AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

February 13, 2021

Maverick McNealy

Pebble Beach Golf Links

Quick Quotes

Q. Describe your round.

MAVERICK MCNEALY: I felt like I was 4-under par the first six holes and had one unfortunate penalty on the 5th and just made a lot of pars after that.

Q. Describe the situation on 5.

MAVERICK MCNEALY: Yeah, we made the right call and we have the best rules staff in golf, but it was an unfortunate situation. I flew it over the green with my pitching wedge and it embedded. I took a drop, relief from the embedded and when the ball landed, it popped back out of where I dropped it. It was kind of perched on the back of that little hole it made. And when I looked at it, as I addressed the ball I was being very careful, because I thought it was in a very precarious spot, but it fell forward back into that hole and ended up being a one-shot penalty. They looked at the tape and the video and it was just too close to when I put my club down behind the ball to say that for sure I didn't cause it to move.

Felt like I was being very careful and I thought I did everything right, but unfortunately may have caused it to move and it's a one-shot penalty.

Q. It went back in the original where it embedded?

MAVERICK MCNEALY: No, it embedded. I took club-length relief because I was taking relief from the embedded ball. And as I dropped it and sometimes when you drop it from knee height the ball pops out of where you drop it. But it didn't go very far, it just kind of popped out and perched on the back. And wet grass rough and I think it just fell back into that hole that, where it landed when I dropped it.

Q. What's your reaction when something like that happens that's it's out of your control? Do you get angry, does it motivate you or do you just kind of put it away?

MAVERICK MCNEALY: Well, it was, it took a long time to get the ruling and get it right and credit to the officials for getting it right, but -- and then we had to play a little quicker to catch up to the group in front, there's a lot going through your head. I was proud of the way I refocused and birdied 6. Something I do when stuff's on my mind that I don't want is I just write down everything that's on my mind. And I did that in the back of my yardage book today and I would rather have all those thoughts in my yardage book than in my head when I'm trying to play golf.

Q. You still have a great chance going into tomorrow. What would it mean to win this event given your history here?

MAVERICK MCNEALY: There's no such thing as a bad win on the PGA TOUR. It's special every time you've got a chance. And this is not first time, I tend to play well closer to home and I'm just really excited to be on a golf course I'm comfortable at, with conditions I'm familiar with and it would be really, really fun to win here.

Q. What do you feel like you've done well this week?

MAVERICK MCNEALY: I feel like I've done everything pretty well. I've been very steady and nothing crazy, nothing flashy, nothing stands out as being exceptional.

I have driven it really well. That's been huge for me -- with the driver especially. You get a lot of crosswinds, down winds, into the wind and I've been driving it really, really nicely. But I've just been playing from the correct spots and not putting myself out of position.

Q. When you caddied for your dad, back in the day, could you ever have imagined you'd be in the mix heading into a Sunday here at Pebble?

MAVERICK MCNEALY: When I was caddieing for my dad I was just worried about trying to qualify for the next tournament at Stanford and never even though professional golf was a possibility.

So, it's pretty fun -- I saw a few clips from when I was caddieing for him, a couple pictures, and I look so young, I feel so old now.