By E. Michael Johnson
Maverick McNealy is one of the more intriguing young professionals in some time. The 21-year-old Stanford graduate won the 2015 Haskins Award as the best collegiate player in the country. He also is the son of Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, and considered eschewing turning pro for a career in business.

McNealy eventually decided to play golf for a living and just signed an equipment deal with Callaway. McNealy spoke with Golf World’s Senior Editor, Equipment, E. Michael Johnson about signing with the company and his equipment as he makes his pro debut this week at the PGA Tour’s Safeway Open.

You could have had your choice of a number of companies. What was it about Callaway that intrigued you?
When I first visited there last winter, I fell in love with their approach to making golf clubs. How it felt like they were a team of engineers working very hard to nitpick everything as much as possible to make everything as good as possible. I really liked that. It seems like they are making significant improvements in all areas in recent years, and I feel it starts with that approach they have. That made an impression. I studied management science and engineering in school, so I really enjoyed the process behind their R&D and getting some of the background on the equipment. That was fun.

You played in some tour events as an amateur. Did you take that opportunity to pick any players’ brains about what it would be like to be on Callaway’s staff?I did. I spoke with a lot of ex Nike equipment players. At the U.S. Open I was paired with Kevin Chappell, who did not do a full bag deal. I spoke with Russell Henley and talked with Patrick Rodgers a lot as he also went through the Nike to Callaway transition. I wanted to know what was the easiest for them, what were the struggles and how did they figure out what worked best.

What is your approach to testing equipment?
I’m probably one of those guys that people think is a pain to work with, because if it doesn’t look or feel just right, I’m not going to like it. So it has to pass that test first. It needs to look slightly open and slightly flat, especially with the driver. With irons, the weighting and weight distribution must be exactly where I want it. Because of that, I’m still using the same irons I’ve had since my sophomore year in college, Nike’s Vapor Pro. It takes a while for me to change. I once got a replacement set that was half a swing weight lighter and it just drove me nuts. It needs to be just right. After that, I make sure the numbers check out. But that is secondary.

We’re close with the Callaway irons and I feel like I could probably play with them tomorrow, but I’m starting tournament season and these next couple of months are extremely important for me as far as a tour card. Because of that, I’m not in equipment testing mode. I’m in tournament mode so I’ll go with what I have right now. I did a little bit of testing this summer and increased my ball speed with the Epic driver by 3 miles per hour. I couldn’t get my old driver to meet those numbers. My driver has an adjustable cog that makes it 2 degrees flatter. I need something that looks flat and open and this helps take care of that. It’s also 44 inches. I added some lead tape slightly off the heel. The flattening adds a bit of right bias and the extra weight of the tape in the heel offsets that.

I also love the Callaway Mack Daddy Forged wedges. I love wedges with weight out on the toe as it helps me work the club on the plane better, as opposed to shut on the way back. I’m also using the Chrome Soft X ball, so in a short amount of time we’ve got a lot done. I went about it in a very poor way a year ago when Nike announced they were getting out of the club business. I kind of freaked out and thought I had to change everything right away. I threw a bunch of stuff in the bag that wasn’t quite right for me. Then I went back to the Nike equipment midway through my senior year and started playing much better. So I learned my lesson there. I go piece by piece so I started with wedge and golf ball, because I think the feel and performance around the greens is important to get down, and how it performs throughout the bag is critical.

A funny story about the ball. When the Stanford team aligned with Callaway they changed out the range balls to the Chrome Soft X and I loved them. So when I started ball testing with Callaway they sent me a bunch of options and I settled on what I thought was the Chrome Soft Plus, but they told me it really was the Chrome Soft X, which made a lot of sense since I loved the range ball.

Related: How a college rival of Maverick McNealy helped sway him to turn pro after all

Are you an equipment geek or on the periphery of that?
I’m a geek in that I like understanding how stuff works. When I’m playing I don’t get overly technical, but I do appreciate understanding why stuff does what it does and why it’s better. That said, I don’t tinker or try things just for the sake of trying. Too often it doesn’t feel right or look quite right and it drives me crazy. It’s not easy for me to change equipment, and honestly, I’m pleasantly surprised at how much Callaway equipment I’ve transitioned into already. I’m into way more than I thought I would be at this point.

