England's Lee James, close to giving up golf and applying for a job as a postman last year, now finds himself with a chance to win the Irish Open at Adare Manor this weekend.
Fourteen years ago James was British amateur champion at the same time as Tiger Woods was the American title holder.
They were both at the 1995 Masters, opponents in the Walker Cup later that year and had dreams of striking it rich in the professional game.
Woods, of course, has already made his first Ј50million. James, on the other hand, needed 12 trips to the European Tour before he made it through last November and his career earnings on the circuit stand at less than Ј100,000.
He is 723 places below Woods on the world rankings and he has never finished higher than 10th in any of his 86 events.
After rounds of 69 and 73, however, the 35-year-old from Poole is two under par and only four behind French leader Michael Lorenzo-Vera in the Ј2million tournament.
"I was struggling with a little bit of depression last year and a doctor told me to take a couple of months off," said James.
"Financially it was hard - we couldn't pay for the mortgage - and I had no interest even in going to the club to practise.
"My wife's been fantastic, though, and she suggested that if I felt the same after one more tournament I should give it up.
"I got a few job applications but didn't send any of them off and then I managed to get some sponsorship. Without that I don't think I could have gone on."
James - so little known that a radio commentator even called him "James Lee" during the day - had a chance to join Lorenzo-Vera in the lead when he stood over an eagle putt on the long 18th, his ninth.
But after two-putting for birdie he then slipped back with bogeys on the first, fifth and ninth. It will probably be a mental battle more than anything for him over the closing 36 holes.
There are some big names around him on the leaderboard, but Lorenzo-Vera is not one of them.
The 23-year-old from Biarritz is in his rookie season after winning last year's Challenge Tour - and he admits the 7,453-yard course is the toughest he has seen in his life.
After his first sight of it he admitted he thought: "God - how am I going to do that?"
But so far he has done it very well, adding a 70 to his opening 68 for a halfway total of 138.
He took over at the top from Indian Jeev Milkha Singh and Australian Richard Green, who after starting with rounds of 66 could manage only 76 and 74 respectively.
Collated second round scores & totals in the European tour Irish Open, Adare Manor Hotel & Golf Resort, Adare Manor, Ireland
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
138 Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 68 70
139 Marcel Siem (Ger) 68 71
140 Richard Green (Aus) 66 74, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 70 70
141 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 70, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 72, Peter Baker 72 69, Darren Clarke 72 69, Johan Edfors (Swe) 68 73, Bradley Dredge 68 73
142 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 66 76, Ross Fisher 74 68, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 76 66, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 71 71, Steven O'Hara 74 68, John Bickerton 72 70, Anthony Wall 72 70, Rory McIlroy 70 72, Lee S James 69 73, Paul McGinley 73 69
143 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 77 66, James Kingston (Rsa) 75 68, Stuart Manley 71 72, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 72, Richard Finch 71 72, Alastair Forsyth 71 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 73, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 70 73, Padraig Harrington 72 71
144 Gary Orr 71 73, Colin Montgomerie 75 69, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 74 70, David Frost (Rsa) 74 70, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 72, Stephen Gallacher 73 71, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 72, Gary Murphy 74 70, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 75 69
145 Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 73 72, Scott Strange (Aus) 71 74, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 72 73, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 77 68, Julio Zapata (Arg) 72 73, Simon Khan 71 74, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 74, Stephen Dodd 74 71, Lee Westwood 75 70, Ross McGowan 74 71, Barry Lane 73 72
146 Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 71 75, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 73 73, Paul Waring 76 70, Luis Claverie (Spa) 73 73, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 74 72, Matthew Millar (Aus) 73 73, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 77 69, Peter Lawrie 71 75, David Drysdale 74 72, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 72 74
147 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 73 74, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 77, Oliver Wilson 74 73, Oliver Fisher 72 75, Paul Broadhurst 73 74, Peter Hanson (Swe) 74 73, Pedro Linhart (Spa) 71 76, Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 75 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 77 70
------------------------Following players missed the Cut---------------------------
148 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 75 73, Damien McGrane 76 72, Peter Whiteford 75 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 72 76, David Howell 75 73, Scott Drummond 74 74, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 69 79, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 73 75, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 74 74, Robert Rock 77 71
149 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 74 75, David Carter 76 73, Anton Haig (Rsa) 73 76, Graeme McDowell 74 75, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 78 71, Paolo Terreni (Ita) 74 75, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 75 74, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 74 75, Carl Suneson (Spa) 71 78, David Dixon 79 70, Phillip Archer 78 71, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 76 73
150 Leif Westerberg (Swe) 75 75, Mark Brown (USA) 74 76, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 74 76, Simon Dyson 76 74, Sion Bebb 75 75, Pat Murray 76 74, Damian Mooney 75 75, Sven Struver (Ger) 76 74, Jamie Donaldson 72 78, Sam Little 74 76, Robert Giles 78 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 80, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 77 73
151 Richard Bland 80 71, Martin Wiegele (Aut) 84 67, Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 79 72, Garry Houston 75 76, Zane Scotland 77 74, David Griffiths 81 70, Benn Barham 77 74, Mark Staunton 77 74, Ariel Canete (Arg) 76 75, Mark Foster 73 78, Michael Hoey 74 77, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 76 75
152 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 74 78, Colm Moriarty 72 80, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 76 76, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 76 76, Iain Pyman 81 71, Marc Warren 78 74, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 78 74, James Kamte (Rsa) 78 74
153 Juan Abbate (Arg) 78 75, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 78 75, Alan McLean 74 79, David Park 74 79, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 75 78, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 76 77, Sam Walker 79 74, Paul Lawrie 76 77, Ian Garbutt 77 76
154 Phillip Price 78 76, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 80 74, Florian Praegant (Aut) 78 76, Pablo Martin (Spa) 80 74, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 78 76, Simon Wakefield 75 79
155 Lee Slattery 81 74
156 Craig Lee 77 79, Brendan McGovern 79 77, Robert Dinwiddie 76 80, Peter Fowler (Aus) 81 75, David Higgins 80 76
157 Peter Martin (Aus) 76 81, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 83 74
158 Dave Horsey 81 77, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 80 78, Peter O'keeffe 79 79
159 Glen Robinson 80 79, Leslie Walker 80 79
161 Philip Golding 78 83
162 Michael Lavelle 81 81
164 Tom Whitehouse 84 80
165 Eamonn Brady 85 80, Kyron Sullivan 80 85
Season Over For Arteta
SINGH SHARES LEAD
