Don't blame Parker McLachlin if he feels like he's on a roll.

First, his sister-in-law puts in a good word for him and he is invited to play in the Callaway Pebble Beach Invitational last week where he finishes fifth, beating out more than 75 pros from the PGA, Champions and Nationwide tours.

He gets his first career double-eagle at Spyglass in the second round, holing out his second shot from 232 yards at the 530-yard seventh hole. Only one other double-eagle was ever recorded at Spyglass, claims a golf historian from the Monterey area. Some guy named Payne Stewart.

McLachlin, 26, is among 164 golfers in the final stage of the 2005 PGA National Qualifying Tournament in Winter Garden, Fla., trying to secure a playing card for the 2006 PGA Tour.

The top 30 finishers will earn their playing cards in the six-round test of survival that began yesterday. And McLachlin's opening 2-under 70 has him in a tie for 29th. The next 50 or so will get full exemptions on the Nationwide Tour and the balance of the field will attain conditional status for golf's Triple-A circuit.

So making the third stage is quite an achievement, especially for McLachlin, who twice didn't get past the second stage of the Q-School and had to kick around playing five different mini-tours the past two years.

"It's a great opportunity. It's like playing with nothing to lose and everything to gain," said McLachlin in a telephone interview from Florida, where he is staying with Anna Umemura, a Punahou School classmate since the sixth grade.

McLachlin got a good-luck call from Scott Simpson, a PGA Tour veteran and a close family friend of his parents, Chris and Beth.

"He told me to enjoy myself. He said that just getting through the second stage gives me some status," said McLachlin, who won the 1996 Hawai'i high school state title and later played for UCLA.

Fellow Hawai'i native Dean Wilson also called with words of encouragement.

"He told me, 'If I can do it, you can do it'. He told me I got the game to make it."

Wilson finished 102nd on the 2005 PGA money list by earning $821,903 to earn his exempt status for next year so he didn't need to go back to Q-School as he did last December to improve his status.

Wilson said he told McLachlin to play a lot of golf and concentrate on his short game. "I hit too many balls preparing for it and I'd tire myself out," Wilson said. "I told him to go with what you have. You're not going to find it in the last week."

A serendipitous turn of events got McLachlin into the Pebble Beach Invitational, enabling him to gain valuable experience and playing time under tournament conditions.

Karey Smith, the sister of McLachlin's wife, Kristy, was interning at the Pebble Beach Golf Links for the summer.

Her boss, Rich Patterson, was the tournament director for the Callaway event.

"My brother-in-law plays golf," she told Patterson.

"Oh? What? Where? Have him send me a resume," Patterson said.

He must have been impressed by McLachlin's resume. McLachlin got an invitation.

"It was pretty cool," McLachlin said.

In shooting a final-round 69, McLachlin outplayed the other three in his foursome — Jason Gore, Frank Lickliter and Aaron Oberholser, all PGA touring pros.

"Knowing that I could play with those guys was a huge confidence booster for me, a confidence builder going into this week," McLachlin said.

And, yes, says McLachlin, "I've got the Sony Open in the back of my mind."

It would be a nice trip home for McLachlin, who resides in Scottsdale, Ariz. And a nice second honeymoon for Parker and Kristy, who were married here last Dec. 30.

Bet anything that Parker will invite his sister-in-law Karey to come along. She needs no resume.