MADISON, Miss. -- Ask Chris Riley where he has been the last two seasons and prepare to receive an unconventional answer.

Oh, you remember Riley, don’t you?
-- A member of the 2004 United States Ryder Cup team.
-- The 2002 Reno-Tahoe Open champion.
-- A fixture among exempt players for six seasons on the PGA TOUR.
-- A guy recognized as one of the best putters and among the likeable players on the circuit.

Fact is, Riley has been sort of a nowhere man for the last two years. It’s almost as if the San Diego native and Las Vegas resident has been in a state of suspended animation.

So what happened to a player who twice finished 23rd on the money list, a man who is approaching $8.5 million in official earnings?

Golf and its itinerant and nomadic lifestyle got in the way of the three things most precious and important to Riley, 32. Those things are Michelle, his wife, and the couple’s daughters, Taylor Lynn, 2, and Rose Rene, three months.

If truth is told, Riley has come to detest the time-consuming demands of the road and the game he plays. It’s all about family values now for him.

“This just isn’t my life any more,’’ Riley said frankly after Thursday’s opening round of the Southern Farm Bureau Classic at sun-splashed Annandale Golf Club.

That was plain as day after Riley signed his name to a 2-under-par 70 that put him five shots behind leader D.J. Trahan. Riley had it to 4 under with two to play, but finished with back-to-back bogeys that would absolutely spoil the lunch and sleeping patterns of 99 percent of the play-for-pay set. As for Riley, it was strictly what, me worry?

“I just got a couple of bad breaks,’’ he said, shrugging without adding he uncharacteristically missed a pair of par savers in the 5-to 6-foot range. “It just isn’t like it used to be for me.

“I’m one of those guys that I just can’t shut out my family, be a selfish player and just stay out here and play golf and not think about my family. I’m the other way around. I think about my kids and, you know, when you have two little ones screaming in the hotel room, you wonder if this is your fault that you’re bringing them out here.’’

So there is your explanation why Riley finished a dismal 184th on the money list in 2005 when he made just 11 of 25 cuts and added a solitary top-25 finish to his career total of 58. “I just didn’t give myself a chance last year,’’ he said. “I made the Ryder Cup in 2004. I’ve been to the top. It was a great experience, probably the highlight of my career. But life in that spotlight? I really don’t love it and I don’t have to have it.’’

Riley is playing this season with his Ryder Cup exemption and admits his game has picked up of late. He has made seven of the last eight cuts and is coming off a tie for fourth in last week’s Valero Texas Open – his first top 10 in more than two years -- that came with a $151,000 paycheck. He moved him to 144th on the money list and certainly is within striking distance of 125th place, the last spot that gains an exemption for 2007 when you’re not out here grinding.

“It felt good just to know I could do it again,’’ he said of his play in San Antonio. “But it’s hard to play at the level if you’re not out here grinding. If you don’t work hard at it these guys will eat you alive.’’

Chris Riley won the 2002 Reno-Tahoe Open. (WireImage)

With $464,141 in earnings, he trails Omar Uresti, the man on the 125 bubble this week, by $104,663. Facing the inevitable, Riley already has mailed in his entrance fee for the PGA TOUR National Qualifying Tournament for the first time in eight seasons.

“I’d like to do well in the last five events and finish in the top 125,’’ he said. “But it won’t bother me if I have to go to q-school. I’m not worried about it, really. I’ve done really well and if I would have looked in the crystal ball eight, nine years ago and seen what I’ve done, I would have been very pleased.’’

This sounds strange coming from a player who used to study the money list and know where just about every player stood. Matter of fact, Riley didn’t even know he had moved up to 144th until a member of the media mentioned it.

“I look at my bank account and get soft,’’ he said, smiling sheepishly.

In other words, he has more than enough money to last for a very long time.

“I’m not one of those guys who needs a $150,000 car,’’ he said. “To me, going out and spending $100 on a nice dinner is splurging.’’

Riley also admits he loves playing golf. And he would like nothing more than to keep the job forever provided he could play only when he wanted to, given his new set of priorities. But he understands that long absences from competition are a serious detriment to his livelihood.

“Look, I’ll always be a professional golfer, but you can’t get those years back with your kids,’’ he said. “For me, I need to play five out of six weeks at a time, six out of eight weeks at a time, seven out of nine weeks, and I really haven’t had a pattern. I really haven’t wanted to travel much.’’

Therein a major dilemma lies.