How do you prepare for your first Masters? Maverick McNealy has a plan

This time last year, Maverick McNealy was ranked 102nd in the world, a promising player on a Tour full of them. He hadn’t yet won on the PGA Tour, and as he watched Scottie Scheffler win another green jacket, he made himself a vow: Get to Augusta next year.

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“The Masters last year was a tough one for me to watch because I wanted so badly to be there,” McNealy told Yahoo Sports this week. “It’s always one of my favorite tournaments to watch, and it just it really bugged me that it didn’t have a tee time.”

So McNealy did what every good 2020s-era golfer does: huddled with his team at the start of the fall season and made a plan. Their goals: Get into the top 60 to qualify for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational; get into the top 50 to qualify for the Masters; and get into the Sentry at Kapalua by winning a tournament.

The fall was decent but not spectacular, and McNealy’s carefully laid plans were coming apart. With one tournament left, the possibilities of hitting his marks were dwindling.

“We had one out of the three locked up going to Sea Island,” site of the RSM Classic, the year’s final tournament, McNealy said. “It’s really just a Hail Mary pass to try and get the last two locked up. There was really only one position that was going to get it done for us.”

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And then McNealy went out and finished in that one position — first — and the whole world opened up for him. He leaped all the way up to 31st in the world, and soon afterward he received that envelope that every golfer dreams of: an invitation to the Masters.

“I’m really excited to just experience one of the cathedrals of golf and see what the Masters is all about,” says McNealy, who’s now ranked 16th in the world. “It’s something I’ve watched on TV, but I know it’s going to be even more amazing in person, and I’m excited to see how I play the golf course.”

Ever since the invitation arrived, McNealy has been plotting strategy, watching old YouTube videos and working on his shot arsenal to prepare for the course. “Sometimes it’s not super relevant to watch a major from 12 years ago because the game’s played differently and the course has changed,” he says. “But the bones of [Augusta National] and the way it’s played are really the same.”

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Invitees have an opportunity to play the course ahead of time, and McNealy teed it up for the first time last Monday. “I’m excited to broaden my field of view for some of the short game shots around the greens,” he says. “I think there’s a reason why a guy like Jordan Spieth had a lot of success in his first few Masters, because he sees shots like that all the time.”

Working in McNealy’s favor: his putting game. “I’ve had some success on fast, sloping greens with lots of break,” he says, “and I think having really good speed control will help me differentiate out there.”

When he arrives at Augusta on Monday, McNealy will focus on his swing early in the week, and his putting and green reading the closer he gets to Thursday.

“I’m going to play nine each day, and depending on which nine I want to see twice, I’ll do that,” he says. “Just want to make sure I don’t overdo it the first couple days and be so excited. Who wouldn’t want to play 18, 18, 18? Hopefully this isn’t my only one and I’ve got a lot of cracks at this tournament.”

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He also plans to play in the Par-3 contest, with his wife Maya caddying for him. “I’m going to be judicious with my energy as the week goes on, because I know it’s going to be a really high-adrenaline, high-excitement, fun week,” he says. “Make sure I’ve got a lot left in the tank for Saturday and Sunday if I need it. But definitely would regret not enjoying everything I could out of my first Masters.”

Along the way, he’ll avoid practicing from areas he and his team call the “Delta ticket counter” — as in, if you hit it over there, you’re going to the Delta ticket counter on Saturday morning to change your flight out of town.

“The philosophy is, prepare like you’re going to be in the top 10 and trying to make a run up the leaderboard, because those shots are way more valuable than the ones when you’re down in 55th place.”

Before he arrives at Augusta, though, there’s the small matter of this week’s Valero Texas Open. Some pros prefer to take the weekend off, but McNealy believes he thrives with more consistent activity.

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“There’s nothing better than playing in PGA Tour conditions on a PGA Tour setup to prepare for a major championship,” he says. “There’s nothing like competition to really reveal the loose nuts and bolts that you need to tighten up.” (After posting a 4-under first round, he stood at T6, five strokes back of leader Sam Ryder.)

The numbers back up McNealy’s belief in constant competition. His best results of late have come after he’s played multiple weeks in short succession. The RSM win was his fifth tournament in six weeks; earlier this year, he finished T9 and solo second in the WM Open and the Genesis, his third and fourth tournaments in a row on the West Coast swing. The Masters will fall on the third week of his current run.

For now, there’s the Valero, and then he’ll head east to Augusta. At that point, he’ll face his first crucial decision of the week: what song to play as he rolls up Magnolia Drive for the first time as a player.

“My wife and I are on a Morgan Wallen kick right now,” he laughs, “so it’ll probably be one of those. I’m pretty excited for that.”