If you arrive at a golf course in your own private jet, then you best be able to back it up with a performance. And to the credit of Maverick McNealy, he did just that at the Genesis Invitational on the weekend as he narrowly missed out on his second PGA Tour win.
The American shot a superb 64 in his final round to finish 11-under par, one behind the eventual winner Ludvig Aberg.
The Swedish star birdied four of the final six holes to card a 66, leaving McNealy to rue a costly bogey on the 14th.
It meant the 29-year-old missed out on prize money of around £3.2million, although it’s not a factor likely to overly bother him. McNealy is the heir to a £749m fortune, with his father Scott the co-founder of technology giants Sun Microsystems.
The company was purchased by Oracle in 2010 for a huge £5.8billion, with the family’s net worth inevitably soaring as a result. Indeed, only Tiger Woods is said to be worth more than the world No.31.
McNealy outperformed some of the world’s best at Torrey Pines, with Scottie Scheffler two shots behind him and tied for third. Rory McIlroy meanwhile, could only finish joint-17th after a final round 72 left him three-under par.
“Second is more than I could have asked for to start the day,” he said afterwards. “It was one of those things where I got on a roll early and there were some gettable flags.
“When you get on a roll you just don’t want to get off it and I tried to keep it going as long as possible. I had a few poor shots and an unlucky break or two at the end but definitely had a few things go my way early in this round.”
He also praised Aberg for his dramatic late surge, adding: “I was just a ton of fun to be up there, to have a chance. Ludvig played awesome.”
McNealy, whose maiden tour win came at the RSM Classic in November, also made no apologies for his grand entrance and revealed he planned to travel the same way even more in future. “It was a really fun way to get here,” he said.
“Kind of unique for me on the PGA Tour. I’m going to use it a ton to get to La Quinta for better weather practice and up north to Tahoe in the summer when it gets too hot in Las Vegas.”
