Player Profiles: Mark McNulty

Mark McNulty

One of the leading players on the European Tour from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, Mark McNulty cracked the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings for 83 weeks from 1987 to 1992. Since his first European Tour victory in 1979, McNulty has won consistently - 16 titles in Europe, 35 internationally and he also won the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit a record eight times.

McNulty joined the Champions Tour when he won the Qualifying School in November of 2003 and became only the 11th player on that Tour to win on his first start when he won the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. On the European Senior Tour, his best finish was a tie for fifth at the 2004 Senior Open Championship at Royal Portrush. McNulty enhanced an already impressive golfing CV still further by winning the 2007 JELD-WED Tradition, which took his tally of Champions Tour victories to six, including the 2005 Bank of America Championship and Administaff Small Business Classic. Earlier this year, McNulty finished second at the Senior Open Championship.

McNulty was born in Bindura, Southern Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe), but he became a citizen of Ireland in 2003 at the age of 50. He was eligible to do so because his maternal grandmother was born in Ballymena in Northern Ireland. McNulty was concerned that as a non-resident Zimbabwean it could take him up to two years to get his passport renewed if he lost it. He further explained at the 2009 British Seniors’ Open that “Mr Mugabe no longer wanted me as a Zimbabwean”. Commentators elaborated that the farm that his family had been managing for 40-something years had been confiscated by the Mugabe regime. He currently lives in Sunningdale, England and is also an accomplished pianist.