SONOMA, Calif. -- Mark McNulty got the big check. Hale Irwin got the big cup. Tom Kite got a big heartbreak.
McNulty rallied from five strokes down in the final round, making five birdies in the last eight holes to beat Kite by one stroke at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on Sunday.
McNulty shot a 6-under 66 to finish at 11-under 277, matching the day's best round and sending Kite to two disheartening results at the Champions Tour's season-ending event.
In addition to losing the $435,000 winner's prize to Champions Tour rookie McNulty, Kite lost a golden opportunity to steal the Charles Schwab Cup, awarded to the points leader in a season-long competition at 30 tournaments.
Irwin also struggled in the final round, shooting 3 over and playing through stiff back and neck to finish seventh at 284. But the 59-year-old veteran won his second Schwab Cup and a $1 million annuity with 3,427 points, beating Craig Stadler by 39 -- the closest finish yet in the 4-year-old event.
Kite, who finished third in the Charles Schwab Cup standings, could have won it by winning the tournament.
But the confident leader after each of the first three rounds made four bogeys in the first seven holes in the final round at Sonoma Golf Club. By the time he eagled the 13th hole, McNulty and Allen Doyle had surged ahead of him.
"I couldn't have played worse than the front nine," Kite said. "I wasn't even a really good 23-handicapper on the front nine. ... It was my tournament. Nobody even made a run that was close. I just had to play some golf, and I couldn't do it until the final few holes."
McNulty, a native of Zimbabwe, holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole to move to 11 under. In his first year on the Champions Tour, McNulty -- who turns 51 Monday -- won his first event and his final two, including last week's SBC Championship in San Antonio.
Kite hung on to his lead Saturday despite a steady rainstorm in Northern California's wine country, but he was much less effective under clear skies in the final round. He bogeyed three of the first four holes, falling into a first-place tie with Doyle.
With another bogey on the seventh, Kite fell out of the lead -- and moments later, McNulty began his surge with a birdie on the 11th, the first of four straight.
Kite knew the stakes as he approached the 18th hole, which he birdied in each of the first three rounds. He made a desperate approach shot at the pin, but it landed in the left rough -- and his chip was short of the hole, clinching victories for McNulty and Irwin.
Doyle shot a 3-under 69 to finish in third, three strokes behind McNulty. Peter Jacobsen rallied with a final-round 67 to finish fourth, with David Eger (69) and Jose Maria Canizares (75) one stroke behind in fifth at 283.
Irwin's stiff neck got even worse Sunday morning after a sleepless night, and he did stretching exercises while playing to keep himself as loose as possible. Though he was third entering the final round, he bogeyed three of the first 10 holes and never threatened Kite or McNulty.
©2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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