Maverick McNealy of Stanford was named as one of five finalists for the 2017 Byron Nelson Award presented by Srixon/Cleveland Golf, in cooperation with the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Las Colinas, Texas, and the Salesmanship Club of Dallas.
McNealy, a two-time All-American from Portola Valley, captured the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, to tie the Stanford record of 11 career victories, set by Tiger Woods in 1996 and tied by Patrick Rodgers in 2014.
The other finalists are Jared du Toit of Arizona State, Mack Farley of St. John’s in Minnesota, Matt Gilchrest of Auburn and Jimmy Stanger of Virginia.
Candidates for the Nelson Award must be graduating seniors and the selection committee considers a nominee’s college academic and golf career as well as his character and integrity.
McNealy, the top-ranked amateur in the world, also was selected to the United States team for the Arnold Palmer Cup for the third consecutive year. The event will be played on June 9-11 at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
Also selected to the United States team were Collin Morikawa of Cal, Sean Crocker of USC, Sam Burns of LSU, Chandler Phillips of Texas A&M, Norman Xiong of Oregon,
John Coultas of Florida Southern, Nick Hardy of Illinois, Doug Ghim of Texas and Stanger.
