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NAPA, Calif. – Maverick McNealy is making his professional golf debut at this week’s Safeway Open. This is significant because: 1. He attended Stanford University, which has a habit of churning out a few decent players every now and then. In fact, two of the top 12 all-time winningest players on the PGA TOUR attended Stanford – Tiger Woods is No. 2 on the list; Tom Watson is tied for 11th. Speaking of victories, Maverick won 11 collegiate events while at Stanford, which ties Woods and Patrick Rodgers for the most in school history. 2. He doesn’t have to be here. His father is Silicon Valley billionaire Scott McNealy, who co-founded Sun Microsystems. Maverick – who graduated with a degree in Management Science and Engineering — seriously contemplated remaining an amateur and pursuing a business career. He didn’t make his intentions to turn pro until a few months ago. 3. He just might be the next big thing in golf. Not only does he have a catchy first name – his dad named him after the Ford Maverick, a compact car produced in the 1970s – but his resume screams of potential. He spent significant time ranked as the No. 1 amateur player in the world, won the Haskins Award in 2015 as best amateur golfer, has already played the U.S. Open and Open Championship, and is one of three U.S. golfers to post a perfect 4-0 record in the recent win at the Walker Cup. It’s no wonder brands such as Callaway, Under Armour, KPMG and Discovery Land have signed him to sponsorship deals, all of which he announced this week. He’s not exactly sneaking up on anybody. Of course, with that kind of resume comes a higher level of expectations. McNealy doesn’t have status on TOUR – he’s playing this week on a sponsor’s exemption and has five more already lined up, and also hopes to play in the second stage of Web.com Q-school – so it could be slow going for the next few months. Of course, it could also be a fast-moving process, too. “It’s funny – I almost feel like I’m starting college all over again,â€� McNealy said Wednesday when asked about his expectations. “Obviously these next six months are crucial for where I start, but [I’m] looking forward to a long career. I’m going to have a lot of opportunities and a lot of chances. “But it’s hard to have any expectations because I really don’t know. I feel like it’s every bit as likely that I don’t have status [or] that I could win the next couple months. I just don’t know. Golf’s a funny game. You can miss four cuts in a row and win the next week. So I think it really comes down to being patient and sticking to my process and doing what I know works.â€� Even at age 21, it’s apparent that McNealy knows a lot. He ran the gamut of expectations during his college career. As a freshman at Stanford, he simply wanted to qualify for a couple of tournaments, intent on proving his worth more with his work ethic while soaking up as much knowledge as possible. Then in 2015, he won seven times in 12 starts, a breakout performance he called “kind of a magical year for me.â€� He won four more times in 2016 and rose to world amateur No. 1. It was a reward for his success but also a good chance to learn – how to handle expectations, how to be a leader. Those were challenging times. He was the No. 1 golfer at Stanford, “something that was very new to me, and having to try and lead the team in some ways.â€� He won just one college tournament this year, and was a non-factor at the NCAA Championship, finishing tied for 76th as Stanford failed to make the 54-hole cut. But his Walker Cup performance indicates that he’s back on track, just in time to launch his pro career. “I learned so much more about my game and about myself and how I handle those expectations and those pressures and what I can do,â€� McNealy said. “There’s earning years and there’s learning years, and I had a great two learning years – and hopefully I can play well from those experiences.â€� Having previous experience at PGA TOUR events should help. He made eight starts as an amateur, including the 2014 U.S. Open. The next year, he played The Greenbrier Classic, shooting 67 in the first round. “I was not comfortable over a single shot and actually played really well,â€� he recalled. “I said, at this point, I probably have the lowest career scoring average of anyone on the PGA TOUR at 67 – but that didn’t last unfortunately.â€� He realizes he’s well behind on the learning curve, and thus soaking up more knowledge and depositing it into the memory bank will be a key goal this week. Seeking advice has never been a problem for him. As a freshman, McNealy was paired up with Rodgers for 36 holes at The Western at Pasatiempo. On the bus ride home that week, he asked, “Patrick, what did you think? What do you think I could do better?â€� Rodgers replied that he’d think about it. The next morning, McNealy woke up, checked his email, and saw a lengthy response from Rodgers, “basically saying you’ve shown you’re good enough to compete, you’ve shown you’re good enough to win – now you just need to believe you’re good enough to win,â€� McNealy recalled. “And that just went right over my head.â€� But he saved the email and read it again the next year as a sophomore. “I said, ‘Wow, he’s right.’ It was just a flip in the mindset.â€� That same year, Woods was at the Stanford campus right after his first back surgery, just hitting balls that morning after an early workout at the gym. Someone on the Stanford team finally approached Woods and asked a question about hitting a stinger. Eventually, McNealy and his other teammates stood in a semicircle, with Woods showing them shots, telling stories and answering their questions. “What I took away from that weekend is that Tiger didn’t do anything crazy different in terms of his golf preparation that I had never heard of before,â€� McNealy said. “It was just that he did everything really well and more disciplined and better than anybody else I had ever seen. “So I took a lot of confidence in that, that if I just do what I know I need to do and do it better, that I’ll probably be in a good spot.â€� Whether this turns into a learning year or an earning year for McNealy remains to be seen. Of course, there’s no reason it can’t be both.

