Notebook

Mike McCullough: A hit at 56
Time of His Life

Ever feel as if your best days are behind you? Mike McCullough did, but the opposite turned out to be true. McCullough had gone his entire pro career—23 years on the regular Tour and five more on the Senior tour, for a total of 612 tournaments—without a win. This year, though, at an age (56) when most Seniors hit the wall, he has won twice and is fourth in earnings.

"Golfwise, I'm a new person," says McCullough, who on Feb. 25 won his first tournament, the Mexico Senior Classic. "I feel as if I'm three years old. My swing is so different, it's as if I have a new body, and I'm getting better."

McCullough barely made it onto the Senior tour, surviving a seven-man playoff for the 16th and final spot at the 1995 Senior Q school. Since the Maui Kaanapali Classic in October 1996, he has played in every tournament for which he has been eligible—159 straight events—but has never finished a season better than 16th on the money list.

McCullough's transformation began on Halloween in 1997 He was having dinner with his best friend, Gil Morgan, during a tournament in Los Angeles. "I was at the end of my rope," McCullough says. "I told Gil I didn't know how to get better, and my time was numbered. Gil saw the tears coming down my face and said he would help."

Morgan, who has one of the best swings in the game, asked his longtime coach, Ernie Vossler, to work with McCullough. After watching McCullough hit a few balls, Vossler was amazed that his new pupil had made a living with a such a flawed swing. "Basically, Mike swung backwards," says Vossler. "He shifted the wrong way on his backswing, which forced him to slow down and open the club up on the downswing. The only shot he could hit was a dinky fade."

To get him to hit the ball with more authority and to play a draw, Vossler strengthened McCullough's grip and had him hit shots standing as far away from the ball as possible with his feet spread four feet apart. At first the results weren't pretty. "I would play a practice round and literally shoot in the 90s," McCullough says. "I stayed awake a lot of nights wondering about my future. Gil and Ernie kept encouraging me, though. Finally, this year, I began to trust the changes."

When the payoff came in Mexico, McCullough says, "the other players were great about it, but I was still in a daze until I got home to Scottsdale. It was 5 a.m. when I went into the bedroom of my 11-year-old son, Mark. All he said was, 'It's done.' I realized then that my winning had been so important to that little fellow and to other people close to me. That's when it hit me." A month later McCullough beat Andy North in a playoff to win the Emerald Coast Classic.

"Mike should be a good player into his 60s," says Vossler. "He's got a tiny waist [33 inches], and he can bend over and put his head through his legs. He's a young 56, and he's really learning golf for the first time."

One thing hasn't changed: McCullough won't skip a tournament. On the Senior tour the top 70 career money leaders in combined regular and Senior tour earnings are exempt McCullough is 48th on that list, but before this year he had never been better than 57th. "Just because I'm finally enjoying some success doesn't mean I'm dumb enough to forget what it was like not to have any," says McCullough. "I've fought all my career; that's all I know. I have a number on the alltime money list that I'd like to reach, and when I do, I'll take a week off."