The question follows Maverick McNealy just about everywhere, from the Stanford University campus to golf tournaments around the country. He hears it from classmates, competitors, prospective agents and most anyone else who has seen him play.

“When are you going to turn pro?”

It is a reasonable question. After three years at Stanford, McNealy is America’s most highly rated professional golf prospect, one more star from a school whose alumni in the sport include Tiger Woods and Tom Watson. But when McNealy hears the question, he offers a polite correction: It is a matter of if, not when.

Less than a year from his expected graduation, McNealy said he is seriously considering passing on pro golf for a career in business, a decision that would be virtually unparalleled in the modern world of big-money sports.

“I still don’t really know what I’m going to do with my life,” he said.