Jim Doing was dying to turn 50, and now that he's almost there, he's dying inside.

Golf, even at the highest level, can do that to you - or maybe especially at the highest level.

Doing, an acclaimed opera singer and voice teacher at UW-Madison, went to California earlier this month to pursue his dream of qualifying for the Champions Tour, the pinnacle of senior professional golf.

In the first of four scheduled rounds at Goose Creek Golf Club east of Los Angeles, Doing conquered his nerves and fired a 3-under par 68, placing him in a tie for fifth among 78 competitors. The top 16 after four rounds would advance to the final stage of Champions Tour qualifying.

Doing's 68 was a stunning performance for a golfer lacking much of a tournament resume. You need to be 50 to play the Champions Tour, and Doing will pass that threshold in March. And while nobody in the field may have heard of him, Doing had been working hard on his game in recent years. He shot 63 at Pleasant View while winning the Middleton City Tournament last summer. He paid his $2,500 entry fee and went to California with a quiet confidence.

After his first-round 68, Doing was chatting with Curt Byrum, a Golf Channel commentator and former PGA Tour winner who had played in the group behind Doing. Byrum shot 69 and complimented Doing on his round.

"I was feeling great," Doing recalled on Thursday.

It was then, over the public address system, that Doing heard this: "Jim Doing, can you report to the scorer's tent, please?"

Doing walked to the tent. A Champions Tour tournament administrator with a grim look on his face said, "We've got a problem."

It's doubtful anything in Doing's life could have prepared him for that moment.

Originally from Connecticut, Doing met his wife, Sue, at the University of Connecticut, and after graduating they moved to Amsterdam, where Jim began an opera career that now includes roles in more than 70 operas in Europe and the United States.

The Doings had five children and moved back to the United States. They moved to Verona in 1998, and Doing began to take golf, which he had played well in high school, more seriously.

His handicap dropped to zero, or scratch, by 2006, and Doing began to think about the Champions Tour. He joined Hawks Landing last year, and his handicap dropped even lower, eventually to plus-three, rare air breathed by only the most elite amateur golfers.

One day in the parking lot at Vitense Golfland, Doing approached two-time U.S. Open champion Andy North and asked how good he needed to be to have a go at the Champions Tour.

"If you're not shooting 66 or 67 every day at your home course," North said, "you don't have a chance."

Doing was about there, and, well, he just wanted to give it a shot. He's a competitive guy. In launching his singing career, he'd been told many times how hard it would be to make a living.

So Doing is mentally strong, and he needed every bit of his strength at that moment when the Champions Tour administrator told him that another player had reported Doing for a rules violation during his round of 68.

On two occasions on the front nine, after missing short putts, he had dropped a ball after the hole was completed and knocked in a practice putt. He'd first asked his playing partners if that was OK - under United States Golf Association rules, it is allowed - and they had shrugged.

At Champions Tour qualifying, it is not allowed. Some fine print on a card the players were handed on the first tee explained it, though not very well. It was ambiguous. But as Doing says now, "If you have any doubt, just don't do it."

Doing should have assessed himself penalty strokes and so was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. His adventure was over. "I was absolutely devastated," he said.

Now, back in Madison, the hurt has lessened somewhat. Doing is looking forward to another season of amateur golf and thinking he might try again to qualify. But more than anything, his performance, abbreviated though it was, let him know it is possible.

"That cliche about going after your dream?" he said. "It's really true."

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