McCumber dropped a massive birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday to beat Fuzzy Zoeller in the season-ending $3 million Tour Championship. The 15-meter strike followed an even longer effort by Zoeller on essentially the same line.
His dramatic winner came on the same hole, the 18th, that he three-putted moments earlier for the bogey that dropped him into a tie and set up the playoff.
The three-putt lapse from the fringe above the hole and Zoeller's 10-foot birdie putt on 17 had each at 10-under-par 274 after four rounds on the storied Olympic Club course. Both had final-round 68s entering the playoff hole.
For McCumber, 43, it was the third triumph of the year, and with it came a $540,000 check. For Zoeller, 42, it was his fifth runner-up finish of the year.
The tournament -- the last official PGA event of the year -- also marked the end of the major seasonal races. Nick Price clinched PGA Player of the Year honors when he added the PGA title to his British Open triumph two months ago. He also won the money-winning title for the second consecutive season at $1,499,927. Greg Norman clinched his third Vardon Trophy, which goes to the player with the lowest adjusted scoring average.
In Sotogrande, Spain, Langer won the Volvo Masters golf championship in an incident-packed final round with a one-under-par 70 at Valderrama on Sunday. The German, who set the course record with a 62 in the second round Friday, finished the final event of the European season one shot clear of Seve Ballesteros and Vijay Singh of Fiji.
Ballesteros, who led by two shots overnight, wilted on the closing holes and went to the last needing a par four to force a playoff with Langer. But he hit his drive up against a tree and after a long consultation with referee John Paramor was not allowed a free drop and had to play his ball where it lay.
He hit out to the fairway but then struck his third into a greenside bunker and could not hole his shot from there.
(AP, Reuters)
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