Tour rival names Maverick McNealy as ‘future PGA commissioner’ after his comments on latest rule changes

PGA Tour player Michael S. Kim recently suggested that Maverick McNealy could be the "future PGA commissioner." Kim's comments came after McNealy's bold stance on PGA Tour field sizes at signature events, during a press conference at the 2024 RSM Classic.

McNealy recently won the final FedExCup Fall event, the 2024 RSM Classic by a stroke over Luke Clanton, Nico Echavarria and Daniel Berger. Golf Journalist Rex Hoggard shared the transcript from McNealy's interview on X. Quoting the post, Kim wrote:

"Maverick Mcnealy, RSM champ but also future pgatour commissioner"

In the post-tournament press conference, McNealy criticized the PGA Tour's decision to limit signature event sizes. The field size in signature events ranges from approximately 70 to 80 players. He said:

"This is my personal opinion, but I have a hard time defending Signature Event fields of 72 players if we're going to limit the number of players that have a card. I think 120 is a beautiful number, I think it's very competitive.

"I think a cut is an integral part of our sport and I think it would be really cool to play Signature Events at 120 players over the 72. With eight tournaments, that's 400 more playing opportunities. It just seems like a layup to me," he added.

McNealy said that there are various arguments supporting why 72 was the chosen number but none of them convinced him. He took home $1.36 million from a prize purse of $7.2 million.

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A look at Maverick McNealy's performance in 2024

Maverick McNealy had a great 2024 season. In 28 starts, he has made 22 cuts. He had one win, six top-10 and 12 top-25 finishes. He finished 53rd in the FedExCup standings and 51st in the FedExCup Fall standings.

McNealy's best performances include a win at the RSM Classic, a T3 at the 3M Open and T6 finishes at both the WM Phoenix Open and the World Wide Technology Championship.

Let's take a look at Maverick McNealy's performance in the 2024 season on PGA Tour:

• Sony Open in Hawaii: T57 (68-69-69-68, 274, -6)
• The American Express: Missed Cut (73-66-71, 210, -6)
• Farmers Insurance Open: T37 (67-70-72-75, 284, -4)
• AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: T39 (72-69-69, 210, -6)
• WM Phoenix Open: T6 (65-67-71-67, 270, -14)
• Mexico Open at Vidanta: T13 (70-70-67-66, 273, -11)
• Cognizant Classic: T41 (70-70-67-70, 277, -7)
• THE PLAYERS Championship: T9 (67-68-68-72, 275, -13)
• Valspar Championship: T45 (69-71-71-72, 283, -1)
• Valero Texas Open: T58 (71-74-74-70, 289, +1)
• THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson: T41 (67-67-68-69, 271, -13)
• PGA Championship: T23 (66-72-69-67, 274, -10)
• Charles Schwab Challenge: T17 (70-72-70-66, 278, -2)
• RBC Canadian Open: T7 (74-65-66-65, 270, -10)
• Rocket Mortgage Classic: T44 (73-66-71-70, 280, -8)
• John Deere Classic: Missed Cut (67-75, 142, E)
• The Open: Missed Cut (71-81, 152, +10)
• 3M Open: T3 (70-66-63-70, 269, -15)
• Wyndham Championship: T45 (67-68-69-71, 275, -5)
• FedEx St. Jude Championship: T12 (70-68-69-64, 271, -9)
• Procore Championship: Missed Cut (75-73, 148, +4)
• Sanderson Farms Championship: Missed Cut (69-71, 140, -4)
• Shriners Children's Open: T16 (69-70-67-64, 270, -14)
• ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP: Withdrawn (71, 71, +1)
• World Wide Technology Championship: T6 (69-66-67-69, 271, -17)
• Butterfield Bermuda Championship: T17 (70-67-70-67, 274, -10)
• The RSM Classic: 1 (62-70-66-68, 266, -16)