One swing tore apart the dream Denver Haddix strove to reach.
Haddix, the leader of the Lupton Memorial tournament at The Honors Course through two rounds with a 3-over 147, dreamt of playing on the PGA Tour - or even one of its supplemental tours.
So he repeatedly attempted to qualify through Q-School.
In 2009, he had a chance at earning some conditional status based on his results at the second stage of Q-School in Kingwood, Texas.
Then one swing changed his life.
"I went from thinking, 'All I have to do is play two decent rounds and I have some status,'" he said, "to thinking that it's time to get a real job."
The swing that altered the course of his professional career, as well as his decision to regain amateur status, settle down and get married happened in 2009.
At Q-School in Kingwood, he flared a tee shot to the right and into rough. He faced a tough shot, but nothing monumental.
He took a hard swing and heard a sound he hadn't heard before. Not the sound of his club swathing through the rough to hit his ball - something worse. And he felt it in his left shoulder.
"I tore my rotator cuff," he said. "I heard it."
His official scorecard from that tournament reads: 72-72-82-WD. Perhaps those last two letters should be reversed to represent Dream Withdrawn.
And that's OK with Haddix. He made a valiant effort to reach a dream and came closer than most.
He went on to become a club professional, then decided to regain his amateur status and work in the private sector.
"I don't have to worry about a shot, that if it gets up-and-down or else I eat Ramen the rest of the week," Haddix said. "It's freed me up a lot."
He reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Mid-Amateur last year and also won the Kentucky match-play championship and was runner up in the Kentucky state amateur tournament.
At the suggestion of a friend who played last year, Haddix applied to compete in the Lupton Invitational.
"He said, 'Why don't you send your résumé?'" Haddix said. "I'm very glad to be here. I used to be a club pro. Here, the staff is incredible and the course is a great test of golf.
"It's my favorite of all the Pete Dye-designed courses that I've played."
Haddix owns a two-stroke lead over Charles Waddell and Joseph Deraney and a three-shot lead over Craig Smith heading into today's final round. Don Kuehn leads the super senior division with 66 points in the Stableford scoring system.
"I'm excited about being in contention," Haddix said. "Winning is hard."
Michael Mercier and Allen Barber will attempt to win the senior division today. They lead in the Stableford system by one point over Doug Hanzel, two over Bob Kearney and three over five-time champion Paul Simson.
"You want to give yourself a chance, and I look forward to the challenge," Mercier said. "It will be good to see if you can focus and get into the game in the final round."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP