Coming around at just the right time for McNulty  PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator SUNRIVER, Ore. -- Stories about guys playing for exempt status usually generate from the Nationwide Tour or q-school. Even most PGA TOUR pros know what it means to worry about a precarious position on the Money List or the FedExCup rankings. But it's not usually the norm on the Champions Tour, where most of the players have long since cemented their spots on Tour.  Mark McNulty needs a strong finish to maintain his Champions Tour status. (WireImage)
Not so for Mark McNulty, who needs a top-30 finish on the Champions Tour Money List in 2007 to be fully exempt in 2008. Currently sitting at No. 51 on the money list, McNulty could sure use a win at the JELD-WEN Tradition this week. Not that he thinks about that or anything. "I've played for 30 years so I don't worry about that anymore. If I was going to worry about that, I'd pack the bags up and go home," said McNulty, putting it frankly, as he usually does. "I haven't had a very good season. I've had a lot of ailments and my game is just starting to turn the corner. I wouldn't say it's completely rounded yet, but if I can play the way that I know can, I should be all right. There's a long way to go with eight tournaments left, so I'll keep my fingers crossed." Heading into the weekend at the Crosswater Golf Club in Sunriver, Ore., McNulty is in second place, just two shots back of David Edwards after firing rounds of 66 and 68 for a 10-under-par total. But, a seasoned veteran at age 53, McNulty knows that 36 is much less than 72. "It's the second round -- we've only written half the examination paper and we've still got another 36 questions to be answered," he said. "A lot can happen with guys behind David and myself. "Obviously, we'd like to keep playing the way that we have been, making birdies and putts, and answer those questions," he added. "But I think we've got some weather coming in tomorrow, maybe a little bit of frost and possibly a bit of rain on Sunday as well so that's all going to add it." Being close to losing his exempt status is a long way from the position McNulty found himself in during his first two seasons on Tour. He was the man at the end of the 2004 season, capturing back-to-back titles at the SBC Championship and the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. Those wins, coupled with an earlier victory at the '04 Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am -- where McNulty became just the 11th player in Tour history to win in his first start on the circuit -- helped him earn Rookie of the Year honors. Proving that 2004 was no fluke, McNulty captured two trophies and earned seven total top-10s in his sophomore season on his way to claiming a pretty big mantle decorator -- the Byron Nelson Trophy for lowest scoring average (69.41) on Tour. He finished that year at No. 3 on both the money list and in Charles Schwab Cup points. But he hasn't won since thanks to pesky back problems, which he says have been a "bug bearer" for all of his life. Just when things are feeling good for five or six months, something as simple as picking up a suitcase can be a step in the wrong direction. Injuries are something he's seen plenty of, since over the years he's dealt with shingles, skin cancer, a bout of flu before his fifth Champions Tour win, a sidelining knee injury in 1995, facial problems after his car collided with a bus in 1980 and a freak nerve injury in his neck suffered while playing cricket with his kids on vacation. But, since he's not a bionic man or anything, he knows that injuries and recoveries are a fact of life. As are mistakes, a few of which occurred during his second round. "I played very steady today, but had a couple of mistakes on the back nine," McNulty said on Friday, referencing his two bogeys out of his last five holes. "But we are human and humans make mistakes. If I was a robot, I wouldn't be sitting here." Besides, in addition to those two bogeys, McNulty also had two birdies on the last five holes, including a birdie on one of the toughest on the course -- the par-4 18th hole complete with wetland grasses and a shot over the Little Deschutes River. "That (birdie) was good, wasn't it? Obviously that's something to write about. David (Edwards) hit a great shot in there -- it's a really tough hole, the green poses a challenge," he said. "I wasn't trying to hit it to 2 or 3 feet, wherever I hit it, I was just trying to hit a good shot. And it was a great shot. "It's certainly going to make the chicken I'll have for dinner taste a lot better." McNulty didn't really care to dwell on his mistakes or even talk about his birdies because, as he put it, no one wants to read or write about what iron he used on a hole. And for him, all he wants is to get his game back to where it was and overcome the nagging injuries. "It's all a part of righting the ship. There's been a lot of talk about Ernie Els with his knee injury the last two years," he said. "I know Ernie very well, we're good friends, and he says he has times when he feels like he's playing better then the next week he's not playing so good. "You've got to keep plugging away and get the confidence up. You right the ship, yeah that's great, but then you have to get the confidence levels up. That's really what it's all about." And sometimes it's about winning, a feeling that's a little hard to remember for McNulty at this point. Though he's finished in the top-25 seven out of 12 times this season, he hasn't even sniffed the top-10 yet. So getting a taste of victory this week would be especially sweet. "Let me put it this way -- when you taste an ice cream, you know it's an ice cream. When you taste winning, when you win, you taste what its like," he said." When you haven't won in a while, you forget what it tastes like. It takes a while to answer all the questions to get back in a position to win." |
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network