McNulty takes medallist honours at Champions Tour Q-School

BY Bruce Young | Champions Tour | 2003 Champions Tour Final Stage Q-School | Wrap | 22 Nov 2003

Zimbabwe’s Mark McNulty took medallist honours at the 2004 US Champions Tour qualifying school when he extended his third round lead to win by three over ex-European Ryder Cup captain Mark James.

Japan’s Hajime Meshiai was third one shot behind James.

For McNulty this signals what appears, on paper at least, to be a license to print money. The seventeen time winner on the European Tour alone and a winner as recently as 2001 with his victory at the South African Open, McNulty has had a solid year on this season’s European Tour, winning more than half a million euro with finishes which included a second place at the European Open. For a golfer to be competing at that level so close to his Senior career suggests a successful transition is likely and it is a fair bet that McNulty will gain considerable success in 2004.

Mark James, who captained the European Ryder Cup team during the controversial Brookline encounter, has battled back from testicular cancer to play regularly on he European Tour the past couple of years. He has not performed all that well during that time but importantly he has played and has gone about preparing himself for possibility of a career on the US Champions Tour.

Meshiai has been a long time campaigner in Japan. He has been six times in the top twenty this year in Japan and although it has been four years since he has won, he has performed consistently and regularly in his late forties in preparation for his quest for Champions Tour status. He joins Isao Aoki and Seiji Ebihara as one of the very few Japanese golfers to play the Champions Tour in the US.

For Australian Terry Gale he has had the disappointment of seeing the possibility of a fully exempt card slip from his grasp. He opened with a 66 and then followed rounds of 74, 76 and 72 which see him with a non-exempt card but such status makes tackling the Champions Tour a difficult task. He becomes reliant on starts where they become available and not where he chooses. Gale will look back on the last nine holes of the third round as that which cost him dearly. His back nine of 41 saw him slip backwards from a handy position.

The Sunshine Coast’s John Victorsen finished 41st following his last round 71. His effort was full of merit given that he has not played significant tournament golf for many years.