The Loop
The billionaire caddie who will loop in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst
By John Strege
The wealthiest man inside the ropes at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst next week won't be Phil Mickelson or any of golf's other multimillionaires. It'll be a billionaire. And a caddie, to boot.
Scott McNealy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, is expected to caddie for his son, Maverick, 18, who finished third in U.S. Open sectional qualifying at Lake Merced Golf Club and the Ocean Course at the Olympic Club in Daly City, Calif., on Monday to earn a trip to Pinehurst. Scott was on Maverick's bag then, too.
"I can get on national TV and it doesn't faze me at all, Scott told Ron Kroichick of the San Francisco Chronicle, "but I'm a wreck out here."
Scott, 59, once topped Golf Digest's list of the best CEO golfers, with a 0.3 handicap index. He is a regular in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and has a home at Pebble Beach. He now plays to a 5.9 and is a member at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Stanford Golf Club, Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club and the Quarry in La Quinta, Calif.
Maverick, who shot seven-under par 136 in sectional qualifying, just completed his freshman year at Stanford, and was honorable mention all-Pac 12 and was selected to the conference's all-freshman team. He plays to a +4.4 handicap index.
"I've got to give thanks to my dad for hoofing it for 36 holes," Maverick told Kroichick. "Not many 59-year-olds could do that."
(Getty Images photo)