That was true even if the man wasn't Mark Lye, cancer survivor.

That was true even if the man wasn't Mark Lye, cancer survivor.

So, before teeing off Friday at the Royal Caribbean Classic, Lye tucked a microphone into his left back pocket to let the audience in on his 2004 return to competition.

"Hopefully, people will be able to see exactly what we do on a shot," said Lye, 51, who earned $1.8 million in 18 years on the PGA Tour through 1995. "Each shot is so individual. You've got wind, you've got yardage, you've got where you don't want to hit it, you've got to keep it away from trouble. And trouble is real close on all the edges out there."

Trouble clipped Lye a few times, on the front and back nines, and he finished at 3-over-par 75. The mike didn't bother the Bonita Springs resident nearly as much as his score, and he talked about still being "rough around the edges" and "way off my game" and hoping the Golf Channel didn't highlight his final hole. Bothering him most: the cancer-ravaged left leg that has turned his natural swing into a slice, and made a good pivot and perfect swing impossible.

He is working to compensate, and you hope he gets it working soon, so he will play the dozen tournaments as planned and won't stand by his vow to stop if still struggling in June. Announcing remains his primary job, but playing is his passion. His sanctuary, too.

"The more I practice, the more I play, the less I think about cancer," said Lye, who had a small growth removed from his left thigh in July 2002, 11 years after his original melanoma diagnosis and five years after a cancer-free finding. "If you got it, like I have, it kind of becomes part of your life. I wish it was not part of my life. Yeah, when I get done playing, I've got to go back to my own bad world out there."

His real world. So, as he spoke, it became clear that, no matter how Golf Channel tried, this could never serve as a true reality show. This is an alternate reality, wind and sand serving as Lye's toughest adversaries. You can't know Lye's true reality, and you wouldn't want to watch it either. Lisa Lye has had no choice. She met Mark at the Golf Channel, married him five years ago, and then felt everything stop when the cancer came back. She saw him struggle with six months of interferon treatments, which he calls "nasty, nasty stuff," creating "a living hell." She saw him confined to his bed, feeling like forsaking food forever, losing 30 pounds and some of his spirit. She watched his progress complicated by his diabetes, his hair falling out, his moods swinging.