The successful golfer must block out a hundred potential distractions. Read his surroundings and react appropriately. Choose the appropriate tool while thinking two or three moves ahead. Scramble out of danger when necessary. Learn humility and accept responsibility.

Chris Cloutier may or may not have born to play such an agonizing game. At 30 years old, with life experience in his rearview mirror that most men twice his age can’t comprehend, it is the perfect avocation for him now.

“It helps,” Cloutier said. “With sobriety, you need a lot of structure.”

Cloutier’s long-overdue arrival at the Maine Amateur — to be played over three days at Sunday River Golf Club in Newry — isn’t nearly the most important competition in his life.

More essential is the battle within, one that commenced in earnest a year ago when Cloutier, 30, took his final swig of alcohol and proclaimed to any skeptical party who would listen that enough was enough.

“Before that it kind of took over my golf game,” Cloutier said. “When I did play, it was to do everything that comes along with it.”

VEERING OFF COURSE

Cloutier grew up as one of the state’s superior players in his age group. As a senior at Lewiston High School, he was runner-up to Joe Manganaro of Gorham in the Class A schoolboy championship.

The University of Maine beckoned. Cloutier was a scholarship athlete.

All that work and anticipation came crashing down his freshman year, however, when the program disbanded.

Maine replaced men’s golf with women’s volleyball in deference to Title IX, the law mandating gender equity in athletic opportunities.

While he won’t explicitly say that’s where his drinking started, Cloutier won’t deny that it gained momentum.

“That kind of fell through, and when I look back I wonder how (college) might have been if I had golf to get me through it,” Cloutier said. “It certainly would have changed a lot of things. Instead of focusing on golf, I got involved in a fraternity.”

Cloutier left Orono in 2006 with a degree in finance.

Golf became a page of his past.

“I did not play competitively for a long time,” he said. “Once a week I might play. I was doing it more to go out with my buddies and drink.”

His life journey led him to Ohio.

For some with a chemical dependency, the isolation from family, friends and familiar places may promote healing. In Cloutier’s case, the problem persisted and deepened.

Living on his own, Cloutier says he drank every day. He eventually lost his license.

With his options and his ability to support himself diminished, Cloutier took what was ultimately the first step toward recovery, placing the prodigal’s call home.

“I was able to look to my family for support,” Cloutier said. “They took me in. They just said, ‘Move back and we’ll figure something out.’ ”

REDISCOVERING THE DRIVE

The pieces started falling into place. Cloutier’s company, Citigroup, gave him back his old job.

“All that time walking back and forth to work, it gives you a lot of time to realize how far you’ve fallen,” he said.

Cloutier’s drinking didn’t immediately cease, but one summer night in 2011 he made the private commitment and the public declaration that the previous drink was his last.

Today that milestone is listed as a life event on Cloutier’s Facebook page. It is labeled as a red circle with a diagonal line slashing through it, the universal symbol of a targeted enemy.

He is conscious of the popular parlance that an alcoholic is never “cured.” The key to continued victory, Cloutier said, is avoiding places where he will be tempted to drink.

Some might cringe, then, at Cloutier’s recommitment to golf, an activity so closely associated with the “19th hole” and all its trappings. But that constant availability of cold beverages is outweighed by the camaraderie and the discipline.

“Golf was big for me in starting that stability,” Cloutier said.

He began registering for weekly events sanctioned by the Maine State Golf Association. It immediately provided him with a support system of people consumed by the same passion from all ages and backgrounds.

“The MSGA has been a huge help to me. There are definitely a lot of great people in the game,” Cloutier said. “My first tournament back, it was like I’d never left. I saw a lot of the old guys I played against in high school. Everybody treated me like an old friend and was happy to see me. It was a good place for me to get back into the swing of things.”

TAKING AIM

Cloutier had no illusions when he awoke to driving rain June 26 and made the trek to Biddeford-Saco Country Club for a Maine Amateur qualifying tournament.

He hadn’t given it a shot since high school, but a 78 was sufficient to make the field.

“I wasn’t really thinking my game was good enough to even qualify yet,” he said.

In three months of serious play, Cloutier has lowered his handicap by nearly five shots. The MSGA deducted another chunk based on Cloutier’s “potential,” a nod to his past as a teenage champion.

He plays three, sometimes four days a week, often from 5 p.m. to sunset after leaving the office.

The long, elevated, scenic course at Sunday River will be a far cry from Apple Valley, Cloutier’s cozy, nine-hole home layout.

“Apple Valley is a course where I have to work on my irons. I can’t exactly play my driver to every hole,” Cloutier said. “I’ve played Sunday River in a couple of MSGA weekly tournaments. Even from the white tees it was pretty difficult, and I assume it’ll be playing from the black tees. It’s definitely a long course. From what I understand it’s one of the three longest in the state. You definitely have to hit it long and straight.”

Being a year ahead of his own expectations, Cloutier’s modest goal is to make the cut. The top 40 players and ties will tee it up in Thursday’s final round.

Whenever the week’s journey ends, Cloutier will return to his primary battle.

He is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. The meetings provide accountability while giving Cloutier a chance to help others walking that same fairway in life.

“There is absolutely no way I could be doing this without the support of my family and friends in Lewiston. They’ve been unbelievable in this whole process,” he said. “You need to have the right support. I’ve been able to find the right people who I can call if I’m having a bad day.”

It is both a cruel reality and a harbinger of hope in golf and in life that Cloutier understands more vividly than most of us: You’re only as good as your next shot.

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