McNulty and 'Team Rehab' secure future in Savannah

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Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Mark McNulty sat out most of 2010 rehabbing from knee surgery. Three months into 2011, he's a winner.

Dealing with an injury is a fact of life on the Champions Tour. After a career in golf, few are immune from nagging discomforts.

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For a long time, Mark McNulty tried to play through the inconvenience of a bum knee. Finally, early in the 2010 Champions Tour season, he said, "No mas." He knew it was time to do something about it.

McNulty now has confirmation he did the right thing at the right time.

McNulty combined with partner David Eger -- Team Rehab -- to win the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf title in a playoff over Kenny Perry and Scott Hoch. McNulty and Eger, who also missed much of the 2010 season, raced nimbly to the title on strong legs.

McNulty had right knee replacement surgery last May 11 after only four starts in 2010. Eger suffered a broken right ankle in a fall a couple of months after winning the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic. The injury effectively ended the season for Eger.

Both began this year with the predictable concerns and questions. Those have been largely dispelled with the victory in Savannah.

"Mark had his knee replaced and I broke my ankle and had surgery in late June," Eger said. "It's really nice to think about winning a tournament after all the physical issues that we both had last year. It's really nice."

It almost felt like Christmas in April but that's not been a reaction foreign to McNulty.

"We've both got titanium pieces," McNulty said. "I go off like a Christmas tree when I go through the airport so it's just one of those things.

"There are a few of us on Tour now who have got bionic pieces. I've been battling with a knee issue for 27 years when my first-ever operation on a so-called simple meniscus went wrong and got infection in the joint. I always thought I'd come to this stage and unfortunately last year I hit the brick wall and this is, for me, is a great bonus. It came at an unbelievable time."

With the victory, McNulty and Eger now have fully-exempt status for 12 months on the Champions Tour.

Eger started the year needing $163,750 to equal the 30th position on the 2010 money list. He had seven tournaments to reach that goal, with two left beginning the Legends event. First place was worth $230,000 to each of the winners, guaranteeing Eger access through the tournament winner category into Champions Tour events.

McNulty has had plenty of experience dealing with injuries. When the knee was repaired following the infection, he was told it would be 18 or 20 years before problems could reoccur.

"It came a little before that," McNulty said. "In September 2009, it all came to a head. The knee just kind of said, 'Hey, this is enough.'"

Cortisone shots weren't helping all that much but McNulty kept trying to play. McNulty played two more tournaments in 2010 after Hawaii and realized "the only way I was going to be able to continue with some sort of golf career was to have the knee done."

Instead of hurrying to get back, McNulty looked around and considered his colleagues who had rushed to return. He sat out the remainder of 2010.

"For me, I felt like I needed to get the knee strong, take time away from the game," he said.

Actually, it was quite nice to be away. I was forced to be away -- I couldn't think about it. I started practicing in late October. It was much harder than I expected. Even though I was fit, I was shocked by how my body reacted. It was an eye-opener to getting back to the game as I know it."

McNulty, a native of Zimbabwe who lives in Orlando, teed it up a couple of times in his native South Africa and played nicely. He backed it up with a top 10 in Hawaii in the Champions Tour season opener.

The victory in the Legends of Golf was the eighth of his Champions Tour career and the fourth for Eger.

"David won't say this but I would like to say what I think is very important in this situation, it inspired me this week to try to be a good partner for him," McNulty said. "He was playing exceptionally well all week and he was very unlucky last year when he did break his foot. He was comfortably inside the Top 30 and he didn't play.

"This, I really think, is a great, great win for David because it puts us both back in the winners category and we can play the rest of the year, and now our goal, both of us, is obviously to make it to San Francisco (and the Charles Schwab Championship)."