OK, final question and most important one: Has your dad started asking for free clubs yet?
Yeah, except mine are way too stiff for him now. They have right trees written all over it for him. But we’ll work on that.

The post Maverick McNealy signs endorsement deal with Callaway appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Maverick McNealy would have been a unicorn: A national college player of the year not swayed by the lure of the PGA Tour’s big bucks, the first in more than two decades to remain an amateur.

Ultimately, though, the Stanford All-American, who graduated last spring tied with Tiger Woods and Patrick Rodgers for the most school wins at 11, came to the conclusion most expected. After playing for the U.S. in his second Walker Cup next month, the 21-year-old will in fact pursue a career as a tour pro. His debut as a professional is set for the PGA Tour’s Safeway Open, Oct. 5-8 not too far from where he grew up in Northern California

For much of his college career, McNealy professed that turning pro wasn’t the obvious matter of when, but if, the idea of following in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his father Scott, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, appealing to him. So what ultimately swayed Maverick to take the road more traveled?

“I think one of the big things is if I don’t do it now, I’ll never be able to,” McNealy said during a phone interview on Wednesday shortly after making his decision known via a post on the Stanford golf website. “That was the thing. I said if I look back in 30 years at this time in my life, I think more likely than not if I didn’t turn pro, I would have wondered and maybe even regretted it.”

Mind you, McNealy says that he’s not just “trying” pro golf, but that he’s completely committed to this as his career, something his father professed he needed to be before deciding to give this a go. “I’m going to give this my full effort,” McNealy said before laughing. “Maybe 40 or 50 years down the road, the Stanford degree will come in handy. That’s what I’m planning for.”

As part of this commitment, McNealy will move next week to Summerlin, Nev., and begin working on his game out of TPC Summerlin.

McNealy’s competitive schedule after the Safeway will include spots in five other PGA Tour events in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (at TPC Summerlin), the Farmers Insurance Open, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (where he’ll play with his father as his partner), AT&T Byron Nelson and the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial, a spot he secured by virtue of winning college golf’s Ben Hogan Award in May.

Additionally, McNealy intends to play at the second stage of the Web.com Tour Qualifying School (he should be exempt into it through being in the top five on the World Amateur Golf Ranking after the Walker Cup).

Partially why McNealy hemmed and hawed so much about turning pro was an honest uncertainty that he had the game to make it on tour. In high school, he split his time between golf and hockey at the expense of a fancy junior resume on the links.

Finally focused on the former in Palo Alto, McNealy’s game developed quickly. He played fifth man behind Rodgers and NCAA champion Cameron Wilson as a freshman, then won six times and earned the Fred Haskins Award as college player of the year as a sophomore. Eventually he rose to No. 1 in the World Amateur Ranking. He also has had modest success playing as an amateur in pro events; he memorable sat T-5 at one point during the third round of the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic in 2015.

“I promptly hit it in the hazard on 17th and didn’t play well on Sunday,” McNealy said. “But that was cool to see my name on the leader board.”

Moreover, seeing the quick transitions of several recent college players to the pro ranks help crystalize in his mind that his game was in better shape to make the leap than he might have thought. Specifically, watching his former Pac-12 rival Jon Rahm from Arizona State, who McNealy played against for three years of college golf, swayed him about his chances of success.

“Right before he went pro, I played with him probably five or six rounds his senior year, my junior year. And I was going ‘Wow, this guy is on it. He’s playing really, really good right now.’ And it was really cool to see how that translated into the pro ranks.

“It’s cool to see the success those guys have had, and I think it makes me believe it’s possible with an incredible amount of hard work, and time and effort and doing things the right way.”

The post How a college rival of Maverick McNealy helped sway him to turn pro after all appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.