GOLF:Jon Swift
THERE has always been an intense feeling of=20 calm about the way Mark McNulty has gone=20 about his chosen profession. In many ways=20 he is the model every aspirant professional=20 golfer should strive to emulate.
This unflappability probably first came to=20 the fore at a rain-soaked Bryanston Country=20 Club course fully two decades ago, when=20 McNulty was summarily bundled out of the=20 South African Amateur at the semi-final=20 stages by the big-hitting Randpark player=20 Richter van Niekerk.=20
McNulty, who had looked the next best thing=20 to an odds-on favourite for the title all=20 week, was never in it against Van Niekerk’s=20 length on a sodden day when the fairways=20 allowed no extra distance at all.
Van Niekerk went on to lose to Teddy Webber=20 at the first hole of extra play in the=20 final.
McNulty took what must have been a massive=20 blow to his self-esteem with the=20 gentlemanly equanimity and grace which has=20 won him friends on golf courses worldwide.
It showed again far more recently when,=20 playing the golf of his life, he ran up=20 against a rampant Nick Price who pounded=20 out a record 24-under-par in the Million=20 Dollar at Sun City. Again McNulty had to=20 settle for second best in a tournament that=20 would, in normal circumstances, have=20 belonged to him alone.
In the wind that has bedevilled the last=20 two FNB Tour events at the coast, McNulty=20 has yet again showed the calm side to his=20 nature, playing his game the way he does=20 best, scoring superbly and letting the rest=20 of the field float and fade around him, to=20 let the record read three wins in a row and=20 four in five starts.
It is a priceless asset in a player. And=20 one, allied to the 43-year-old’s current=20 rich vein of form, which bodes well for=20 McNulty’s assault on the three “major”=20 tournaments on the present tour – the South=20 African Open, the Dimension Data Pro-Am and=20 the Dunhill PGA.
The three back-to-back tournaments which=20 double as European Tour events, begin next=20 week and herald the arrival of the European=20 professionals and the million-rand-plus big=20 money prizes.
It is intriguing then that one of the men=20 he will come up against in the last two=20 legs of the three tournaments is Seve=20 Ballesteros, a man who can, to a lesser=20 degree, claim to have launched his career=20 in the South African sunshine.
Ballesteros first arrived in this country=20 as a 16-year-old looking to gain some=20 experience of tournament play on the=20 circuit that would test his abilities=20 without crippling his pocket. He passed=20 largely unnoticed through the events he did=20 play here, but the launching pad it gave=20 him was, if you pardon the obvious cliche,=20 the gateway to greatness.
Ballesteros went on to become one of the=20 game’s great players, with major victories=20 in the US Masters of 1980 – and the=20 youngest man to win the green jacket at 23=20 – and again in 1983, and British Open=20 triumphs in 1979 and 1988.
McNulty, though he has never managed to=20 rise to the heights of a win in the majors,=20 likewise used the South African tour as his=20 launchpad into the same European Tour which=20 catapulted Ballesteros to such heights. And=20 year after year, McNulty has returned to=20 reaffirm his beginnings and continue=20 winning.
This season has been no different, as he=20 has consistently collected the accolades,=20 the top trophies and the lion’s share of=20 the prizemoney on offer.
And perhaps, just perhaps, Ballesteros will=20 use the example McNulty has set in=20 supporting the local tour as a base from=20 which to launch yet another assault on the=20 courses of the world by reshaping a game=20 that, at its best, is unbeatable yet has=20 suffered severely in recent years.
A Ballesteros with the light of the=20 bullfighter glaring from his eyes is a=20 sight as great to behold as McNulty’s calm=20 provides a cornerstone for the ethos of the=20 game.