McCumber’s Birdie on the Money : Golf: Long putt beats Fuzzy Zoeller in playoff and earns a big payoff--$540,000--in Tour Championship.

Not that long ago, Mark McCumber learned a lesson about golf from his young daughter while standing in line to ride a roller coaster.

After a long wait, Megan McCumber had tears in her eyes when it was their turn.

“She said, ‘Dad, it’s not fun if you’re not scared,’ ” McCumber said.

Sunday at the Olympic Club, McCumber remembered. He was scared, relaxed, having fun and in line to become golf’s newest millionaire this year.

McCumber birdied the first playoff hole to make Fuzzy Zoeller a runner-up for the fifth time this year and claim $540,000 by winning the $3 million Tour Championship.

It was McCumber’s third victory this year and moved him into third place on the year’s PGA Tour money list at $1.2 million, trailing Nick Price and Greg Norman.

McCumber was forced into a playoff when he bogeyed No. 18, the last hole of regulation, when his approach went above the hole on the first cut of the fringe and he two-putted on the severely sloping green.

The playoff began on No. 18 again and this time McCumber made no mistake.

Zoeller had left his putt short and it was McCumber’s turn. His second shot left the ball below the hole, leaving him an uphill putt of, well, no one is quite sure how long it was.

McCumber said it was between 45 and 50 feet. Zoeller thought it was between 35 and 40 feet.

However long, McCumber knocked it in.

Said Zoeller: “That’s like kicking a 60-yard field goal.”

It was a dramatic end to what had been a less-than-thrilling event, in which the most excitement of the day had been Norman wearing a rubber mask on the 18th green.

Pro golf’s richest tournament was a four-day stroll through a bank lobby.

The playoff? It was sudden cash.

McCumber, 43, who hadn’t won in four years until this year, took the lead from a fading Bill Glasson with a birdie on No. 8, one in a string of four consecutive birdies for the part-time golf course architect who once ran a Florida landscaping business with his brothers.

While Glasson, Brad Bryant, Ernie Els and Steve Lowery took themselves out of the running, Zoeller kept chugging along.

“You never say never, not on this course,” Zoeller said. “It just takes one swing of the bat.”

He got close to McCumber when he made a nine-foot putt to birdie No. 17, then caught him when McCumber bogeyed No. 18.

They finished with 68 and a four-day total of 274.

That’s as close as Zoeller came to McCumber and winning, though.

It’s not as if he doesn’t have any practice finishing second, either. He was runner-up at the Bob Hope, Bay Hill, the Players Championship and the Disney.

“Second place is second place,” Zoeller said. “It beats the hell out of third place.”

But first and second place aren’t the real difference between himself and McCumber anyway, Zoeller said.

“I still have hair,” Zoeller said. “Mark doesn’t.”

Zoeller’s consolation prize for his non-winning year? He is No. 5 on the money list with $1.016 million.

Zoeller claimed $324,000 for his latest finish.

“When I’m dead and gone, I’ll probably have that money spent,” Zoeller said.

McCumber’s title was his 10th since he joined the PGA Tour in 1978. His third victory this season is more than any player except Nick Price, who has six.