"If you can't enjoy this job, you're in it for the wrong reasons."

There aren't usually too many great playoff stories when you compare them to, say, the U.S. Open sectionals, but Doug Ferguson does a nice job telling the Cinderella story of 32-year-old William McGirt, who has improbably made it to round 2 in Boston with a refreshing attitude.

"If you can't enjoy this job, you're in it for the wrong reasons," McGirt said.

This is from a 32-year-old PGA Tour rookie who played more mini-tours than he cares to remember; who still thinks it's a privilege - not a right - to get a courtesy car; and who thought more than once about quitting, promising himself "one more year" until he finally reached the last stage of Q-school two years ago.
He has traveled so much in the minor leagues that he once saw his wife for only eight days during a four-month stretch.

"If something happens and we never get back out here, I wouldn't kick myself for stuff I could have done," McGirt said. "I would know we gave it our best, and we had a blast while we were doing it."

There have been plenty of thrills the last two weeks.

McGirt had missed the cut in 13 of the 25 tournaments he had played, but he had done just well enough in the others that he was on the cusp of getting the 125th and final spot in the playoffs. His car already was packed in Greensboro, N.C. McGirt either was going west toward Knoxville, Tenn., for a Nationwide Tour event, or north toward New Jersey for the $8 million playoff opener at The Barclays.

Long after McGirt had finished his final round, it came down to this: On the 18th hole, Justin Leonard just missed the fairway and wound up missing a 12-foot par putt, a sequence that moved McGirt to No. 125 and sent him to the richest event he had ever played.