McNealy earns 1st PGA Tour win, Thitikul claims Tour Championship | The Sunday Swing

The Sunday Swing
November 24th, 2024

Welcome back to another edition of the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week was a busy one in the professional golf world as the PGA Tour wrapped up its fall series at the RSM Classic, while the LPGA hosted the CME Group Tour Championship.

RSM Classic - Tournament History 

The RSM Classic is one of the newer events on the PGA Tour schedule, debuting in 2010 at the Sea Island Golf Club. Being that the RSM is the final event of the FedEx Fall series, it is the last chance for players to earn and/or retain their PGA Tour cards. The Top 125 after this week earn their status on Tour this season, bringing an added element of pressure to an event that would otherwise seem relatively inconsequential. The Sea Island Golf Club measures 7,160 yards and typically gives up low scores to the field of professionals. Last year for example, Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg set the tournament scoring record after shooting 29-under par to win by four. The previous five winners of the RSM Classic are as follows:

2024 - Maverick McNealy (-16)
2023 - Ludvig Aberg (-29)
2022 - Adam Svensson (-19)
2021 - Talor Gooch (-22)
2022 - Robert Streb (-19) 

The Big Swing 

This week the big swing belongs to Maverick McNealy. McNealy picked up his first ever victory on the PGA Tour on Sunday in Sea Island. His opening-round 62 on Thursday set him up for success out of the gate. He followed it up with a 2-under 70 on Friday, putting himself in prime position for the weekend.

On Saturday, McNealy grabbed the lead and then built on it. He put together a 4-under round of 66 to take a 2-shot lead heading into Sunday, though a group of talented up-and-comers was right on his tail including amateur Luke Clanton and recent winner Nico Echavarria.

Clanton proved to be the biggest threat to McNealy as the final round got started. Clanton had carded rounds of 68, 65, and 68 getting him to 11-under through 54 holes. As the final round began, McNealy looked really solid throughout the front nine. He made birdies on holes 5 and 8 and was blemish free. Clanton was making a push a few groups ahead, getting to 4-under through 11 on the day. Echavarria was also making a Sunday charge, and ended up shooting 5-under and posting 15-under in the clubhouse.

McNealy’s only bogey of the day came at a pivotal time, the par-4 14th. The bogey dropped him back to a tie for the lead with just four holes to play. Then, McNealy failed to birdie the par-5 15th, and made back to back pars on 16 and 17. He stood on the difficult 470-yard par-4 18th tee, needing birdie to win, or par to force a playoff.

After a solid drive down the fairway, McNealy hit maybe the best iron shot of his career to 5-feet from 185 yards. He would knock it in the middle to claim his first ever victory on the PGA Tour. Clanton and Exhavarria finished in a tie for second at 15-under.

Also worth noting, Joel Dahmen entered the final round right on the Top 125 bubble and needed a low round to guarantee status on the PGA Tour in 2025. The fan favorite from the Netflix series Full Swing had yet to shoot a score that low in any of the FedEx Fall events, and he also had a tough regular season. However, Dahman ended up shooting a thrilling 64 in remarkable fashion. The round included a hole-out eagle on the 13th hole followed by a stretch of three straight birdies. Ultimately, on his last hole, Dahman needed to two-putt from about 50 feet to secure Top 125 placement. He rattled in the second putt from a few feet, meaning we’ll see Dahman on the PGA Tour in 2025.

Winner’s Bag - Maverick McNealy 

Maverick McNealy's winning bag features mostly TaylorMade clubs mixed in with some Vokey wedges and a Toulon Design putter. He plays the TaylorMade Qi10 "Dot" model for his driver with a Graphite Design Tour AD XC 6 TX shaft in it. For his fairway woods, McNealy goes back a generation for his fairway woods, putting a pair of Stealth 2 woods in his bag. He games the Stealth 2 3-Wood at 16.5 degrees and pairs that with a 21-degree Stealth 2 7-Wood. For his irons, McNealty plays the new TaylorMade P7CB's from his 4-iron through the 9-iron. He then moves into Vokey Wedges for his 46, 50 and 54, and then uses a Vokey WedgeWorks 58 degree as well. He finishes off the bag with a Toulon Design Prototype blade putter.

CME Group Tour Championship 

This week the LPGA Tour officially wrapped up its season in Naples, Florida at the CME Group Tour Championship. All the biggest names were in the field this week vying for women’s golf’s largest winners check ever of $4,000,000. 

In the end, it was 21-year-old Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand who was able to edge out Angel Yin in remarkable fashion on Sunday. With just two holes to play, Angel Yin was at 21-under par, while Thitikul was just -19. At the par-5 17th, Thitikul was able to make an incredible eagle while Yin could only manage a par. The two-shot lead for Yin was now gone, and Thitikul took advantage of the momentum swing and made another birdie on the 72nd hole to secure the victory. This marks Thitikul’s 4th win on the LPGA Tour at just 21 and she also earned the biggest payday in LPGA history. Lydia Ko finished in 3rd, Ruoning Yin 4th, and Nelly Korda and Narin An tied for 5th.