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Maverick McNealy broke through in emphatic fashion last fall at the 2024 RSM Classic. Claiming his first title on the PGA Tour in the final event of the year, McNealy punched his ticket into the 2025 Sentry and earned his first-ever invitation to the Masters. While the former Stanford standout can now call himself a PGA Tour winner, he has far more than that within his reach as McNealy's game extends beyond what he does inside the ropes.

A member of the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council, McNealy was influential in the PGA Tour changing its FedEx Cup points distribution in signature events ahead of the 2025 season. He has become a firm proponent of tournaments having cuts at the 36-hole mark and has even suggested increasing the field size of signature events to 120 players.

In an extended conversation with CBS Sports, McNealy let it be known that he plans to run for PAC chairman this year. He also detailed another proposal he hopes to present to the PGA Tour, discussed his first practice round with Tiger Woods at the 2024 Open and shared a unique greens-reading tactic that has helped him become one of the best putters in the world.

Below are five of any topics McNealy covered during our 30-minute conversation on The First Cut Golf podcast. You can also watch the entire interview.

Winning the RSM Classic

Take away the purse size, the prestige of the tournament or the golf course -- is the final event of the PGA Tour season the best event to win on the PGA Tour with the runway for celebrations, you go into the offseason, you get a spot in Kapalua? 

McNealy: "That was pretty great. It's always a dream of mine to win at Pebble, so AT&T aside, RSM was kind of my last chance to pick off a few of those year-end goals in mind to get in the Masters, get in Kapalua, be top 50 in the world. And it was fun being there because there are a lot of guys that had real pressure playing for their card, playing for their jobs the next year.

"And I was there playing to win. To me, it was almost binary: either win or not win. As Ricky Bobby once said, 'If you ain't first, you're last.' But really, I mean, playing great is great. But the only way I was going to accomplish those goals at the end of the year was to win. It was great and unintended kind-of-great thing about winning that last tournament is the adrenaline rush I had from when I made that last putt lasted three to four days at least. It was like, four days later, that I was actually able to get a full night's sleep -- and it took me that long to wind down. And you're amped and you're in the zone and you've got all the adrenaline feels when you're playing. But when that putt went in it, I expected it to crash and it went through the roof.

"I couldn't imagine having to play a tournament, tee it up in a tournament four days after that. I'm so lucky that I had a few weeks to celebrate and enjoy it with family but then wind down and then be able to work on my game again. Hopefully -- unless I win the Masters or the Players or something like that -- I'm guessing the adrenaline rush from winning won't be quite as big, and I might have a chance to to relax and unwind for the next tournament if I do go back-to-back weeks. But yeah, it was it was an adrenaline rush like I hadn't experienced."

New policy proposal for the PGA Tour

McNealy: "I actually have one that I want to propose to the PAC, which is you got your major medicals, you got your minor medicals. I want to propose like a paternity medical. Case being Lanto Griffin this year had a kid. He had his first child during Mexico week. And I know this because I was in the back of the bus on the way home from the golf course back to the hotel in Bermuda with him. And he was home -- basically played Mexico, went home for a day and a half, saw the birth of his first child, and then had to leave to go try and keep his card the next two weeks. I think that's brutal.

"My proposal would be: If you have a kid, you can take four weeks off. And if you don't keep your card, you get the first four tournaments of the year to try and make up the difference. So, you're only allowed to take them those first four; you're only allowed to take off the four weeks after having your kid.

"But there's a lot of there's a lot of November and December weddings on the PGA Tour and a lot of November and December babies on the PGA Tour because that's the time that you actually can be home and be present as a dad and a husband, but you can't really control when you have a kid. So, it's pretty hard to miss a month in the middle of the season if you're not sure if you're going to be keeping your card. So, that's Mav's hopeful contribution to the PAC this year."

Playing with a practice round with Tiger Woods

Was that your first practice round with Tiger?

McNealy: "It was. Tiger came by campus twice when I was there in school [at Stanford]. The first time was right after his first back surgery and he could have easily gone to the back of the range and hit balls alone and nobody would have bothered him.

"But he was just out there all weekend hitting shots, telling stories, showing us like, 'Hey, do you want to see the shot that won me all my majors?' And yeah, we want to see it. He just a 6-iron that launches like a 9-iron comes straight down vertically on this pole. It was pretty impressive. It was really cool and he was super generous with his time, and I'm not sure he really remembers, but that was it. It was nice of him to take the time to do that.

"And it is me, Tiger and Tom Kim at The Open and we snuck out to the eighth hole and started on eight ... we were signed up on the practice sheet to tee off at 7:30 a.m. on the first hole, and we just went out to the eighth hole. And even then, by the 11th, there were a couple hundred people watching and my wife was walking inside the ropes too just kind of keeping her distance and she was like, 'I was so nervous and no one was even looking at me.' It was just pretty funny. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, that was a great experience."

What the AT&T Pebble Beach means to him

Pebble Beach is coming up here. It's a tournament that is near and dear to your heart for a couple reasons, and you're also partnered with AT&T, so why don't you tell us what kind of work you have going on with them?

McNealy: "You know, when we say that golf is an individual sport, you also have a team. You have got your physical team that helps you compete and keeps your business going and helps you prepare and play the best golf. You've got your family, you've got your fans, but your partners, your business partners and your sponsors are a huge part of your team as well. You want to pick a team that gives you a chance to invest in your business and helps you be the best player you can be.

"I've been partnered with AT&T since 2022, and it's their 40th year hosting the AT&T at Pebble Beach. I've had some of my best memories as a pro playing that tournament. This year, I will be playing with Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, another one of my partners. I played with Dr. Condoleezza Rice last year. I played with Carl Carande, one of my best friends who works at KPMG, so it's really a cool networking deal. But I also got to play with my dad one year, which was really special. So, it's such a unique format that celebrates, I think, one of the coolest parts about golf that the best player in the world and a complete amateur can play the same golf course at the same time in the same group and have a great time.

"I would not have much fun playing basketball against LeBron James or playing a tennis match against Rafa Nadal or whoever. But in golf, you know, anyone would love to play nine holes with Tiger Woods, 18 holes with Tiger Woods. And I think it's super cool how the AT&T Pebble Beach kind of celebrates that and brings that into a bigger stage where pros and amateurs are playing the same tournament, same golf course in a PGA Tour event and also using it to do a lot of good with the Monterey Peninsula Foundation."

Green reading tips to implement at home

What's one tip that you would give, maybe not technique wise, but for reading greens?

McNealy: "A simple one I would do is just always trust your read from the low side. Sometimes, when you read a putt from one side and the other, they seem to do two different things. Always trust it when you're standing on the low side. ... You can see a lot more of the slope and a lot more blades of grass and a lot more information from the low side. So, even if you're just playing quickly, and if you got a downhill right to left or just walk on the low side on your way to the putt and get your information from there because you can see it a lot better. 

"And I've also had a lot of success on golf courses on the water. It's funny, if you look back on my career, I always play well at courses on the water. And one of the things I do there to read greens is I always use the horizon line -- the ocean or the lake or whatever it is -- as as a level because that water is dead flat. So, I just use that as my reference and then I look at the green, and it shows me exactly how that green is pitched, because a lot of those ocean courses have a gentle slope towards the ocean.

"So a putt that looks like it's breaking, you know, right to left might actually go to the right towards the water or something like that. But you can always use the water as a level."