Top Gun: Maverick could jet to a PGA Tour event near you!
Maverick McNealy is giving the PGA Tour their own reply to Tom Cruise having recently earned his pilot’s license…
Maverick McNealy possesses a power not even the world’s best golfers can boast:
The power to fly.
The 27-year-old earned his pilot’s license in May, so now, we have two famous Mavericks donning the skies in a quest for glory…
(If attempting to destroy a uranium enrichment plant in an underground bunker can be compared to winning on the PGA Tour for the first time)
McNealy won’t be daring any Top Gun-esque stunts any time soon, but he hasn’t ruled out cruise-ing to some events on the circuit shortly.
“That’s just been a lot of fun,” McNealy said at the World Wide Technology Championship.
“I’m looking at it as something I don’t want to add stress to my life. It’s something that I enjoy and love doing, so I would never put undue pressure on making a trip for weather reasons, flying into a new, uncomfortable, complicated air space, whatever it is.
“It’s something that if I haven’t flown for a month and a half, I’m just going to go rent a plane, go up with an instructor and use it as a fun afternoon, which is what I did a couple of weeks ago.
Maverick McNealy talks about getting his pilot’s license: “I may, depending on the weather, fly to a couple West Coast events.” pic.twitter.com/DCcCyv2nPH
— Golfweek (@golfweek) October 31, 2023
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“It’s a fun release away from golf, but it’s been all golf lately. I may, depending on the weather, fly to a couple of West Coast events, but it gets expensive renting a plane for extended periods of time.
“I’ll be back and forth between Vegas and Palm Springs quite a bit seeing my family down there this off-season, just chasing some better weather, using it as something that’s fun, something that helps find better practice and playing conditions for golf.
“But that’s really what it is right now, it’s a hobby, it’s not really a means to an end.”
Having passed the exams required for his license, he took his instrument-check flight in September which helped to qualify him to fly on his own in adverse weather conditions.
McNealy has been off the course nursing injuries since June but this didn’t stop him from flying his fiance Maya to Lake Tahoe to propose to her.
They certainly hadn’t lost that lovin’ feeling.
“I told her, ‘By the way, I’m going to start getting my pilot’s license’. And she looked at me like I had three heads,” he told the PGA Tour.
This tale naturally begs the question of what other players could be inspired to get in the cabin.
Henrik ‘Iceman’ Stenson? Webb ‘Cyclone’ Simpson? Sergio ‘Fanboy’ Garcia?
McNealy’s need for speed has once again shown us that in professional golf, anything could be around the corner.
NOW READ: Jack Nicklaus ‘hasn’t swung a club’ since the Masters
What did you make of this Maverick McNealy golf story? Tell us on X, formerly Twitter!
Matt Chivers
Now on the wrong side of 25, Matt has been playing golf since the age of 13 and was largely inspired to take up the game by countless family members who played golf during his childhood.
Matt is a member at Royal Cinque Ports in Deal playing off a 5 handicap, just a pitching wedge away from his hometown of Dover where he went to school and grew up. He has previously been a member at Etchinghill and Walmer and Kingsdown in Kent.
Having studied history at the University of Liverpool, Matt went on to pass his NCTJ Exams in Manchester a year later to fulfil his lifelong ambition of becoming a journalist. He picked up work experience along the way at places such as the Racing Post, the Independent, Sportsbeat and the Lancashire Evening Post.
Matt joined NCG in February 2023 and is the website’s main source of tour news, features and opinion. He has reported live from events such as The Open, the Ryder Cup and The Players Championship, having also interviewed and spent time with some of the biggest names in the sport.
Consuming tour golf on what is a 24/7 basis, you can come to Matt for informed views on the game and the latest updates on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LPGA Tour, Ladies European Tour and LIV Golf.
What’s in Matt’s bag: Cobra LTDx LS driver, Cobra LTDx 3-wood, TaylorMade P7MC irons, Ping Glide 4.0 wedges, Odyssey putter.
