Weekend: McNealy Wins To Earn First Masters Invite
Elvis Smylie takes the Australian PGA while Jeeno Thitikul caps off the most lucrative week in LPGA history with an eagle-birdie finish. And NBC addresses status of Golf Channel partnerships.
Maverick McNealy admitted he plays the PGA Tour’s season finale largely because his wife, Maya, loves The Lodge at Sea Island’s cookie and milk turndown service. Hey, there are many, many worse reasons to play a tournament!
McNealy proved he’s capable of tackling a course he doesn’t adore by making a thrilling final hole birdie for the second straight day. His breakthrough PGA Tour win comes after last year’s shoulder injury that required a five-month break. And this one comes with something better than fresh cookies and milk: an April trip to The Masters.
Entering the week winless in 142 PGA Tour starts and ranked 67th in the world, Sunday’s RSM Classic offered the final 2024 opportunity to win a trip to Augusta National in 2025.
McNealy took the third-round lead after Saturday’s 66 but lost his advantage Sunday to amateur sensation Luke Clanton and recent ZOZO Championship winner, Nico Echavarria. McNealy was paired in the final group behind Clanton and Echavarria and alongside a resurgent Daniel Berger.
Clanton and Echavarria each bogeyed the home hole to finish 15-under-par, setting up the final pairing members to win outright. Berger had several shots at the title over the final three holes, missing birdie putts of eight, 16, and 21 feet. Still, his T2 finish secured 2025 playing privileges in his last opportunity to do so.
McNealy’s approach at the 18th—a 6-iron from 183 yards—set up a winning five-foot birdie putt for the former Stanford and 2017 Walker Cup star.
“It will be fun to go out there feeling a little bit more free and playing to win,” McNealy said of the 2025 season. “That was a big realization of mine starting my sophomore year of college, that it's more fun to play to win than playing to not screw up. I think I'll have a lot more freedom to go out there and try and win a few more of these.”
Surprisingly—or graciously coy—McNealy said he was unaware just how much the win would impact his 2025 major championship plans.
“I'm not sure what I get into, three of them?” he asked of major championships before learning the RSM winner earns a Masters invite. “That's pretty cool. That will be fun. And the PGA? Nice.”
McNealy’s previous eight major championship appearances feature few results of note for the once-highly touted junior and Haskins Award winner at Stanford. His win also brings the Masters field to an unofficial 92 players. But that number includes past champions unlikely to play and, in a sign of the times, some unexpected defectors. Earlier this week, The Amateur champion Jacob Skov Olesen made his DP World Tour debut (MC), thus costing the Dane his Masters status.
Also…
Amateur Clanton (T2) recorded his third top-five of the 2024 PGA Tour season. The Florida State junior has accumulated 17 points in the PGA Tour’s University “Accelerated” ranking. Non-college seniors receive a point each for making a cut and a top-10 finish. Should Clanton earn a total of 20 points by the end of his 2024-25 collegiate season, he would receive a PGA Tour card.
Masters runner-up Ludvig Åberg finished T17 in first start since left knee surgery in September.
Smylie Wins The Australian PGA
Last month, Elvis Smylie failed to advance past DP World Tour qualifying. A month later, the 22-year-old’s the BMW Australian PGA Championship winner and holder of a two-year card allowing him to play the European-based circuit.
“To know that I have a job secured overseas now, it feels great,” he said after a final round 67 held off Cameron Smith by two strokes. “Going into the start of the Australian season, I know there would be a lot of events in a row. For me, playing a lot of competitive golf is important because I wanted to continue to build. I feel like, as each week goes on, I’m getting competitively stronger. So to have the opportunity to go overseas and play on the DP World Tour, where there are a lot more events in a row, I feel like it’s going to be great for me.”
The event at Royal Queensland had been shortened to 54 holes after a first-round rainout.
For Sunday’s finale, Smylie was paired with Marc Leishman and the namesake of the Cameron Smith Scholarship Smylie received in 2019. Armed with confidence from winning last month’s Bowra & O'Dea Nexus Advisernet WA Open (😬) on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia—a.k.a. the BAONAWAO on the CPGATOA—the lanky lefty posted 65-67-67 to hold off Smith in a wild reversal of norms: Elvis outputted one of the game’s best on the greens.
Smylie sank clutch par putts at the 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th to go up by three through 16, only to have Smith chip in at the 17th and turn the home hole walk into a nerve-wracking test. Smylie’s 18th hole tee shot with a tree in his way, forcing a second shot into a greenside bunker. But he got up and down from there to finish with nine pars coming in and a life-changing win.
The son of four-time grand slam doubles champion Liz Smylie, Elvis entered the week ranked 736th in the world. He ended up beating a field that also included fellow Aussies Jason Day, Cameron Davis, and Geoff Ogilvy.
“I won't forget this day playing with Cam and Leish there,” Smylie said. “I looked up to these guys since I was a kid and just being in their presence and to compete against them for the title, I've learnt so much and just so grateful and so honored right now.”
Highlights:
Thitikul Takes The CME Globe
Jeeno Thitikul started her week by accepting the $1 million AON Risk Reward Challenge winner’s check for her season-long excellence. Then she turned her attention to the biggest prize in women’s golf by claiming the $4 million winner’s check in Sunday’s CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburón Golf Club.
Thitikul started the final round tied at 15-under-par with Angel Yin. But Yin opened up a two-stroke lead with a birdie at the 16th hole. But after reaching the par 5 17th in two and making eagle, the 21-year-old Thitikul found herself tied with Yin heading to the 18th. There, she stuck her approach to five feet and made birdie to cap the most lucrative week in LPGA Tour history.
“I think I'm at the point that I'm not really thinking about the prize money that much,” said Thitikul. “Like Lydia Ko said at Grant Thornton, we're not here for the prize money. We are here for growing the game of golf more.”
Bet you didn’t see that GTG coming!
Also…
Three American players finished their final full-seasons on the LPGA Tour Sunday: Lexi Thompson finished T49, Ally Ewing finished T16 and Marina Alex finished T12.
Two-time CME Group Tour Championship winner and current Women’s Open champion Lydia Ko finished solo third after shooting a final-round 63.
Ruoning Yin finished solo fourth and Nelly Korda finished T5.
Elsewhere…
Mexico’s Clarisa Temelo captured the Women’s Amateur Latin America Championship (WALA) by six strokes. A freshman at Arkansas and the highest-ranked player in the field off the World Amateur Golf Ranking (136th), Temelo’s nine-under total gave her a two-stroke win over Emily Odwin of Barbados. The victory provides invitations to 2024’s AIG Women’s Open, The Chevron Championship and The Amundi Evian Championship. “Walking down the 18th,” Temelo said, “I was thinking about what I was going to achieve and playing in three majors in 2025. It was like a dream to me.”
Patrick Reed captured the Link Hong Kong Open by three strokes over Ben Campbell. The event is part of the Asian Tour’s International Series and was Reed’s first win since 2021. Reed’s performance included the second 59 in Asian Tour history in Saturday’s third round. Sadly, his 11 birdie performance at par-70 Hong Kong Golf Club will not count as an official record low because preferred lies were in place. This is where normally I’d make a snarky reference, but on the shrewd advice of The Quadrilateral’s in-house counsel, I will stand down.