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SAN ANTONIO — Ben Martin played in the first pairing Friday at the Valero Texas Open. He shot even-par 72 as his wife and mother walked along. RELATED: Leaderboard It was sunny, cool, bright and quiet at TPC San Antonio. Martin finished two rounds at 3 under, which allows him to play the weekend, making his third cut in five starts since September. It was the kind of morning he reminded himself to appreciate. He knows his family, including his two young daughters, are with him this week. They were with him last week, too. They watched him lead the Corales Puntacana Championship after the first, second and third rounds. They hoped he could win for the first time since his one and only victory at the Shriners Children Open seven years ago. They despaired when he missed a short putt on the 72nd hole to finish in second. What happened next surprised even them, the people who know him best. Asked after his round to comment on the loss, Martin could find no words. He tried for more than a minute to gather himself. He then described how badly he had wanted to win that afternoon. He thought it was going to be his week. The runner-up at the 2009 U.S. Amateur, a two-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour, had last been in the mix at the 2016 John Deere Classic, where he finished second. He admitted that contending sure seemed a lot harder now than it used to. “I guess I wanted this one a lot more,” he managed. Video of the emotional interview inspired messages of compassion, empathy and solidarity. Viewers saw a man broken by his own hopes — a humanity and vulnerability that elite athletes rarely allow. Martin’s wife, Kelly, saw a side of her husband that surprised her, and also relieved her. “I’m not used to seeing those emotions from him,” she said. “I think it’s been a good thing to tap into.” Martin said he still hadn’t watched the video, but “she told me that.” He added, “It could be.” Like most professional golfers, Martin said he tries to limit the emotional extremes. What happened last week in the Dominican Republic simply overwhelmed his defenses. “One of the reasons we’re good at golf is that we keep it pretty even keel,” Martin said. Now, one of the reasons more people know and care about him is because he didn’t. “I think in a cool way me finishing second had a bigger impact on people that it would have if I’d won the tournament,” Martin said. A couple of years ago, when he was struggling to make cuts, Martin wondered if he should consider something else. What came easily once — playing in the Masters Tournament as an amateur, earning his TOUR card and winning early in his career — began to seem insurmountable. But he recommitted, which is exactly what got him to that 72nd hole last week with a chance to force a playoff. He failed to win. But he nearly did. His Top 10 finish got him into the Valero Texas Open, where he shot 69-72 on a difficult golf course in the wind. “I’m 100 percent,” he said. “I think this is where I need to be.”

