Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

"I'm not thinking 'if.' Like I said, it's a 40-foot tap-in. It's the easiest putt I'll ever make," said Larry Gray (above) on his putt for a million dollars

Listen to Larry Gray laugh and joke long enough, and one can't help but get a slight feeling that he might just be crazy enough to pull this off.

Just don't bet on it, though.

As the winner of an online contest sponsored by Top-Flite, Gray will have one shot at making a 40-foot putt for a million bucks Thursday night at Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Where's the Brinks truck to carry all his loot home to Roanoke? That's Gray only question.

"A 40-footer? It's just a tap-in, man," cracked Gray as he practiced his putting stroke on Blue Hills Golf Club's practice green last Friday.

Call him crazy, call him nuts, call him wacko. Gray doesn't care. All this happy-go-lucky 12-handicapper knows is anything can happen.

"It's one stroke of the ball ... shoot, a 30-handicapper is going to knock it in from 40 feet on a given day in one stroke," said Gray, 48, who is retired on disability from Norfolk Southern.

"Like everybody else, I get lucky and I tend to make a long one every now and then. A lot of the guys I play regularly with have told me they'd rather see me trying to make a 40-footer than a 3-footer. I miss those little knee-knockers left and right."

Gray leaves Roanoke on Wednesday on the four-day, three-night trip. "I'm taking my girlfriend, so she's happy," he said with a grin. "I've never been to Las Vegas. Shoot, I haven't been west of the Mississippi" River.

His 15 minutes of fame will come Thursday night at approximately 10:30 p.m. As part of Top-Flite's promotion against "wuss golf" with its new D2 golf ball, Gray will hover over the biggest putt of his life amid all kinds of distractions.

"There's supposed to be all kinds of people yelling and screaming," Gray said. "There will be showgirls, elephants, chimps. They even had like a dancing girl and a midget on their Web site, and the midget is asking you, 'Do you think you've got the guts to take on Las Vegas?' They'll probably go in one of the bars and empty out a couple hundred drunks to come out there and holler and yell at me. Y'all come on! That's all I got to say!

"Now I think about it, I'll probably need a couple of drinks before I go out there ... I'll take a shot [of liquor] or drink a couple beers or something. I'm going to come out waving and high-fiving everybody and low-fiving the chimpanzees."

Former major-league baseball player and current ESPN analyst John Kruk will be on hand to coach Gray on how to deal with the rowdy onlookers and focus on the task at hand.

"Kruk is going to be there? I didn't know that," Gray said. "Good, I like that guy."

According to contest rules, Gray can't practice on the hotel green in which he will attempt the putt. "I've got to use their putter and their ball, too," he said. "The one thing I've got to do is get the ball to the hole. If you don't get it to the hole you have no chance. You can't leave a putt for a million dollars short ... no way."

What's going to happen if he drains the putt?

"I'm not thinking 'if,' " Gray said with a laugh. "Like I said, it's a 40-foot tap-in. It's the easiest putt I'll ever make."