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GREENSBORO — So far, Scott McCarron is answering the question he has had to pose by word and by phone so often lately: "Can I play?"

With another big round at the Wyndham Championship today, the 43-year-old professional, who has lost nearly three years of golf to an elbow injury, won't have to solicit tournament directors for sponsor's exemptions if he prevails at Sedgefield Country Club. Victory would again grant him the status to which he had been accustomed for 14 years -- full-time membership on the PGA Tour. A high enough finish may do the trick, as well.

"Hey, 43 is just a number," he said after carding a 6-under-par 64 that left him two shots behind leader Carl Pettersson after 54 holes. "Why can't I play the best golf of my life?"

Until recently, the question wasn't feasible. In January 2006, McCarron, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, banged his right elbow against a bedside table at home in Reno, Nev. After trying to play through the pain for seven months, he learned he would need surgery to reattach a tendon to the nearest bone. That would mean 12 to 18 months without picking up a club, and while his $10 million in lifetime earnings had given McCarron and his family financial security, he wasn't ready to abandon the game entirely.

"I don't recommend that," he said. "It's not a lot of fun. It's 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."

Throughout the recovery period, McCarron immersed himself in things that full-time athletics had limited. He volunteered for crossing-guard duty at his children's school. He coached their soccer teams. Last summer, he took the family on an auto tour of Idaho, California and Nevada.

"Where didn't we go?" he asked rhetorically. "Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Sun River. Went to Sand Point, Idaho.

"We just hopped in a car and drove around for six or seven weeks. It was fantastic."

The tour's injury-related grace period expired after the 2007 season, and McCarron, no longer certain of participation on past merit, began lobbying.

"There are six or seven tournaments that I've been calling every week. Writing letters," he said. "I'm in a really awkward position in having to do that now after 14 years."

When Wyndham tournament director Mark Brazil promised McCarron a spot about a month ago, the player responded by offering to play in the Monday pro-am and by wearing the sponsor's trademarked image on his cap. He ordered 60 blank hats and asked his family to affix the logo. As it turned out, he didn't need the exemption to the Wyndham because enough other players higher in the current caste system had declined the chance to play here. His status as a tenured veteran then kicked in and he found a spot, but he followed through on the logo and pro-am promises.

McCarron made the cut easily with scores of 65 and 64, and he didn't miss a beat Saturday. He birdied Nos. 2-4 to stay within striking distance of Pettersson, and he finished with the shot of the day when he holed out from a bunker at No. 18.

"I told my caddy, Bradley, 'If I make this, I'm going to make a snow angel in the bunker.' Sure enough, I did it," he said of the shot. "I chickened out on the snow angel."

McCarron's 54-hole total of 193 surpassed the previous three-round record in Greensboro, but because Pettersson is even hotter, the native Californian isn't leading. Yet.

"Breaking the 54-hole record and still being behind?" he asked. "Let's see if we can break the 72-hole record and be ahead."

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob. daniels@news-record.com