Maverick McNealy came oh-so-close to claiming his first Genesis Invitational victory, but it wasn’t quite enough as Ludvig Åberg surged ahead to snatch the title in the final round. McNealy, who played a strong final round, finished just one stroke behind Åberg, who finished at 12-under par.
Although McNealy had an incredible performance, the runner-up finish still left him empty-handed in terms of the coveted $4 million first-place prize. But here’s the twist—McNealy doesn’t exactly need that $4 million. That’s because he’s the heir to a massive $1 billion fortune.
McNealy’s father, Scott, co-founded Sun Microsystems, the tech giant that Oracle acquired in 2010 for $7.4 billion. This deal skyrocketed the McNealy family’s wealth, leaving them far ahead of most professional athletes when it comes to financial standing. In fact, the only golfer with a greater fortune than McNealy is the legendary Tiger Woods.
Despite being part of one of the wealthiest families in tech, McNealy remains humble. He was gracious in his runner-up speech, saying, “Second is more than I could have asked for today. It was one of those things where I got on a roll early, and there were some gettable flags. You don’t want to get off a roll when you’re on it, so I kept going as long as I could. Ludvig played awesome.”
While second place stings a little, McNealy has bigger things in life than the prize money. And speaking of big things, McNealy doesn’t just take the usual route to tournaments—he flies himself. In 2023, he earned his pilot’s license and used his own private plane to arrive at the tournament at Torrey Pines in San Diego. “It was a really fun way to get here,” McNealy told Golfweek. “Kind of unique for me on the PGA Tour.”
With his new skills in the sky, McNealy plans to fly to places like La Quinta for better weather practice and Tahoe in the summer to escape the Vegas heat. For now, though, he’ll have to put the flying lessons on hold as the PGA Tour heads south for the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld. And while McNealy didn’t capture the title this time, it’s clear that in both golf and life, he’s flying high.
