Mark William McNulty (born 24 March 1953) is a Zimbabwean-Irish

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

. He was one of the leading players on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and featured in the top 10 of the

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

for 83 weeks from 1987 to 1992.

Early life

McNulty was born in

Bindura Bindura is a town in the province of Mashonaland Central province, Zimbabwe. It is located in the Mazowe Valley about 88 km north-east of Harare. According to the 1982 Population Census, the town had a population of 18,243. This rose to 21,1 ...

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...

(now known as

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

). He was raised on a farm in the Centenary area of Zimbabwe. When McNulty was one year old, his natural father was killed in a shooting accident. His step-father was an amateur pilot who had an airstrip on the farm. When his step-father was diagnosed with epilepsy, he was forced to give up flying. He converted the airstrip into a three-hole golf course, where Mark first learned to play golf.

Amateur career

McNulty represented

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

at the

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

Eisenhower Trophy The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958, it is named after Dwight D. Eisen ...

in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

on the same team as future

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

winner

Denis Watson Denis Leslie Watson (born 18 October 1955) is a professional golfer from Zimbabwe. Early life and amateur career Born in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) Watson was educated at Oriel Boys High School, Chisipite. He represented Rhod ...

Professional career

After a successful amateur career, McNulty began his professional career on the Southern African Tour (now the

Sunshine Tour The Sunshine Tour is a men's professional golf tour based in Southern and East Africa. For much of its early history it was known either as the South African Tour or Sunshine Circuit; through sponsorship deals, it has also been known as the Vod ...

) and also played on the European Tour starting in 1978. His first professional win was the 1979 Holiday Inns Royal Swazi Sun Open in South Africa. By 1986 he was a dominant player on the Southern African Tour, picking up seven official wins in that year and also winning South Africa's most lucrative event, the Million Dollar Challenge. In the same year, he finished in the top-10 on the European Tour's Order of Merit for the first time, placing sixth. He had six top-10 European Order of Merit finishes in total, including second places in 1987 and 1990. The last of these was in 1996, when he came fifth. His win tally on the European Tour was 16, including the

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Volvo Masters The Volvo Masters was the concluding official money event of the European Tour season until 2009, when it was replaced by the Dubai World Championship. The event was founded in 1988 and held at Valderrama Golf Club in Andalusia, Spain, except for ...

, which was the European equivalent of the

Tour Championship The Tour Championship (stylized as the TOUR Championship) is a golf tournament that is part of the PGA Tour. It has historically been one of the final events of the PGA Tour season; prior to 2007, its field consisted exclusively of the top 30 ...

. He won the

Order of Merit nine times. In July 1990, at the 119th Open Championship at the Old Course in

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, with a closing round of 65, the lowest score of the last round, McNulty finished tied second with

Payne Stewart William Payne Stewart (January 30, 1957 – October 25, 1999) was an American professional golfer who won eleven PGA Tour events, including three major championships, the last of which came just a few months before his death in an airplane acci ...

, after winner

Nick Faldo Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo, (born 18 July 1957) is an English retired professional golfer and television commentator. A top player of his era, renowned for his dedication to the game, he was ranked No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking for ...

. McNulty represented Zimbabwe seven times at the

Alfred Dunhill Cup The Alfred Dunhill Cup was a team golf tournament which ran from 1985 to 2000, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill Ltd. It was for three-man teams of professional golfers, one team representing each country, and was promoted as the "World Team Championshi ...

and eight times at the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. The Zimbabwe team twice finished runner-up to United States, 1993, when McNulty teamed up with

Nick Price Nicholas Raymond Leige Price (born 28 January 1957) is a Zimbabwean retired professional golfer who has won three major championships in his career: the PGA Championship twice (in 1992 and 1994) and The Open Championship in 1994. In the mid-19 ...

at the

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club Lake Nona Golf & Country Club is a private residential golf club community in southeast Orlando, Florida. The community features an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Tom Fazio. Set amidst freshwater lakes and oak, pine and cypress t ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

, and at the

1994 World Cup of Golf The 1994 World Cup of Golf took place November 10–13 at the Hyatt Dorado Beach Resort in Puerto Rico. It was the 40th World Cup. The tournament was a 72-hole stroke play team event with each team consisting of two players from a country. The com ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, where the team of McNulty and

Tony Johnstone Anthony Alastair Johnstone (born 2 May 1956) is a Zimbabwean professional golfer. Early life Johnstone was born in Bulawayo, Rhodesia. He attended Christian Brothers College. Professional career In 1979, Johnstone turned professional and h ...

finished second and McNulty finished tied 4th in the individual competition. When McNulty turned fifty and became eligible to play senior golf he chose to take part in the U.S.-based

Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many years ...

. His first full season in 2004 was highly successful with three wins (including the

Charles Schwab Cup Championship The Charles Schwab Cup Championship is the final event of the season on the U.S.-based PGA Tour Champions, the world's leading golf tour for male professionals aged 50 and above. Played in late October or early November each year, it is PGA Tour ...

) and a seventh-place finish on the money list. In 2007 he won the

JELD-WEN Tradition The Tradition (known as the Regions Tradition for sponsorship reasons) is an event on the PGA Tour Champions. First staged in 1989, the PGA Tour recognizes the event as one of the five senior major golf championships. Unlike the U.S. Senior Ope ...

, one of the five major championships on the over-50 tour. It was McNulty's sixth career win on the Champions Tour. His seventh win came in 2009 at the

Principal Charity Classic The Principal Charity Classic is an annual PGA Tour Champions golf tournament in Des Moines, Iowa. It has been held at the William Langford-designed Wakonda Club since 2013. Founded in 2001 as the Allianz Championship, that name has been used by a ...

with a playoff win over

and

Fred Funk Frederick Funk (born June 14, 1956) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. Early life Fred Funk was born in Takoma Park, Maryland. He tried several sports, and even boxed for eight years for a junior ...

