Consistency Pays Off for McCumber : His Four-Stroke Win in Players Championship Is Worth $225,000

Who else could have won the Players Championship other than Mark McCumber?

On a warm Sunday afternoon, the golf course designer won on a so-called designer course at TPC-Sawgrass, which is only across one highway and a couple of swamps from where McCumber lives.

While the rest of the field receded faster than McCumber’s hairline, the 36-year-old former National Pee Wee champion shot a TPC-Sawgrass record 15 under par to win the $225,000 first prize by four strokes.

“It’s a beginning of a new era for Mark McCumber,” PGA Commissioner Deane Beman said.

The new McCumber era of golf took a long time coming. McCumber played 32 holes Sunday, 14 of them left over from Saturday’s partially completed third round, and he was numbingly consistent.

“I played about as good as I can play this week,” McCumber said. “Golf is a funny game. No matter how good you play, like Tom Watson or Johnny Miller in their stretches, you play a lot of tournaments that you don’t win. I’m just tickled pink to win this one in front of the hometown fans.”

McCumber was up at 5 a.m. and took a warm shower. He finished Saturday’s suspended third round with a 67 and then came back with a fourth-round 69 for a 72-hole total of 273.

McCumber did not make a bogey after the 16th hole Friday until the final hole Sunday. McCumber has played 22 of 23 rounds in par or less in 1988.

“I never felt comfortable, but I always felt in control,” McCumber said.

Second place went to the soft-spoken Mike Reid, who when he gets mad says things like “My chili was really running hot.”

Reid’s chili appeared to have run cold when he completed his third round with a 73, but he came back with a 67 in the afternoon to finish at 277.

For McCumber, it was his sixth PGA victory in an 11-year career most notable for his 1983 win at the Western Open when he played 36 holes on the last day to win.

“I don’t mind playing double rounds,” McCumber said. “I have good feelings out there.”

They also had good weather out there, which hadn’t happened since the first round Thursday. In fact, after a day of high winds and another of hail and rain, it appeared for a while that the only thing needed was Frost. But David Frost, like everyone else, had faded from contention by the back nine Sunday.

Frost began the last 18 holes just two shots off McCumber’s lead and was still trailing by two strokes until the 11th. That’s where McCumber started pulling away. He birdied 11 and 12.

Frost bogeyed 13 and 14, climbed back into a tie with Reid when he birdied the 16th and then bogeyed 18.

So with four holes to go, McCumber had a 6-stroke lead.

There were two very difficult holes to go, though. The 17th is an island hole surrounded by water, 132 yards to the pin, but McCumber hit the green, much to his relief. He turned his cap backward and sighed deeply.

The 18th is a par-4, 440-yard disaster waiting to happen with rolling mounds on the right and water on the left.

Playing cautiously away from the water, McCumber was off the green after his second shot. He chipped up and two-putted for his first bogey in 37 holes.

“I had a hard time keeping my eyes clear putting on 18,” said McCumber, who was born in nearby Jacksonville. “I knew half the people out there. I’m sorry I missed the putt, but it really didn’t mean anything.”

To the very end, at least the TPC-Sawgrass course earned its share of respect.

“Playing this course is like being on the 12th floor of a hotel and somebody has got a bomb on the 10th floor,” Reid said. “You never know when the jack-in-the-box might raise its head. So it’s an ordeal.”

After some unfinished business, the rain-delayed third round, was taken care of, at least six golfers seemed to have pretty good shots at McCumber.

McCumber, who picked up his third round where he left it, on the 5th tee, got his first birdie of the day on the 9th.

At 582 yards, No. 9 is the longest hole on the course, but it looked pretty short to McCumber. His third shot, a wedge, put him within three feet and he rolled in the birdie putt from there. McCumber eagled the 9th in the first round.

McCumber finished his third round, which began at 7:15 a.m. under scudding clouds, with a couple of birdies and a score of 67. That seemed to put him in pretty good shape for the last 18 holes on a very long day.

By the time the fourth round began, the clouds were gone. McCumber held a two-shot lead over Frost, a three-stoke lead over Payne Stewart and a four-stroke lead over four others--Joey Sindelar, Greg Norman, Curt Byrum and Dan Pohl.

Frost, Byrum and Fulton Allem finished tied for third at 278, a stroke ahead of Gil Morgan and Lanny Wadkins.

McCumber’s victory increased his money winnings to $368,438, which is only about $22,000 less than 1987, his best year.