Maverick McNealy leads The Players, falling in love with Pete Dye layout

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – After Maverick McNealy’s tee shot at 18 squirted right and took an unfavorable kick off an umbrella, he and his caddie, brother Scout, surveyed the situation and arrived at a team decision.

“He said he was going to push me in the water if I tried to cut one onto the green, so I decided to punch out,” Maverick said of listening to some brotherly love.

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McNealy salvaged par thanks to wedging to 2 feet to complete a 5-under 67 at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday. That was good enough to grab a one-shot clubhouse lead over Justin Thomas and Russell Henley early in the first round of The Players Championship.

More: Players Championship live updates: Rory McIlroy gets first round underway

McNealy, 30, has been a beast during the opening round this season on the PGA Tour, breaking par in all seven first rounds he’s played this season (67.29 average), with a high score of 70 last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He shot the low round of the morning wave at TPC Sawgrass, which included a 21-minute rain delay, despite hitting just 5 of 14 fairways.

“I think every time I play a Pete Dye golf course, I think I like it more,” McNealy said. “I think it’s one of those unique tests where it doesn’t favor any particular type of game, and it’s definitely not one that you stand up on the tee and try and swing as hard as you can. The shot value is really important. You’ve got to hit every club in your bag, every shape imaginable. I think that’s what people love to see and love to see professionals do with their golf ball. There’s a lot of the game that has to be shaped in the air, and I think Pete is a master at that.”

But McNealy conceded that initially he didn’t get the hype for Dye’s layout, which has been confounding the pros since it became the host venue of the Tour’s flagship event in 1982.

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“Now this is my fifth or something Players and it’s probably top three courses on Tour for me,” he said. “It grew on me every single time I play it. I notice different features, and I think every hole is just awesome.”

On Thursday, he ranked second in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, and took advantage of a number of birdie opportunities under 10 feet, beginning with an 8-footer at the second. He made his longest putt of the day at the fifth, a 16-footer, and relied on a tidy wedge game, which included pitching to 4 inches at 9.

“I think today I just mastered the variability of what the golf course threw at us really well. It was a mixed bag of everything, felt like four different seasons out there,” he said. “When that wind flipped, I knew 16 was going to be kind of my last birdie opportunity, so I had 8-iron into that hole and I was glad to take advantage of that, and then hung on really well the last two.”

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McNealy also said that he’s finding success with his Odyssey Toulon blade putter again, the same one that he used to win the 2024 RSM Classic, his lone victory to date. McNealy, who ranked first in SG: Putting in 2022-23 and No. 26 last season, has dropped to No. 96 entering this week. At the Genesis Invitational at Riviera, he switched to a TaylorMade Spider mallet, a trendy choice this season that has been used by a number of winners. He tried it and liked and benched his gamer after two poor putting days in the final rounds at Phoenix and Pebble Beach. Last week, he returned to old faithful and he’s back to being one of the few, the proud blade putters left.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Maverick McNealy leads The Players after round one