Ten years ago Maverick McNealy was America’s next big thing. A former world number one amateur, professional golf has been good to him. Reaching a career-high world ranking of 10th and claiming one PGA Tour victory to date. Yet still at 30 his career so far feels unfilled.
In his thirteen major championship appearances in his career he has missed the cut six times and is yet to register a top-10 finish. This season’s campaign has been underwhelming with a T10 finish his best of the 2026 calendar. Yet at the halfway stage of the 108th PGA Championship at Aronimink he stands at the top heading into the weekend.
McNealy was grouped with Thomas Detry and Ireland’s own Pádraig Harrington. Playing the course the wrong way around they were certainly off broadway playing in front of seemingly a handful of fans each hole. Today, McNealy will be in the box office billing, the final group at a Major.
It’s uncharted territory for the American who promised so much as a youngster. Will he fulfil his potential or will he crumble?
Irish fans may have been frustrated at the lack of action shots of Harrington last night. The 54-year-old had a terrific round going and despite a couple of late bogeys he still easily made the cut as he showed glimpses of his 2008 Wanamaker Trophy winning vintage.
It’s not been the season McNealy was hoping for so far but he picked up some priceless nuggets from Harrington over the first 36 holes of the year’s second major which he hopes will help pave the way to glory over the weekend.
“It was a lot of fun playing out there with Paddy Harrington today,” said McNealy on Friday. “It has been a frustrating year for me out on the golf course in some ways. Seeing a guy who has such a great attitude and really loves the game and loves to compete as much as he does. He’s just a quintessential great professional golfer that was a great example for me out there today from an attitude standpoint.”
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