Tour title at last November’s RSM Classic, and two more top-10 finishes have come this year alone – a T8 at The Sentry and T9 at last week’s WM Phoenix Open. That kind of form helped take him to a career-high world ranking of 26th ahead of the Genesis Invitational.
