The 47-year-old national sales rep for Premier Warehousing Services was playing in just his second tournament of the season and hadn’t picked up a club in 10 days before heading to Kiawah Island, S.C., for one of the CGA’s biggest tournaments of the year.

And that’s not all.

In four of five of McClellan’s matches July 16-19, his opponent hit the ball into the water on the 18th hole at Turtle Point, giving the Prestonwood Country Club member either the win or forced extra holes.

When asked if he was ever in danger of losing any of his matches, McClellan laughed and said: “Yeah, pretty much every one of them.”

That included the 36-hole final in which McClellan lost the first two holes to recent College of Charleston graduate and local favorite Whitfield Massey. McClellan then had to make an 8-footer on the third hole to avoid falling behind by three right out of the gate.

McClellan fought back to square the match after the opening 18 holes, but immediately fell behind by two again before coming to the final hole 1-down.

“I’ll be darn if he didn’t hit it the water on 18,” McClellan said of Massey.

Massey’s miscue forced a 37th hole, in which McClellan won with a par after Massey hit a tree branch on his approach shot. A poor chip left the Mount Pleasant, S.C., resident 15 feet away, while McClellan was in prime position for either a birdie or par from 18 feet.

“I had to play first and I was so nervous I lagged it 2 feet short,” McClellan said. “I had a pretty decent little putt left to win it, but I guess I was in the zone because I don’t even remember standing over it.”

McClellan felt a little sheepish about the victory, considering Massey had a local cheering section following the final match.

“He had a bunch of friends out there and I turned around after I made my putt and had my hands in the air and I felt bad,” he said. “Everybody was so disappointed because he had me down most of the day.

“I went into the tournament with really no expectations,” added McClellan, who was unable to practice leading up to the event because he was on the road for almost two weeks. “I’ve been traveling so much I haven’t had time to play much golf.”

The fact that McClellan made it into match play at Kiawah Island was something of a minor miracle.

He shot a 3-over 75 at Keith Hills in Buies Creek just to make the cut, then had rounds of 75 and 79 for a 154 total at Turtle Point. The projected cut to make match play was 153.

McClellan felt he had missed out and was staying nearly an hour away from the resort in Mount Pleasant and was prepared to head back to Cary. However, he received word that there might be a playoff, so he hopped into his car and drove back to the golf course.

It turned out that his score was good enough to make the 32-player match play field.

McClellan’s first match was against Skip Taylor of Flat Rock, who began the string of poor finishes by opponents when he dunked the ball into the water on the final hole to lose 1-up.

“Skip’s such an accomplished player,” McClellan said. “He told me I played good and that I better win a whole lot of matches so he can feel like he got beat by the right guy.”

Later in the first day of match play, McClellan beat Graham Banister 2 up.

“He beat me two years ago at the Country Club of North Carolina in the second match so we were kidding around that this match was the ‘War at the Shore,”’ McClellan said. “Graham also hit it in the water at No. 18. I was standing on the tee and it was like déjà vu all over again. Graham then reminded me that the last two years the guy who beat him went on to win the tournament.”

McClellan, who didn’t play college golf, defeated Barden Berry of Kinston 5 and 3 in this third match, and edged Steve Harwell of Mooresville in 20 holes to set up his final match with Massey.

McClellan’s golfing career has taken a few interesting turns. He actually qualified twice for the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship almost two decades ago and made the round of 16 once, but started his own company and just became a weekend warrior on the golf course.

“I took golf pretty seriously in my 20s,” he said. “I never had time to practice when I had my own company. But my job is now 8 or 10 hours a day instead of 14 hours a day.”

The victory assured McClellan a spot in the Carolinas-Virginias match play team event, but don’t expect to see his name anywhere else this season. McClellan will be in Texas for three weeks on business, then in Kansas for two more weeks, almost taking him into September.

However, he admitted the win changed his attitude about the game he began playing as a 5-year-old.

“I thought differently than I ever had before,” he said. “I made so many critical putts. I seemed to bear down more. Now when I stand over putts it looks like I can make a lot of them. Some of that inner doubt has dissipated. I am thinking I can make the shot now instead of thinking I can’t make it. You know, a lot of golf is confidence.”