THE PLAYERS Championship has a new face charting the leaderboard at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. It will be Maverick McNealy’s second top-10 finish in the 2024 season if the events go in his favor. The 28-year-old has never won on the PGA Tour but a T4 finish after three rounds in the 50th PLAYERS Championship opens the door to change that fact.

While the PLAYERS Championship may become the breakthrough event for McNealy, his off-course life is nothing short of adventure as well. Though league apart from the 2007 PLAYERS Championship winner, Phil Mickelson, McNealy shares the same passion for one thing that Lefty has been doing since the late 90s.

Maverick McNealy follows Phil Mickelson’s path to the runway

A few years after Phil Mickelson’s debut in 1992, the 6-time major winner acquired the license to fly a one-engine private jet with an instrument rating. Lefty‘s inspiration behind flying the planes came from his father, Philip Mickelson Sr., who was a former Navy Aviator and a commercial airline pilot. However, for Maverick McNealy, a movie ignited his aviating passion.

In 2022, while McNealy was on the plane to reach the venue for the 3M Open from the Barracuda Championship, he watched the movie ‘Rush’. In the last parts of the movie, Chris Hemsworth, who played the character James Hunt, was being told by Daniel Brühl who portrayed Niki Lauda, that he should be a pilot too, and McNealy recalls thinking to himself that maybe he can do that as well.

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Then, after landing, he was paired with George McNeill, a pilot himself, who answered McNealy’s bunch of questions about flying an airplane. McNealy was intrigued by it and started learning about becoming a pilot. The PGA Tour.com revealed that McNealy started taking lessons after finishing the 2022 FedExCup playoffs. He received his license a year later, in 2023. The 28-year-old explained that taking months off from golf during his rehab for a shoulder injury accelerated his love for flying.

Looks like McNealy’s hobby had a much more positive impact on his life. As per the pro, learning how to fly in a way helped him become a better golfer, as both require a lot of attention to detail and great decision-making skills. While being a pilot helped him professionally, in another aspect of his life, flying planes came to be the best thing.

Maverick McNealy takes the flight for the dreamy proposal 

While going through rehab for his shoulder injury and learning how to fly a plane in a flying center in Las Vegas, amidst all the hustle, Maverick McNealy was also preparing to start a new chapter in his life. During his professional hiatus, McNealy’s skill of flying a plane came to be one of the most romantic things he would do for his then-fiance, Maya Daniel.

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McNealy flew over to Lake Tahoe in Las Vegas and proposed most dreamily to his now-wife Maya in September 2023. Maya dozed off for most of the flight as they headed to the surprise proposal. She was impressed with his skills and admiringly said, “he’s one of the most determined people I know.” The two later tied the knot on January 6th, 2024.

Now, as he battles it out on the greens of TPC Sawgrass to try to attain his maiden victory at the PGA Tour, as a husband and pilot, McNealy will have one more commonality to share with 2007 PLAYERS Championship winner Phil Mickelson!

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