For McNulty, rout at JELD-WEN Tradition comes just in time  PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator SUNRIVER, Ore. -- After holding a share of the lead during the first and third rounds and trailing during the second, Mark McNulty wasn't cutting it close in the final round of the JELD-WEN Tradition.  A run of early birdies set Mark McNulty on his way Sunday. (Stan Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
In a resounding rout, the six-time Champions Tour winner started scoring birdies right out of the gate on Sunday, making them on Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 7 to take a three-stroke lead over David Edwards at the turn. He didn't let up until the final hole, making two birdies on the back nine at Nos. 11 and 15 before a double bogey on the 72nd hole gave him a five-shot win instead of an expected seven. Calling the birdies on No. 3 and No. 5 "bonuses," he sank the putts from 30 feet and 24 feet, respectively, to gain a little mid-round confidence. "Those putts certainly set the tone and enabled me to keep my concentration," McNulty said. "It was really all about pace, because I was coming downhill on both of them. Sometimes when you're putting well, your lag putts, they come out of the blue and go in; and if you try and make them, they go four or five feet past, and that was the key today. "My putting all week was fantastic except for the last hole, but my concentration had gone out the window by then." McNulty, who is 23rd in putting average on the Champions Tour in 2007 and 17th in the number of putts he takes per round, is known for his consistency with the flatstick. He explained, though, that being an extremely talented putter is something that comes naturally to a select few. "Guys who putt well through the ages are born with it. And whether it's [Ben] Crenshaw, whether it's Tiger [Woods], whether it's Loren Roberts, D.A. Weibring is a great putter, you are born with it and you putt well," he explained. "You have times when you go through poor putting rounds, tournaments, times, but it always comes back because you have it, because it's inbred, it's inside." Even his playing partner noticed his putting prowess this week. "I can attest, he is a very good putter," said Edwards, who finished runner-up to McNulty. "He made some nice putts starting off there on No. 2 and No. 3. "I played with him the last three days and he played very solid. He didn't miss very many shots," he added. "He got the ball up and down. He didn't hit any bad misses and, you know, played very smart, got the ball, chipped the ball close when he was off the green and played very well. Obviously to pull away from everybody else, he played really well." With the weather changing from a cool and rainy morning to a sunny but windy afternoon at Crosswater Club at Sunriver Resort, McNulty picked the right nine to fill the card with birdies. Playing his round without any "jitterbugs," as he put it, McNulty was finally able to tame the par-4 11th hole that had given him fits throughout the week. Making birdie there convinced him that he was in a good position to win the tournament. "If I had to really put my finger on a shot that really sort of settled me, that was mostly the defining moment (on No. 11) when I sensed that this tournament then was for me to lose and not for somebody else to win," he said. "And that's ... I'm not sort of saying anything lightly or discounting anybody else's great play, but it would have taken with the wind being as it was, the birdies were not going to be forthcoming [on the back nine]. It was just a case of playing out the round." As well as picking the right time on Sunday to charge ahead, he also picked the right time in his career to notch a win. McNulty needed a top-30 finish on the 2007 Champions Tour Money List to be fully exempt for 2008. Upon first joining the Tour, he earned three wins and Rookie of the Year honors in 2004 before following that up with two wins in 2005, but a lack of wins since put him in a precarious position on the exemption list. The win also gave him a little more confidence in his game -- despite the lapse in concentration that led to the double bogey on the final hole. "Gary Player once said to me, 'Mark, if you win by one, you've won,'", McNulty said. "If I won by seven, that would have been great but I'm delighted to have won the Tradition." With his recent win drought, McNulty -- who has won 55 times internationally, including several in his birthplace of Zimbabwe -- wasn't sure that he would ever see the winner's circle again, especially since he has been a long-time sufferer of back problems. "I'm still not totally confident about my back and even though it's a hell of a lot better than it was, and it's a fragile piece of equipment, and it didn't like golf," he said. "My brain likes golf, my back doesn't." So the injury-prone 53-year-old was glad to find his way to a win this week. "People ask me, 'what's your best win?' I say, my last one, because you never know when the next one is going to come," he said. "For me this week is exceptional. I didn't know when the next one was going to come, if it was going come." But it came just in time this year. |
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