Tag: Maverick McNealy

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – For years, Joseph W. Monahan III has enjoyed the moniker, Joe “The Pro,” a nickname believed to be bestowed upon him by his brother Tommy, and sometimes shortened to simply “JTP,” by his cronies at Winchester Country Club back home in Massachusetts.

But this week, call him Moonlight Graham.

That’s because Monahan, a 76-year-old lawyer and father of PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, is playing in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with second-year pro Keith Mitchell, and has turned into a modern-day Archibald “Doc” Graham, who finally did get his time at bat in the 1989 motion picture “Field of Dreams.”

“It’s like a dream world for someone like me,” Joe the Pro said. “It’s Field of Dreams and Shoeless Joe Jackson stuff. Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth walk by me and they both said, ‘Hi, Joe.’ ”

A year ago, Joe caddied for Jay and beamed with pride at riding shotgun for three glorious days at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which also includes rounds at Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course.

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“Last year was the best,” Joe said. “We’re on the 18^th green on Monday morning and I’m sitting with Jay and this guy is beside me. I don’t know who it is, and it’s Clint Eastwood. He says, ‘Buddy, you’ve got to be proud.’ I say, ‘I sure am.’ He says, ‘You know, you haven’t done too bad yourself.’ And he gives me a fist pump.”

How do you top that? The only way to do so was to upgrade to a spot in the field. It happened thanks to the urging of PGA Tour board chairman Ed Herlihy during a dinner at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in June with the Commissioner.

“Ed said to me, ‘Have I ever asked you for something?’ ” recounted Jay. “I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m going to ask you for something.’ I said, ‘What’s that?’ He said, ‘I want you to play with your father at AT&T.’ I said, ‘I’ll caddie for my dad.’ He said, ‘No, your dad is going to be 76. He loves the game. You need to have that experience playing with him.’ I hemmed and hawed a little bit, but it had been decided.

“I’ve played so much golf with my dad. He’s watching or playing all the time. To do this means a lot to him.”

And it is equally meaningful for Jay, and for good reason.

“It’s a particularly special time for me because his dad, my grandfather and our respective namesake, played in the 1947 U.S. Amateur here at Pebble Beach and lost on the 18^th hole in the second round of the match play,” Jay explained.

On the eve of the tournament, Joe the Pro, who won the 2001 New England Senior Amateur, was asked at a reception by CBS announcer Jim Nantz, “What is your handicap?”

“Seven,” Joe replied.

“What? You’re a nine,” Jay said.

Laughter ensued.

“So now we know, he’s a seven but he put in for a nine. Oh, boy!” Nantz said to growing laughter. “I knew you were in trouble when you took about 10 seconds to try to figure out your handicap.”

It turns out Joe the Pro’s index is 7.3 and his 9 strokes is on the up-and-up. He put it to good use at the par-3 7^th hole, rolling a 40-foot birdie putt into the heart of the hole after Jay’s partner, Harry Higgs, commanded him to “Do something,” for a net one on the scorecard.

Joe the Pro and his pro, Mitchell, signed for 7-under 64 at MPCC and are T-21 after one round.

Higgs, a Tour rookie who is paired with The Commish, shot a ho-hum 5-under 66 and Jay, a legit six handicap who could turn his shoulders a little more according to Higgs, pitched in two net eagles – at the par-5 6^th and par-4 13^th – en route to 8-under 63 (T-8).

One of the more comical moments of the day happened on the first tee when the caddie bib for Commissioner Monahan was spelled incorrectly with an extra ‘O’ replacing an ‘A.’ One spectator asked, “Are you guys related?”

Yes, they are. In past years, Lee Westwood (2013), Graeme McDowell (2014) and Rory McIlroy (2018) have all celebrated Father’s Day in February by playing with their fathers. Defending champion Phil Mickelson has a family connection as well. His late maternal grandfather, Al Santos, grew up in Monterey and caddied as a teenager at Pebble Beach after the course opened in 1919. Mickelson, who fired a 68 at Spyglass Thursday, marks his ball using a silver dollar from 1900 that his grandfather gave him – money earned during his days as a caddie. And Joe and Jay aren’t the only father-son tandem in the field. This year, Maverick McNealy and father, Scott, are joining forces for the second time, and opened with 6-under 66 at Pebble Beach.

“Someday, we joked, we have to play in this. I’d be the pro and he’d be the am,” said Maverick, who teamed up with his dad for the first time in 2018 and remembers his dad sneaking him inside the ropes at Pebble Beach when he was 5 years old and “still cute.”

This is the 14^th appearance here for McNealy, the 65-year-old billionaire founder of Sun Microsystems who once won the Jack Lemon Award given to the amateur MVP. Maverick’s favorite memory of the tournament before joining the pro ranks is the time he turned on his phone when his flight landed in San Francisco late one Saturday night in February during his freshman year at Stanford in 2014. His eyes grew wide as he read a text from his father, Scott. “I’m paired on Sunday with Phil Mickelson at Pebble Beach. Do you want to caddie for me?”

Heck yeah!

Without hesitation, Maverick hopped in his car and made the journey to Pebble. While waiting on the fifth tee box the following day Mickelson gave Scott his cell phone digits so they could keep in touch. When Mickelson wandered over to the tee, Maverick whispered to his dad, “OK, you’re officially cool in my book now.”

What a day. Before partying with celebrities, legends, & late-night ice cream, had a wonderful afternoon of #golf with just my son @MavMcNealy at stunning Monterey Peninsula. still looking for a birdie, and @attproam only gave me 8 strokes! https://t.co/dBv0EM8B4D pic.twitter.com/oJypVvTg8s

— Scott McNealy (@scottmcnealy) February 5, 2020

Scott thought he’d played for the final time until Maverick’s sponsor KPMG, offered him a spot. It seems everyone is a sucker for a good father-son story at Pebble. Another sponsor, Under Armour shipped them matching shirts, pants, and pullovers. They’ve played thousands of rounds together, but this was more special and a reminder that Pebble Beach is a place where pros and amateurs and golf pair together quite like nowhere else. And this year, so do fathers and sons, especially the type that dish out pre-round advice.

“Dad, just two things tomorrow,” Maverick said before the opening round. “Hit the driver hard. If we find it great. If not, swing hard again next hole. And, don’t leave any putts short. And let’s have fun!”

“What a great pro I got assigned this year,” Scott quipped. “Knows just what to say. Love him to death.”

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