OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. (AP) – Six months ago, Stephen Leaney was at a crossroads, despondent and searching for the motivation to keep playing.

He had failed again at qualifying school, missing by one heartbreaking stroke. Almost 34, his dream of playing on the PGA Tour seemed to be slipping away.

Now, in the most unlikely of scenarios, his dream is firmly in his grasp. Leaney finished second to Jim Furyk at the U.S. Open on Sunday, winning his PGA Tour card for the next two seasons.

“Second is obviously great, but first is what I wanted,” Leaney said. “I’m not upset, but I really believed that I was going to win today. It will take a few days to get over it.

“I’m sure in a week or two, I’ll realize that I did play very well this week, and there are lots of good things to come out of it.”

Like a spot on the PGA Tour.

Leaney won five tournaments in Australia from 1994-97 before going to Europe for the German Open in 1997. After finishing in a tie for 41st there, he decided to stay in Europe and play on the Challenge Tour.

He finished in the top 10 in his six starts, winning a spot on the European tour.

He’s won three tournaments in his five seasons on the European tour, including the German Masters last year.

But his dream has always been to play on the PGA Tour.

He’d failed in his first four tries at qualifying school. It seemed as if he might finally make it last year, going to the 18th hole needing only to make par to win his card.

He made bogey.

“It was a great disappointment,” he said. “And I really felt like I hadn’t had much to look forward to at the start of the year. I guess I played the first two weeks like that.”

He missed the cut in the Heineken Classic, then finished 43rd at the ANZ Championship.

“I was trying to set goals for this year, but I couldn’t block out what happened,” Leaney said.

His next tournament, the Johnnie Walker, was in his hometown of Perth, Australia. So he sat down with his wife, his parents and his sports psychologist, hoping to find something that would spur him on.

And then the breakthrough came. He played well the entire tournament, finishing second to Els.

Not even caddie merry-go-round could throw him off of his game. Leaney’s longtime caddie was hired away by Colin Montgomerie three weeks ago, and he’s used four replacements his last four tournaments – two this week alone.

Justin Hoyle, who also caddied for Leaney at the Memorial, was on the bag for the first round of the Open. But at 5 a.m. Friday – less than eight hours before Leaney’s tee time – Hoyle woke up desperately ill. He was slurring his words, his nails were purple and he was frothing at the mouth.

He checked himself into a hospital, where he was diagnosed with pericarditis – an inflammation of the membrane sac surrounding the heart.

So with just a few hours to go before his round began, Leaney was scrambling. He found Alistair Hawell, a caddie who was at the Open on vacation, and asked if he’d work for the weekend. Hawell said sure and the two were off, even though Hawell had never walked the course.

The last-minute switch obviously didn’t hurt. Leaney was below par the first three rounds, shooting 67, 68 and 68. While most expected it would be Vijay Singh, Tom Watson or Nick Price giving Furyk a challenge, Leaney just kept hanging around the leaderboard.

“People don’t know my game,” he said. “Hopefully today people will realize that I can play and that I have a chance to win these sorts of tournaments.”

He got off to a rough start Sunday, bogeying two of his first three holes. He made a 3-footer for birdie on the sixth, but followed it up with another two bogeys.

But he never thought he was out of it. When Leaney holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 13th to get to six under, he truly believed he had a chance to win. Furyk had bogeyed the hole, leaving him only three strokes ahead with five holes to play.

“I really believed after 13 that I was actually going to win,” he said. “I thought I could bring it back, but it just wasn’t to be. … He didn’t make enough mistakes that really gave me a chance.”

When Leaney bogeyed the 17th, he finally accepted that this title wasn’t meant to be his.

“I’ve had a wonderful week,” he said. “I’ve got my U.S. tour card for the next two years, which is what I wanted, and I’ve got the Masters. So I guess there are good things to come out of it.”

If nothing else, Leaney has proven he belongs.

“Today was disappointing, but it’s proved to myself that my golf game is good enough to handle the pressure and handle the situation,” he said. “Next time it comes about, hopefully I can draw on the experience and it’ll help me.”

AP-ES-06-15-03 2227EDT