Steady McGreevy makes move to Korn Ferry Tour

For most of the summer while Max McGreevy was playing PGA TOUR Series-China, his mom Sherryl would find clandestine broadcast links to follow her son’s progress and would text him post-round every single day.

Luckily, he gave her plenty to cheer about.

McGreevy finished atop the PGA TOUR Series-China Order of Merit after a record-breaking season and will be fully exempt on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020 – his second season on the circuit.

Although McGreevy won only once this season (Guangzhou Open in July), he was the steadiest of anyone. He didn’t miss a cut and finished outside the top-20 only twice.

McGreevy recorded nine top-10s in 13 starts, and for his efforts, he topped the Order of Merit by just over $26,000.

“You wake up in the morning and you think, ‘Wow, I’m 8,000 miles away from home,’” said McGreevy, “but I was lucky to be able to talk to (my parents) and have them keep me sane for the most part.”

After a decorated college career at the University of Oklahoma – McGreevy was part of the NCAA Championship-winning squad in 2017 – he played on the Mackenzie Tour and then earned 2018 Korn Ferry Tour status.

He feels he played well, but just not well enough to get anything going that year.

“I was behind the eight ball already with conditional status and playing Monday qualifiers,” he said. “I ended up in 16 events, but at the same time my body was just fried and I didn’t have enough energy and will power to get through it all.”

He’s now excited to return to many courses and cities he knows well, with an opportunity to make his own schedule.

McGreevy is also excited to return to compete in America because he’s a self-proclaimed picky eater. After eating just two or three things for most of the time playing in China, he said, it was good to get back to the U.S.

Especially since there was that one time he ended up in the hospital.

“I got a virus or food poisoning … about 15 of us that got it that week, and I actually went to the hospital the night before the final round (in Beijing). A couple of guys had it worse than I did. I was lucky to finish the event,” says McGreevy, who actually finished T3 that week.

“You’re eating something every single day and you have no idea what it tastes like; you’re just putting it in your mouth,” McGreevy continued, with a laugh. “It’s a weird experience, but it’s cool and unique to try something different and how they do things differently. It was definitely an experience. Not one I want to revisit anytime soon, but it was awesome.”

The experience of playing PGA TOUR Series-China, McGreevy said, came to fruition after a push from fellow Oklahoma alum Charlie Saxon.

Saxon, who finished runner-up on the PGA TOUR Series-China Order of Merit a year ago and made a nice run up the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List this year, lives with McGreevy now in Dallas.

At the end of 2018, golf admittedly wasn’t really on McGreevy’s mind, but Saxon was “throwing China” at him. McGreevy told Saxon “no” right away, but after Saxon kept talking through the holiday season about his experience, McGreevy decided to give Q-School a try.

“I talked to my parents and it was hard for them to let me go all the way over there, but I bit the bullet and tried out Q-School. If I didn’t like it, I was just going to leave it at that,” said McGreevy. “But I had a really good experience at Q-School, met a lot of guys, and the year wasn’t going to be as difficult as I once thought.

“I have to give a lot of props to Charlie for making me go over there and (consistently) pestering me.”

It was McGreevy’s first time in China – he had previously played a junior event in Japan at age 16 – and admits it was “a big shock” at first.

But with a friend from Oklahoma already in tow (South Korea’s Luke Kwon graduated from Oklahoma one year prior to the 2017 championship-winning season and ended up fifth on this year’s PGA TOUR Series-China Order of Merit), he managed to get settled in quickly.

“It was a little bit of a tough transition being over there, but the golf wasn’t so hard to transition for some reason,” he said, as he focused on ‘playing golf’ and not ‘playing golf in China.’

“It seemed like I was back in America just playing like normal, and I think that’s what made it easier.”

He got off to a quick start, finishing 4-T2 in the first two events, and he maintained the top spot on the Order of Merit for the balance of the season.

McGreevy is back in America now with a lifetime of experiences in tow – like climbing the Great Wall of China – and getting ready for another year of change.

For one, Charlie Saxon won’t be encouraging him to fly around the world to play golf. For another, Sherryl McGreevy will no longer have to stay up through the middle of the night to watch her son play golf.