With brother as caddie, Maverick McNealy in contention at World Wide Technology Championship

There will be two McNealy brothers on the PGA TOUR in 2025.

Maverick McNealy dropped the news after carding a second-round 66 to get into contention at 9-under at the World Wide Technology Championship on Friday.

Scout McNealy, the youngest McNealy brother (there are four of them) and a former golfer at Baylor University, had previously agreed to caddie for Maverick through the FedExCup Fall. Now, though, Scout will work through the 2025 FedExCup.

This news followed a Round 2 not without its share of struggles at El Cardonal at Diamante in Los Cabos, Mexico.

“Scout toughed it out,” said Maverick, who celebrated his 29th birthday Thursday. “I saw him this morning in dining, I was like, He does not look good. It put things in perspective because no shot I hit out there was harder than what he was going through today. He did great … I think my good play lately has been a lot due to the help he's given me over the last couple weeks.

“And I'm excited he's going to be caddying for me through the end of the season,” Maverick added. “Talked him into it. The end of (the TOUR Championship at) East Lake. We'll have a lot of fun. And he's a better green reader than I am, so helps a lot.”

McNealy is coming off a final-round 64 and T16 at the Shriners Children’s Open in his hometown of Las Vegas. (He withdrew after one round at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP.)

Really, though, he’s crushing it on several fronts. He’s newly married, and wife Maya travels with him. He did not make a bogey in the second round at El Cardonal, after which he proclaimed he’s putting better than he has in months. He’s 55th in the FedExCup but projected to move up to 51st. (Nos. 51-60 at the end of The RSM Classic, Nov. 24, will get into the 2025 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational – both Signature Events – via the Aon Next 10.)

He's also 70th in the Official World Golf Ranking and would like to get into the top 50 by year’s end to earn a Masters berth. It would certainly help to nab his first TOUR win this weekend and play his way into the 2025 lid-lifter, The Sentry at Kapalua. It would also be fitting: Tiger Woods, who designed El Cardonal, won 11 times as a member of the Stanford Cardinal men’s golf team. So did McNealy.

“I'm in a pretty good spot for the top 60,” McNealy said. “Feels like I'm playing with house money a little bit. I definitely am not envious of the position that most of the guys in this field are in. It's a lot more stress-free golf for me and I'm just out here trying to win a golf tournament, have some fun in Cabo and see how good I can get my game going into the next year.”

The four McNealy brothers are all named after 1970s-era American cars. Scout, who was so well-liked at Baylor that he had the McNealy Award named in his honor – given annually to a player who exudes excellence in all facets – is the only one who did not attend Stanford. Having him as his caddie, Maverick said, has been invaluable.

“If I could tailor-make a caddie, he's helped so much,” he said. “We have a lot of fun, play a lot of golf when we're at home. There's four of us and we're all super close. We always feel like we're a team. We're never really competitive with each other, we have more of a team mentality.

“I'm excited to get all four of us back together over Thanksgiving and play some brothers golf,” he continued. “It's awesome. We shared a room growing up all the way through high school, so know each other extremely well.”

At this rate, Thanksgiving dinner might include talk of a life-changing win in Mexico.