Private life

During 1978−1980, McNulty represented

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in professional tournaments. In November 1981, he received serious facial and neck injuries when his car in high speed collided with a bus near his parents' farm in Zimbabwe, on is way to the ICL Tournament in

Johannesburg, South Africa Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. Despite his injuries, McNulty played in the 1981 South African Open the following month and won a tournament in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

in January 1982, eight weeks after the accident. McNulty became an

Irish citizen Irish nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of the Republic of Ireland. The primary law governing these regulations is the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, which came into force on 17 July 1956. Reg ...

in 2003 at the age of 50. He was eligible to do so because his maternal grandmother was born in

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...

in Northern Ireland. He stated that his reason for doing so was his concern that as a non-resident Zimbabwean it could take him up to two years to get his passport renewed if he lost it. Commentators elaborated that the farm that his family had been managing for 40-something years had been confiscated by the

Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Z ...

regime. He lives in

Sunningdale Sunningdale is a large village with a retail area and a civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. It takes up the extreme south-east corner of Berkshire, England. It has a railway station on the (London) Waterloo to Reading ...

, England with his wife Allison and they have two children together, Matthew (born 1985) and Catherine (born 1988). McNulty also has two stepchildren and two grandchildren. McNulty lists his interests as piano,

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

s, scuba activities, underwater photography, and shark diving. McNulty is the Director of the Mark McNulty Junior Golf Foundation, a non-profit organisation whose objective is to use golf as a medium to improve a child's development on and off the golf course, while growing the game of golf.

Amateur wins

*1974 Rhodesia Amateur Championship *1977 South African Amateur Stroke Play Championship

Professional wins (59)

European Tour wins (16)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

European Tour playoff record (2–2)

Sunshine Tour wins (33)

*1979 (1)

Holiday Inns Royal Swazi Sun Open The Investec Royal Swazi Open is a golf tournament on the Sunshine Tour. It was first played in 1971 and is played at the Royal Swazi Spa Country Club in the Ezulwini Valley, Eswatini. Since 2003, it has been played using a Modified Stableford Syst ...

*1981 (1) SAB South African Masters *1982 (4) SISA Classic, SAB Masters, Sharp Electronics Classic, Sun City Classic *1984 (1) Pan Am Wild Coast Sun Classic *1985 (3) Palabora Classic, Hollard Royal Swazi Sun Open, Safmarine Masters *1986 (7) Safmarine Masters, Wild Coast Classic, Barclays Bank Classic, Swazi Sun Pro Am,

Trustbank Tournament of Champions The Trustbank Tournament of Champions was a professional golf tournament that was held in South Africa between 1985 and 1992. It was played at Kensington Golf Club in Johannesburg and was a fixture on the South African Tour, being the season ending ...

, Helix Wild Coast Classic, Germiston Centenary Tournament *1987 (4) Southern Suns South African Open, AECI Charity Classic, Royal Swazi Sun Pro-Am,

*1993 (2) Lexington PGA Championship, FNB Players Championship *1996 (2)

Dimension Data Pro-Am The Dimension Data Pro-Am is an annual golf tournament on the Southern African Sunshine Tour, founded in 1996. The tournament was co-sanctioned by the European Tour for the first two years. In 2020 it was co-sanctioned with the Challenge Tour ...

¹,

Zimbabwe Open The Zimbabwe Open is a professional golf tournament held in Zimbabwe, currently played on the Sunshine Tour. History The tournament was first played in 1984 and from 1985 to 1992 was part of the Safari Circuit, a collection of events in Africa ...

*1997 (2) San Lameer SA Masters, Nashua Wild Coast Sun Challenge *1998 (1) Vodacom Players Championship *2000 (1) Stenham Swazi Open * 2000–01 (3) CABS Old Mutual Zimbabwe Open, Nashua Nedtel Cellular Masters, Mercedes-Benz South African Open¹ * 2002–03 (1) Vodacom Players Championship ¹Co-sanctioned by the

Challenge Tour wins (1)

Asia Golf Circuit wins (1)

Other wins (2)

Champions Tour wins (8)

Champions Tour playoff record (3–1)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place.

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 9 (1989 Open Championship – 1993 Open Championship) *Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (1990 Open Championship – 1990 PGA)

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

¹Cancelled due to

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
NT = No tournament

Senior major championships

Wins (1)

Senior results timeline

''Results not in chronological order before 2017.'' CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Team appearances

Amateur *

(representing Rhodesia):

Professional *

(representing Zimbabwe):

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

(representing Zimbabwe):

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

Presidents Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

(International team):

Alfred Dunhill Challenge The Alfred Dunhill Challenge was a professional team golf tournament played at Houghton Golf Club, Johannesburg, South Africa between teams representing Southern Africa and Australasia. It was played from 24 to 26 February 1995 and involved four-b ...

(representing Southern Africa): 1995 (winners) *

UBS Cup The UBS Cup was a team golf tournament contested by the United States and a team representing the "Rest of the World" which ran from 2001 to 2004. In 2001 and 2002 it was called the UBS Warburg Cup. Six golfers on each side had to be 50 or over, and ...

(representing the Rest of the World): 2004

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McNulty, Mark Zimbabwean male golfers Irish male golfers Sunshine Tour golfers European Tour golfers PGA Tour golfers PGA Tour Champions golfers Winners of senior major golf championships White Zimbabwean sportspeople Zimbabwean expatriates in England Zimbabwean people of Ulster-Scottish descent Zimbabwean people of British descent Citizens of Ireland through descent Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Alumni of Prince Edward School Sportspeople from Bindura 1953 births Living people