Maverick McNealy, Joseph Bramlett fates intertwine at The RSM Classic

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The final round of The RSM Classic, the last tournament of the 2024 PGA TOUR season, will mean many things to many people, with all manner of top-125 and Aon Next 10 implications, combinations and permutations.

You could focus on all that.

Eight players are either leading or within three of the lead going into Sunday.

You could focus on all that, too.

What you need is the human element, something to make it all mean something.

Which brings us to Mav and Bram, Stanford men’s golf alums but so much more than that.

Maverick McNealy shot a third-round 66 and at 14-under is tied for The RSM Classic lead with Vince Whaley. McNealy is 52nd in the FedExCup Fall, a lock to keep his card, and likely to finish in the Aon Next 10, sending him to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational, both Signature Events, next year.

Joseph Bramlett shot 64 to rocket up the board into a tie for 12th place. He is 147th in the FedExCup Fall and projected to move to 140th, which still wouldn’t be enough (top 125) to keep his TOUR card next season. He, too, has work to do Sunday.

But while their FedExCup numbers are different, Mav and Bram, the latter of whom is seven years older (Mav jokingly calls him Grandpa) are two players, one heartbeat.

Mav on Bram: “I would trade 100 trophies to have him on the PGA TOUR next year.”

Bram on Mav: “I can’t speak highly enough of him as a human being.”

Rarely is it said that life on the PGA TOUR is about relationships, and when it is, the relationship in question is usually of the player-caddie variety.

Sometimes, though, it’s a friendship between two players that means everything.

When McNealy was a kid growing up in the Bay Area, he was a hockey player who also took an interest in golf. He revered the men of the Stanford golf team.

One day, one of them actually noticed him back.

“Joseph was the first guy to come up and say, ‘Hey, kid, want a chipping contest?’” McNealy said, his eyes lighting up at the memory.

There was a little more to it than that. Scott McNealy, the co-founder and then-CEO of Sun Microsystems and Maverick’s father, was a benefactor for the golf team and struck up a friendship with some of the players, Bramlett among them.

“To be honest, he was my favorite donor,” Bramlett said. “He would be out there practicing with no shoes on, his dog running around.”

Bramlett not only looked after a young Maverick, but he marveled at the kid’s competitiveness, McNealy refusing to back down even once Bramlett turned pro and reached the PGA TOUR. Partly due to injuries, he would bounce between the TOUR and the Korn Ferry Tour for much of his professional career to date.

Soon, McNealy, too, made his way onto the game’s premier pathway circuit, where his relationship with Bramlett changed again, each man road backup to the other.

“Bram has been so great to Mav,” said Scout McNealy, Maverick’s brother and caddie. “He would talk him off the ledge when things weren’t going well on the Korn Ferry Tour.”

The kindness, though, has flowed both ways.

It hasn’t just been injuries – most recently a balky thumb last year – that have slowed Bramlett. One of the game’s premier ball-strikers, his putting has held him back.

Enter McNealy, among the best putters on TOUR, who lives five minutes from Bramlett in Las Vegas, practices with him, and is staying with him this week.

“He’s given me a lot of speed drills that he does,” Bramlett said, “and some little eyeline drills, some start-line drills for some short putts, and then it was a matter of me finding the right setup, the right grip, the right putter that enabled me to do that consistently.

“He gave me an incredible foundation to start building on,” he added. “He’s been an incredible resource for me.”

The proof is in the numbers.

Bramlett came into this week at 173rd in Strokes Gained: Putting, losing over a half stroke a round. This week, though, he’s gaining more than two strokes on the greens and is 19th in the field in putting. And he is immensely grateful for McNealy’s help.

“He really does want the best for me,” Bramlett said. “We’ve spent hours putting, especially the last few months from like late August until now … Each week he’s just kind of checking in if I need any help. I can’t say enough good things about the dude.”

On Sunday, McNealy will go for his first win in 142 PGA TOUR starts. He’s had two career runner-up finishes (2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, 2021 Procore Championship). He opened with a 62 and has been doing media all week.

Bramlett, who had been flying under the radar until Saturday, will try to find a way to complement all that great tee-to-green play with some solid putting, further climbing the leaderboard and working his way into the FedExCup top 125.

Mav and Bram.

Bram and Mav.

A lot could happen Sunday, but it’s a comfort to them both, and affirming for the rest of us, to know they’ll be there for each other, come what may.