RALEIGH - For every college golfer like Kevin O'Connell, aching to turn pro and shoot for the PGA Tour, there's a Scott Lincicome or Mark Slawter.

They were golf pros who wanted to be amateurs again.

O'Connell, fresh off his freshman year at North Carolina, grabbed the second-round lead Friday in the N.C. Amateur with a 6-under-par 65 at Raleigh Country Club. At 6-under 136, the former Green Hope High standout has a three-shot lead over Zack Byrd of Calabash.

O'Connell, 19, is on the UNC golf team but already has his eyes on getting out and competing against Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson one day.

"That's what I want," he said. "That's all I've ever wanted. I've never thought about doing anything else.

"Tournament golf is one of my favorite things to do. Why not do it for a living?"

Lincicome and Slawter, both competing in the N.C. Amateur, tried making a living that way. Neither made it to the PGA Tour and eventually came to the realization -- one that was hard to accept -- that it wasn't going to happen, that they needed to find another way to make a living.

Slawter, a former N.C. State All-America, now works for Morgan Stanley and lives in Wake Forest. Lincicome, 36, is a real estate agent in Pinehurst.

Eight years ago, Slawter was competing in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Once, on the practice range at Pebble, Mickelson gave him a pat on the shoulder and said, "Play well."

Slawter, 34, played golf's mini-tours and failed on six attempts to make it through the PGA Tour's Qualifying Tournament -- the dreaded "Q School." He tried Monday qualifying for Nationwide Tour events but was fully frustrated by 2002.

"I had just shot 67 in Dayton, Ohio, and didn't qualify," Slawter said. "That was it. I told my wife, 'I'm going home.'

"It just wasn't fun. It's such a grind. After a while I lost the itch. You just know when it's time."

Slawter tried teaching golf for a few years at Heritage Golf Club in Wake Forest but became a financial adviser last fall. With a wife, Ashley, and a 3-year-old daughter, Aubrey, Slawter had to give up his golf dream.

In 2005, he applied to the U.S. Golf Association to have his amateur status reinstated. It was granted last year, and he hopes to qualify for the U.S. Amateur this summer in Pinehurst and compete in some Carolina Golf Association events.

While Slawter missed the cut in the N.C. Amateur after rounds of 78 and 75, Lincicome is third at 2-under 140.

Lincicome once played with Zach Johnson on the Hooters Tour. But after putting more than 160,000 miles on his Toyota 4Runner, traveling with his wife, Marcy, and not making much money, he gave it up.

"It's no fun living out of a car that's packed to the hilt," he said, laughing.

Like Slawter, Lincicome regained his amateur status.

And O'Connell isn't kidding himself. He realizes the odds of reaching the PGA Tour are large -- not everyone zooms from the Hooters Tour to a Masters title like Johnson -- and the road can be a rocky one.

For now, O'Connell is content playing in such events as the N.C. Amateur, which is being held in Raleigh for the first time. After seven birdies and a lone bogey Friday, he's also out front.

O'Connell, who started playing golf at age 2, isn't long off the tee but said he has a strong iron game and hits a lot of greens in regulation. When he's putting well, he said, he can go low.

"I enjoy the preparation that goes into tournament golf," he said. "Hopefully it will work out."

In O'Connell's case, meaning both this week and in the future.

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