Walking to the 13th tee at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, Jeff McNeil spots an onlooker wearing a New York Yankees cap.
‘If I hit the green, will you buy a Mets one?’ he shouts. Seconds later, the ball lands a few feet from the hole and he shoots a grin to those watching behind the ropes.
Even in the height of the offseason, even playing a completely different sport, the competitiveness of one of baseball’s biggest names shines bright.
McNeil is playing in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions golf event in Florida, 12 months on from lifting the trophy on his debut in January 2024.
This year, despite a late charge on the final day in which he outscored every one of his 50 rival players, he fell agonizingly short, eventually finishing second to hockey icon Joe Pavelski.
But his performance on the golf course is a testament to his incredible sporting ability, a man as confident swinging a club as he is a bat.
Jeff McNeil spent his offseason playing – and very nearly winning – a golf tournament in Florida
Now he is back on the baseball field and hitting home runs for the New York Mets again
In fact, it could have been so different for the man from Santa Barbara, California, who grew up dreaming of being a PGA Tour pro rather than a baseball star.
‘I started playing golf when I was three years old,’ he told DailyMail.com in the clubhouse back in January. ‘I used to have a little plastic club and would swing at anything.
‘I grew up on a par-three course, so I played a lot of golf there and my dad would take me out some days.’
But while that dream was a huge part of his childhood, he no longer harbors hope of that now, even despite some talk of him being good enough to turn pro when his MLB career is done.
‘I don’t think I really want to,’ he reveals. ‘I’ve grinded my whole life in baseball… and the grind is tough, you know.
‘Just being out there for the four days, it’s already a grind. I couldn’t imagine doing this for a whole year, plus practising… I just like to go out there and play.’
McNeil suffered an oblique strain in the offseason but is now back in the Mets’ lineup
The baseball superstar chats with Tiger Woods on a visit to watch TGL back in February
A few months later, back in the Big Apple, the Mets’ season is well underway and the only thing McNeil is swinging now is a bat of the baseball variety.
The 2025 campaign, though, hasn’t started in quite the way he would have hoped. An oblique strain in training camp set him back a few weeks, and he didn’t make his season debut until the end of April.
Now, though, he is back in the team and a consistent part of the team’s offense, playing 24 times in May with nine runs, three doubles, two triples, and two home runs.
His .244 batting average is above the likes of Juan Soto, Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo, and despite some topsy-turvy form the Mets are well-placed at the top of the NL East.
Ahead of the season, that’s exactly what McNeil expected from his team.
‘You know, we got a good ball club,’ he told DailyMail.com before a bat was swung. ‘I don’t think we’re done spending either. Our team is now that much better, but it’s still going to be a tough road, there’s a lot of good teams out there.’
In 2024, McNeil won HGV’s Tournament of Champions, and he was second in the 2025 event
McNeil (left) is now hitting consistent numbers above the likes of teammate Juan Soto (right)
Much of the Mets’ offseason spending involved Soto putting pen to paper on a monster 15-year, $765m contract – the largest deal in Major League Baseball history.
Speaking about his new teammate, McNeil opened up on being ‘super happy’ and excited to play alongside the ‘great signing’, as well as heaping praise on another teammate, his self-confessed ‘best friend’ in Pete Alonso.
It is those two, and Francisco Lindor, that have led the way in home-runs for the Mets this season, with McNeil chipping in as he tries to return to the type of form that earned him an All-Star call-up in 2019 and 2022.
And if his competitive edge on the golf course is anything to go by, he’ll make sure the Mets are right where they need to be come October.