BARRACUDA CHAMPIONSHIP

July 14, 2022

Maverick McNealy

Tahoe Mountain Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Just some general comments about starting strong with an opening round.

MAVERICK McNEALY: Yeah, that round kind of took a while to come to me, that's for sure. It was a little bit frustrating. I think I was 2 points through my first 13 holes, and then got things started when I hit a perfect pitching wedge, it was actually a perfect one, one-hopped in the hole for an eagle on I guess that would be 5, and then I hit two great shots and almost made an eagle putt, made birdie on 6, and then nice up-and-down for birdie on 8, and that was basically my day right there. I was 9 points in my last five holes.

Q. What was the turning point from --

MAVERICK McNEALY: It's always nice when a pitching wedge goes in the hole from 151. It was actually funny yesterday, Travis and I were dialing my yardages in, and full pitching wedge is 150 this week and we had 151. It pitched at 150, and second hop landed straight in the hole.

Q. What is it about this course that you really like with your game?

MAVERICK McNEALY: I tend to play really well in California, growing up here. Also staying close to home in Incline Village, Nevada. That's where my parents spend summers and it's my favorite place in the world. I'm very comfortable playing at altitude. I live in Las Vegas which is 3,000 feet and it's about 6,000 here, so I play and practice at home halfway up here, and I love bentgrass greens, comfortable with the turf, and it's a good golf course because you have to drive it straight.

Q. What good memories do you have from being down there at the lake house?

MAVERICK McNEALY: Well, I actually jumped in the lake first thing yesterday morning coming from Scotland very jet lagged so I was wide awake at 4:00, so the lake looked so perfect. I just went on down and jumped in for a couple minutes.

It's fun; two of my brothers are working remotely from the house here so staying with them, and my third brother once he gets off work on Friday is getting in town for the weekend, and just a family vacation spot.

Q. You heard you talking to Kevin Price about the jet lag is real. How do you feel now?

MAVERICK McNEALY: It's a lot easier coming this way. I woke up at 3:45, 15 minutes before my alarm this morning, was just wide awake, don't even need caffeine, which is great. I'm definitely going to hit a wall around 7:00, so I might take a nap this afternoon and see if I can actually stay awake until 8:30 tonight.

But yeah, I'm just really excited to have a chance to earn some points and move my way up the FedExCup. It's really frustrating not playing majors. I've played two out of the last 12 majors, and I don't want to miss another one this year. That's why I'm pushing really hard. I'm playing this week, I'm playing next week at 3M and playing Rocket Mortgage. Three really good chances to put myself in a good position for the Playoffs.

Q. Quite a big stretch; what are certain aspects you're looking to find?

MAVERICK McNEALY: I think the most important is managing my rest and recovery, so my practices after the rounds are very efficient. Mondays are starting to be less heavy of a workload for me, that's for sure, and making sure that I still have my best stuff come Sunday afternoon when hopefully I have a chance to win the golf tournament.

But I think with my team we've worked and really dialed in my nutrition, dialed in my rest, my sleep, my recovery, and game feels really good, so just keeping dialing in the things that I'm doing well, and golf is fun when you're playing well.

Q. It's kind of encouraging that maybe you can play more aggressive; is there a game plan as you're talking with your caddie about finding more scoring opportunities here?

MAVERICK McNEALY: Yeah, I think -- I don't play that differently with this format. I might take one or two yards tighter lines into the greens, but it really -- I think the only thing I really do differently is when I get out of position you have to play really smart and make sure you don't make any double bogeys because those are twice as penal. No, I think it's good. I make a lot of birdies in general when I play and I do a good job on the par-5s. I think this format plays to my strengths.