CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- So what if his name was misspelled on the walking scoreboard? Who cares if there was yet another version on the leaderboard beside the ninth hole Thursday when he finished off his round at Quail Hollow Country Club?

The important thing is that Ron Whittaker -- aka Wittaker or Whitaker -- was playing in the Wachovia Championship after a whirlwind week that saw him gradually move up from 13th alternate into the field of 156 vying for shares of the $6.3 million purse.

While many of those same pros played in the pro-am on Wednesday morning, Whittaker was doing yard work at his new home in Little Rock, Ark. His mind was focused on getting ready for next week’s event, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship.

That changed, though, when a PGA TOUR official called around 2 o’clock to tell Whittaker that he had moved up to third alternate. By the time he got to the airport, the former Wake Forest standout had moved up to No. 1 and 15 minutes before his flight left at 5 p.m., he got the call that he was in.

“It was a long day yesterday,” Whittaker admitted.

Whittaker replaced Mark O’Meara, who withdrew after he learned of the death of Earl Woods, the father of his close friend Tiger Woods. He teed off a 7:33 a.m. with John Senden and Trevor Immelman, who ended up in a tie for the lead at 4 under.

Whittaker's round of 77 included birdies at the eighth and 15th holes. Those were the bright spots. He had never played Quail Hollow -- and to make matters worse, he was operating on about three hours sleep after the 1:45 a.m. ET arrival of his friend, Kris Cox, who had replaced him as the first alternate.

Cox, who was rooming with Whittaker, ended up getting into the tournament after Corey Pavin withdrew to attend a funeral. Cox got to sleep in, though, since Pavin’s tee time wasn’t until 1:27 p.m.

“It’s so tough playing a golf course like this,” Whittaker said. “It plays long, there’s a lot of rough. It’s like playing a major without a practice round. … It’s not a golf course where you want to go in blind on, that’s for sure.”

Whittaker’s regular caddy wasn’t able to get a flight to Charlotte in time so he called Brian Bateman’s caddy, whose nickname is Skillet, and asked him to tote his bag.

“He’d seen the course a couple of times,” Whittaker, who planned a nap and a practice session Thursday afternoon to “get the cobwebs out” said. “He can tell you where to hit it, but if you don’t have a feel for the golf course, that’s what makes it hard.”

Whittaker, who got his first golf lesson at the age of 2 from Arnold Palmer, is playing his second season on the PGA TOUR -- only the two are 10 years apart. In the interim, the 34-year-old nephew of Lanny Wadkins played two seasons on the Nationwide Tour and plied his trade on a variety of mini-tours on two continents.

“We were in South Africa one time and I got lost coming to the golf course,” Whittaker recalled. “They thought I was kidnapped and had the police after me. I picked up a guy trying to find my way back to the course and he had taken me in completely the other (direction). He got his ride and I was DQed.”

Whittaker, who won the FNB Players Championship on the South African Tour in only his 10th event as a pro, played in towns he never expected to visit during that 10-year odyssey. He's grateful for the experience, but glad to be back on the PGA TOUR, where in eight events this year he's already eclipsed his career earnings.

“It’s nice to know that all the hard work and the perseverance has paid off,” Whittaker said. “Now I’ve got the opportunity. I just have to produce and take advantage of it. I enjoy it. I love playing. It’s a passion of mine. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Whittaker knows there’s a fine line between having the confidence to play on the PGA TOUR and second guessing yourself at every turn. Wadkins, Whittaker says, has been very encouraging.

Ron Whittaker birdied the eighth and 15th holes on Thursday. (Cox/ WireImage)

“He knows that I have the game to be out here,” Whittaker said. “It’s me that has to go out there and hit the shots. I remember old (Wake Forest) coach (Jesse) Haddock used to say, talent is cheap. A lot of people have talent, but it’s the guys who take that talent and do something with it that are successful. I just had to put my nose to the grindstone and get the job done.”

At the end of last year, though, Whittaker was wondering whether he needed to start thinking about another line of work.

“I was going to give it one more shot,” Whittaker said. “(Sometimes) you feel like you’re banging your head against the wall. It’s hard to step away and do it. But I was ready to step away and do something else if I hadn’t made it through Q-school.”

Whittaker played well at qualifying school, though, and made it through all three stages. He did have a close call at the second stage. He left the course thinking he had missed by two strokes only to have his wife, Gerritt, call to tell him two other players had fallen back and they all made it on the number.

“I was on my way back to the hotel and I was going to watch some basketball and figure out what the heck I’m going to do with the rest of my life,” Whittaker said. “It went from being down in the dumps to total euphoria.

“So it’s been a wild ride this year.”

And it has continued in Charlotte this week.