McCarron happy to be back on TOUR, and it shows

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GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A year ago, Scott McCarron might have been working as a crossing guard at the school his children attend. Maybe he was coaching soccer or volunteering as a chaperone for a field trip.

He wasn't playing golf, though, after surgery to repair the tendon that runs from his right wrist to his right elbow. McCarron went under the knife in August 2006 and was sidelined all of last season.

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Scott McCarron was determined not to let Carl Pettersson run away with the lead in the third round.

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"I drove my wife and kids crazy," he said.

McCarron could make up for lost time this week at the Wyndham Championship, though. The three-time PGA TOUR champ enters Sunday's final round trailing Carl Pettersson by two strokes after his second-straight 64 at Sedgefield Country Club.

The 43-year-old McCarron has only made one bogey over the first 54 holes of the final event of the PGA TOUR Regular Season. But he more than atoned for that blunder at the 18th hole of his second round when he holed a bunker shot for birdie on Saturday.

"I told my caddie if I made this, I would get in the bunker and do a snow angel," McCarron said. He chickened out, though, and instead celebrated by thrusting both arms into the air --followed by a sweeping fist pump -- much to the delight of the sellout crowd.

McCarron broke the 54-hole record at Sedgfield, which is hosting the Wyndham Championship for the first time since 1976, by six strokes. He still has work to do on Sunday, though, to overtake the red-hot Pettersson on the generous Donald Ross gem.

"We just had perfect conditions for us so far this week but breaking the scoring record and still being behind (is weird)," McCarron said. "Let's see if we can break the 72-hole record and be ahead."

McCarron, who is looking for his first win in seven years, has been extremely solid in all areas of the game this week. He's tied for second in putting, seventh in fairways hit and eighth in greens in regulation.

Birdies on three of his first four holes set the tone for the day when McCarron -- and the rest of the field, for that matter -- were playing catch-up after the Swede's 61 on Friday. McCarron trailed by four strokes at the start but narrowed the gap to two with the closing bunker shot.

McCarron has said several times that he came to Greensboro hoping to impress U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Paul Azinger. Not to mention, he wanted to improve his position in the FedExCup standings -- and if the tournament had ended Saturday, McCarron would have moved from 139th to 77th.

McCarron had missed out on the inaugural year of the FedExCup due to that surgery to reattach his radialis brevis tendon to the bone. He tried to play in pain for seven months before an MRI revealed the severity of the problem.

"I don't recommend (the surgery)," McCarron said. "It's not a lot of fun. It's a year, year-and-a-half process to heal because there's not a lot of blood though in the elbow. You've got to let the tendon re-attach itself. It was a long, long rehab.

"Even after about a year and a half, I could start hitting golf balls, but my brain wouldn't let me go ahead and go after it because it kept waiting for the pain. It was very painful for the seven months I was trying to play."

While McCarron says he feels "100 percent healed," he admits there were times during his rehabilitation when he wondered whether he would be able to play again. It was a long process, and, even at the beginning of this year, he had his doubts.

"During that time when I wasn't supposed to hit balls, I didn't push it," McCarron said. "I really sat there and didn't chip, didn't putt, didn't do anything, just let this thing heal. ...

"But, you know, I'm a pretty positive guy, and I don't let things like that kind of get me down. Never really was down for too long."

Besides, McCarron enjoyed playing Mr. Mom. And he enjoyed taking vacations with his wife and two children -- not just bringing them along to this golf course or that golf resort while he grinded to earn another dollar.

"I jumped in and I did everything with the kids and had an absolute blast," McCarron said. "We just hopped in the car and drove around for six, seven weeks during that one summer. It was fantastic ... It was like the Griswolds."

This year, though, McCarron has gotten back to business. His early results were mixed, but he tied for 13th at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship and fifth at RBC Canadian Open last month.

McCarron had run into Mark Brazil, the Wyndham Championship tournament director, at the TOUR event in Charlotte in May. Playing out of the veteran member category this year, McCarron often finds himself writing tournaments for sponsors' exemptions.

"When I saw Mark at the Wachovia (Championship), he said, 'We'll get you a spot if you need it if you'll wear Wyndham on the front of (your) cap,'" McCarron said.

Turns out, McCarron didn't need the exemption after all. He asked one of his sponsors, TaylorMade, to send some caps, though, and he's wearing Wyndham just as he said he would. He also honored his commitment to play in the Monday pro-am.

"I can't tell you how much I appreciate Mark for offering me that spot, even though I didn't need it," McCarron said. "There's six, seven tournaments ... that I've been calling every week, writing letters. I'm in a really awkward position having to do that now after 14 years on TOUR.

"Hopefully I can take care of that tomorrow so I don't have to do that. "

To earn that two-year exemption that accompanies a PGA TOUR victory, McCarron knows he needs to go low.

"I'm two shots behind Carl," McCarron said. "He's playing really well. He likes this golf course shooting 61 here. We're going to have to take it pretty deep, I'm sure."