Mark McNulty, thanks to a final round 61 which equalled the all-time record for 18 holes on the Southern Africa Tour, staged one of the greatest comebacks of his long career to win the R1-million Stenham Swazi Open 2000 at the Wild Coast on Sunday.
The 46-year-old veteran, known as "Supermac", finished with a 13-under-par aggregate of 267 to beat overnight leader Dougie McGuigan, who closed with a 70 for 269, into second place. Justin Hobday (67 on Sunday) was third on 270, and rookie Jean Hugo fourth at 271.
Bobby Lincoln, in his 30th year of professional golf at the age of 47, Nic Henning, Andre Cruse and promising newcomer Jaco Olver were joint fifth on a score of 273.
McNulty was seven off the pace at the start of the third round so altogether on Sunday he made up a massive nine strokes on McGuigan - who, considering his inexperience, did very little wrong in his level-par return. But eight birdies and an eagle by McNulty undid him, and everyone else as well.
"I just played the best I can like I've been doing all week, but today everything seemed to fall into place," said McNulty after posting his 47th career victory since turning professional in 1977.
"I'm 46 years old and my win today means I stay ahead of my age in terms of tournament wins. I like to keep it that way as the years go by. I didn't think 61 was possible in the wind today, but you never know in this game."
Playing partner Andre Cruse was in awe of McNulty's magnificent 61, the third time he has gone this low in Southern Africa although he once had a 59 in Germany: "When Mark's putter gets hot, like it did today, everyone else is playing for second place."
Any golfer who begins his round with three straight birdies clearly means business, and McNulty holed a 15-footer at the first, a two-footer at the second and chipped and putted for birdie at the long third to make a bold statement of intent to this effect.
"My one mistake of the day was overclubbing - I used a nine-iron instead of a wedge - at the short fourth which cost me a bogey," admitted the man who lists koi fish and fine arts among his off-course interests, and plays the piano with a great deal of skill.
There were no more dropped shots after that one slip at the fourth, but further birdies followed at holes 5, 7, 12, 15 and 17 along with a brilliant eagle-three at the par-five 16th.
That eagle was achieved with a two-iron off the tee - "I was playing for position," he later explained - and a shot-of-the-day four-wood to three feet. "The birdie-two at 17 was a bonus because my putt must hve been all of 30 feet. Early in the round I was just trying for a good finish to the tournament. Now I realised I had a great chance of winning the tournament," he said.
At the last McNulty cut his drive into the right rough and, with a bunker guarding the front of the green and the pin near the front edge of the putting surface, hit a safety-first pitching-wedge 20 feet past the pin. He was now putting for a 60, a score which has never been achieved before in Southern African professional golf.
"But I wasn't thinking too much about the 60," he confessed. "My prioriy at that stage was to make sure I didn't three-putt. I knew if I two-putted the guys would struggle to catch me and that's how it turned out."
This is McNulty's fifth win (a record incidentally) in the Swazi Open - the tournament was only moved to the Wild Coast for this one year because the greens at the Royal Swazi course have a fungus - and also his fifth victory in a summer tour event at the Wild Coast.
"Supermac" picked up R158 000 for Sunday's win, with McGuigan earning R115 000 - by far the biggest cheque of his career - and Hobday R69 200.
This was the final event of the 1999/2000 Vodacom Tour and Darren Fichardt has won the Order of Merit with earnings of R558 735, closely followed by Nic Henning on R525 388 with Tjaart van der Walt third on R443 705. Nick Price (R501 896) and Retief Goosen (R479 000) earned more than Van der Walt but do not qualify for the Order of Merit as they have not played in four tournaments, which is a minimum requirement.