Mark Mulder had plenty to smile about throughout this year’s American Century Championship. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

Putting was the talk of the three-day American Century Championship, so it comes as no surprise it was Mark Mulder’s short game that helped propel him to a second straight title.

The former Major League pitcher topped the leader board with a total of 74 points. Mardy Fish, who retired from tennis nearly one year ago, was second with 69 points and actor-singer Jack Wagner came in third with 67 points.

The 27-year-old celebrity golf tournament at Edgewood Tahoe uses a Stableford scoring system instead of how the pros do it.

Mulder will take home $125,000 for his win, Fish $60,000 and Wagner $35,000. The total prize pool was $600,000.

Mulder had four birdies on the last four holes on the front nine Sunday.

“I knew going into today I needed to make a bunch of birdies, and I didn’t make many putts the last few days. Today is one of those days I knew I had to. Luckily they started rolling in, and you start getting that — there’s kind of a vibe out there. It’s kind of a feeling at times,” Mulder said at the press conference.

Like last year, Mulder came into the final round five points behind the leader.

Being confident, he said, is the key. He couldn’t say his experience as a pitcher coming from behind had much to with his success on the links.

“Pitching and golf are about the only two things in sports — and maybe serving a tennis ball, where nothing can happen until you do it,” Mulder said. “You still have to hit the golf shot.”

He was four points shy of tying the tournament record of 33 for a single round on July 24.

The Harrah’s and Harveys Race & Sports Book odds makers were spot on with Mulder and Fish favored 3-1 to win the tournament.

“The greens were fantastic. I asked Notah Begay today, he said they have probably 20 percent of their tournaments as fast as that, otherwise the PGA Tour has the rest of them are a bit slower,” Fish said.

Many of players throughout the week commented about how fast and firm the greens were, instead of being spongy like years past.