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Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady took on Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning in Capital One’s “The Match: Champions for Charity� at Florida’s Medalist Golf Club on Sunday. Tiger and Phil, together again, only now partnering quarterbacks and playing to raise money in the fight against COVID-19, and with everyone wearing microphones to great effect. THE MATCH: Leaderboard | Team Tiger/Peyton wins | Top 10 observations Woods and Manning held on to win 1 up despite a valiant back-nine comeback by Mickelson and Brady, the latter having filled up the hole from both on and off the green. Most importantly, they raised $20 million, and The Match was pure fun to watch. Mickelson was especially chirpy early, joking that he’d brought out his “Tiger Slayer� Odyssey putter, and, fueled by coffee, was preparing to activate his calves for the long-drive contest on the third hole. “Yes, ladies and gentlemen,� Woods said, “this is what I have to listen to every time we play.� Not that he didn’t get some digs in of his own, later stating that he could mark his ball with the gold medal from the U.S. Open. All told, it was another fascinating installment of Tiger and Phil. After 20-plus years of these guys, the rivalry somehow still has legs. Why is that? The contrast in styles (righty vs. Lefty, strategist vs. seat-of-the-pants, new kid vs. more established pro) has helped; there was never any confusing one for the other. Rory McIlroy said much the same thing about the overseeded grass after winning THE PLAYERS Championship last year; he could differentiate the fairway from the rough as he stood on the tee. Contrast is everything. But it must be the right kind of contrast. Without trying to, Tiger and Phil fit the classic rivalry mold perfectly, one side a seemingly immovable pillar of excellence (Woods, who once made 142 straight cuts) and the other a less disciplined genius (Mickelson, who hit a ball through a gap in the pines at the 2010 Masters). They were Borg and McEnroe; the old-school Boston Celtics and the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers; and Boris Spassky and bad boy Bobby Fischer. Such contrasts allow us to access the full range of emotions, for while one side inspires awe and commands respect (82 PGA TOUR victories, 15 majors, two PLAYERS titles), the other alternately drives us mad (what do you need with two drivers?) and deliriously happy (2004 Masters, 2007 PLAYERS, 2013 Open Championship). And no, you can’t manufacture a rivalry – except in a script, where you totally can. Soviet-built machine Ivan Drago and big-hearted Rocky Balboa in “Rocky IV� come to mind, although I’m not proud of that. For a rivalry to really work, however, both sides have to occasionally win. Competitive balance is the special sauce, and this is where Tiger and Phil almost didn’t end up clicking. Way back in 2001 at a Mexican restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, Mickelson told me something that at the time seemed debatable. “When I compete with Tiger,� he said as we ate chips and salsa, “I can see myself – the line of a putt, the shot I want to hit – more clearly.� I nodded, but Woods seemed to be in a class by himself. He had just set or tied 27 PGA TOUR records as he won nine times in 2000. Still, Mickelson had won the TOUR Championship that year, firing a 66 to overtake Woods (69) and Vijay Singh, so I wrote it in my notebook. And it turned out he was right. Studies have shown how sports rivals lift each other up; college and pro teams get quantifiably better in the year after their chief rival wins the championship. Long-distance runners are five seconds per kilometer faster if a top rival is in the race. So it went with Tiger and Phil. “Although we often see them as enemies,� author Adam Grant wrote in The New York Times last year, “our rivals can be our greatest allies. You can see this in the extreme in sports.� Tiger and Phil battled at Doral, Bay Hill, Firestone, Augusta National. We suspected that they made each other better, but now we know just how much better. As Justin Ray of The 15th Club wrote for PGATOUR.COM, for the last 15 years Mickelson has gained an average of 1.12 strokes on the field per round, but when playing alongside Woods that number has jumped to 2.00 strokes per round. So, yeah, maybe Phil really did see the shot he wanted to hit more clearly. (Playing with Mickelson also helped Woods, although less so.) Who won the rivalry? Woods will end his career with far more victories, but as Ray points out, on 31 occasions when both were within five of the lead going into the final round, Woods won 10 times, Mickelson nine, while Woods shot a cumulative 51 under par, Mickelson 52 under. That they’ve grown into the rivalry perhaps shouldn’t surprise us. For as Grant, an organizational psychologist at Wharton, also wrote in The Times, “If you build a supportive relationship with that rival, it can elevate your performance even further.� Tiger and Phil took it to another level when they committed to the Ryder Cup Task Force after the U.S. Team’s lopsided defeat at Gleneagles in 2014, and are now closer than ever. Mickelson is even planning to move to South Florida; you can just imagine Phil knocking on Tiger’s door to ask if he can come out and hit some bombs, and Tiger rolling his eyes and agreeing. So, yes, they’ve made each other better on the course, but also off it. They’ve made Brady and Manning better, and at the Medalist on Sunday, all four of them did their part to make even the ongoing pandemic better. Even as we anticipate the twilight of their competitive careers, the rivalry between Tiger and Phil continues to elevate us all.

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