[PHOTO: Kevin C. Cox]

It took a lot for Maverick McNealy to win his first PGA Tour event at the RSM Classic. Nico Echavarria and Luke Clanton each bogeyed the 18th to forge a four-way tie at 15-under-par. Daniel Berger missed makeable birdie putts on the last two holes. And, by the way, McNealy stuck a 7-iron approach from 167 metres at the last to inside six feet, then dropped the putt to win in his 142nd PGA Tour start – a number few thought it would take when he first came out on tour, including McNealy.

“I’ve imagined myself standing over a putt to win on the PGA Tour thousands of times,” he told Golf Channel afterward. “It was almost a feeling of déjà vu [on the winning putt].”

McNealy, 29, ranked eighth in strokes gained/approach the green and T-2 in greens in regulation and, of course, hit the key 7-iron shot with his TaylorMade P7CB irons. It was no accident that it was a clutch iron shot that led to McNealy’s victory. The Seaside course at Georgia’s Sea Island Resort is known as a course that favours ball-strikers, a fact McNealy was keenly aware of.

“It’s kind of affirming to come to a golf course that I haven’t had much success on with being a really good test of approach play,” McNealy said. “The guys who hit their irons really play well here… Came in this week with a goal of testing my game to play in kind of unfriendly conditions and really excited with how it’s panned out.”

We should say so.

The clubs Maverick McNealy used to win the 2024 RSM Classic:

Ball: Titleist Pro V1

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (Graphite Design Tour AD XC 6 TX), 10.5 degrees

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2, 16.5 degrees

7-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2, 21 degrees

Irons (4-9): TaylorMade P7CB

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM10 (46, 50, 54, 58 degrees)

Putter: Odyssey Toulon Prototype