Around this time last year, James Nitties found himself in an all-too-familiar place, slumped in a hotel room with nothing to do to pass the time before his next round of golf other than watch TV.
With only a few channels to flick between, the best thing on the box that night was the The Bachelor.
"Currently watching The Bachelor Australia … Someone please save me," the Victorian tweeted that night.
Sometime later, another Australian professional golfer, Matt Ballard, replied: "U secretly wish you were the bachelor … don't cha?".
It's not the first time Nitties had been asked that question.
Five years ago, the American version of the dating show - the second-highest rating TV program in the country at that time - flat out offered him the starring role.
"A lot of people would have loved it, and if I was in a different point in my life, or not on the US tour, maybe I would've," Nitties said this week, reflecting on his decision to turn down the offer.
At that point, Nitties (then 27) had just completed a respectable first year on the world's top flight golf tour, the USPGA, and was living his dream.
There weren't many reasons to think that anything other than a long, prosperous career at that level was ahead, especially when he later that year made a name for himself domestically by pushing Tiger Woods to the final round of the 2009 Australian Masters.
Fast forward to 2014 and life is different. He is now chasing that dream, rather than living it, slugging it out on the Web.com Tour - the secondary circuit underneath the USPGA.
In this world, there are far more lonely days playing on average golf courses in small towns with no one watching - days that can sometimes make others like, May 22, 2009 for instance, seem like they were in a different lifetime.
That day, Nitties stormed to the first-round lead of the $US6.5 million ($7.6 million) Byron Nelson Championship.
"You go from that to scrapping it out for $600,000 purses every week," Nitties said. "And if you don't make the top 30 you actually lose money on your expenses.
"Every year a new batch of rookies comes through and you can see it in their eyes. They are just pumped to be there.
"After a while that wears off a little bit … and you're just grinding away thinking 'what am trying to do here'?"
What hasn't changed in that time is Nitties' status as a bachelor.
"It makes it hard for relationships when you are on the road every week," the now 32-year-old said.
"Often you'll date a girl and it will be good at the start but then sooner or later she'll get sick of not seeing you anymore.
"I've seen a lot of guys that have given it away because their partners put pressure on them to stop chasing the dream and go out and get a real job."
Nitties is not ready to get a real job just yet, and won't be for a while.
"I still have the fire to get back on the tour, so when I meet anyone I'm pretty honest with them that golf is first and that is going to be my priority for the next 15 years."
So, what was the answer to that question? Does he secretly wish now he was The Bachelor?
"No, I've got no regrets. I'm pretty fine with it," he said. "I was flattered, don't get me wrong. But you had to commit to them in a big way. They pretty much owned you for two years.
"When it all comes down to it, I'm a golfer, and at that time I'd had a great first year on the tour and I thought I was going to do the same with my second year. I wasn't going to jeopardise that just to go on a reality TV show.
He didn't think he would have made a good bachelor, anyway.
"I'm too honest. I think I prefer every woman in America not knowing who I was and not hating me for anything I might have said or done on the show."
Nope, being a "Z Grade" TV star was not for him then and still isn't now. But getting back on the USPGA Tour is, and he was closer than a lot of people realise this season.
Had he not shot six-over across the final two rounds of the Web.com Tour Championship, squandering a 5-under start, he might have secured his card for 2015, lamenting this week that "it was there".
Nitties said he was excited about changes he had made to his swing and putting, and there have been massive signs at this week's Australian Masters that he is onto something. On Saturday, he fired a -5 round of 67 to be move himself into title contention ahead of Sunday's final round.
"Sometimes it feels so far away, and then the next day it's like 'how am I not there?" he said.
"I'm close. It's easy to say, but I'm sure with my mindset the way it is now that I will get there soon enough."
