Maverick McNealy is the most intriguing young golfer to come along in quite some time. Yes, the kid can play: He spent much of 2016 and '17 as the top-ranked amateur in the country while earning a degree in engineering and management science. But what makes McNealy so unusual is his backstory, as his father Scott is a Silicon Valley legend, having co-founded Sun Microsystems, which was sold to Oracle in 2010 for $7.4 billion. Maverick grew up in gilded circumstances — for years the family kept a mansion on the 16th fairway at Pebble Beach - but he is remarkably self-possessed and down-to-earth.

Maverick sat down with Alan Shipnuck in Las Vegas, where he played on a sponsor's exemption and missed the cut. It was the second of seven he is allowed to take as a non-member of the PGA Tour. If he earns 269 FedEx Cup points during these seven starts — equal to the 150th place on the 2017 list — he will become a "special temporary member" of the Tour and be able to accept unlimited sponsor's exemptions for the remainder of the season. Maverick discussed that uncertain grind and much more during the chat.