Bill Drohen, above, who has played in various USGA events, inspired 49-year-old Douglas Parigian to try qualifying one more time. (Fred Vuich/USGA)

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Village of Pinehurst, N.C. – As Douglas Parigian navigated his way around the Pinehurst properties the past two days, the same refrain permeated the air.

"They all stopped me. ‘You're playing?'" chuckled Parigian. "They all mistake me for a parent."

That's because on this stage of youth and vitality, Parigian is a pre-historic relic. Just call him a Brontosaurus. He's so old compared to the rest of the field that he can remember when reusable towel machines in public restrooms were chic.

He doesn't feel that old, though. Not this week. Not after trying to qualify, unsuccessfully mind you, 18 previous times. At 49 years old, the Lowell, Mass., resident has all the dynamism of a kid at Christmas.

To absorb as much as he could, Parigian bounced from room to room in the Pinehurst clubhouse Sunday simply poking his head in to let every morsel of the experience fuel his spirits.

The 10-time Lowell City Golf Tournament champion is the exception instead of the norm. And he knows it. That's in the traditional sense of appearing in a U.S. Amateur. Historically speaking, roughly 75 percent of the field on an annual basis will never compete in another U.S. Amateur.

Parigian is living proof that the road to the Amateur sometimes is filled with pot holes. After last year's disappointment, one crater too many appeared to be the final blow to his tires.

"I said, ‘I'm not going to put an application in this year. I'm not doing it to myself,'" said Parigian, who has been a first alternate four times.

However, one hour before the July 2 deadline, Parigian had a change of heart. He credited Bill Drohen, 35, for that.

Drohen, a solid amateur player in his own right, convinced Parigian that he should try at least one more time. "He was like, ‘Oh, I haven't made it into that thing for 20 years,'" said Drohen by phone.

Out with a bum shoulder, Drohen said he'd caddie for Parigian in the qualifier. He'd read the putts. The conversation materialized one month before the qualifier. Parigian had been toying with a belly putter, trying to elicit confidence.

Drohen said that putting is his weakness, more mentally than physically speaking, adding, "He tends to talk himself out of being a good putter."

They went to the qualifier at Vesper Country Club in Tyngsboro, Mass., with Drohen playing the role of motivational speaker, ala Tony Robbins, too.

"I just told him, ‘If you listen to me, you're going to get in,'" said Drohen. "That's not to say I was the reason he got in. He still had to do all the work. But I said, ‘Doug, you have to believe you're a good player.'"

Which, on the surface, seems strange. Parigian is loquacious but not in an annoying sense. He's affable and pervades an inner confidence that was borne out of smarts.

"He could talk a dog off a meat truck," quipped Drohen.

Parigian, a lifelong Lowell resident, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980 with a degree in structural engineering. He played golf there, becoming the first person to be named as an NCAA Division III honorable-mention All-America in 1980. But he didn't see golf as a career, instead working a job as an engineer. During that time, he attended Suffolk University Law School at night, earning his law degree in 1988. Golf went on the back-burner. Single at the time, he figured the opportunity to do it had to be seized.

From 1990-93, he worked in a law firm, where he realized the freedoms to play were minimal. He couldn't exactly ask for five weeks off to float around from tournament to tournament. Another life change beckoned. He chose to start his own law practice as a criminal defense attorney.

In 1994, Parigian made it to the quarterfinals of the prestigious North & South Amateur at Pinehurst.

All the time hitting plastic balls with clubs as a kid, all the time riding to and from Long Meadow Golf Club in Lowell with his clubs over his shoulder on his bike as a 12 year old, was paying off. He even qualified to play in a couple British Amateurs, but one thing remained missing.

The U.S. Amateur gnawed at him. He continued to send in his application, only to walk away from the qualifier with a mistress known as dissatisfaction.

Until this year.

After shooting even par in the morning 18, Drohen droned on that two under probably would be enough to get him to Pinehurst. Coming down the stretch, Parigian bogeyed the 16^th and 17^th holes that dropped him to one under. Drohen prodded him for a birdie on No. 18.

Parigian came through, knocking in a 14-footer to finish 72-70—142.

"When he made that putt on 18," said Drohen, "I almost had tears in my eyes."

Parigian has no delusions of grandeur this week. His age keeps everything in perspective.

"As you get older, I know I'm enjoying myself more than the younger guys are out there. I don't have the same pressures. For me, it's not going to affect me if I don't make match play or I win. No one is going to give me a sponsorship," said Parigian.

Yet the questions keep cycling through his mind.

"It's the strangest thing. I'm 49. I play once a week. Why not 15 years ago? Why didn't it happen then? Now I'm going to get to play?" he said. "It's almost like a lifetime achievement award."

If so, now's the time to applaud.

Ken Klavon is the USGA's Editor of New Media. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.