LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Steve Marino rooted around in his locker, traditionally filled with the tools of the PGA Tour trade, such as golf balls, extra gloves or the occasional bribe from a future tournament seeking a player commitment.
Still dressed in his golf garb after throwing more laser beams around Disney World than Buzz Lightyear, Marino's day job was complete, and his transition into civilian mode was well under way.
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| Steve Marino ranks 22nd in the tour's all-around category, ahead of guys named Garcia, Scott and Singh. (AP) |
"When my mom sees me, she is going to freak, I know that," he said.
Slightly incognito this week or not, Marino is starting to be recognized as one the best up-and-coming players on the tour horizon, particularly shooting a 66 to claim a share of second place at 13 under Friday at the Children's Miracle Network Classic.
Watching Marino's career trajectory is like tracking a pee-wee's growth over the years when visiting Disney. First, they are only tall enough for the slow kiddie stuff at the Magic Kingdom, then they grow into the middle-tier rides and eventually the white-knuckle stuff with breakneck speeds.
After working his way up through the mini-tour ranks, then crow-barring his way onto the Nationwide Tour in 2006 despite starting the season with no status, Marino is on the cusp of a breakthrough this weekend at the final event of the year.
"It's time, man," said Matt Messer, his longtime swing coach. "He has worked really hard for a long time. He's ready."
Marino is one of those rare guys whose ceiling seems to keep going up, no matter where he's playing. He traveled a variety of mini-tours after graduating from Virginia, not exactly a golf factory, mostly in South Florida, where he still lives.
Everybody hits the wall at some point. For we lowly chops, that's usually sometime in high school, when talent maxes out and reality sets in. Marino seems more than poised to kick in yet another door this week with his first victory in the major leagues.
A few weeks back, Marino was working with Messer in West Palm Beach and asked if they could spend some time working on bunker play. Marino had noticed that his statistics in that area seemed lacking, so some honing seemed like a worthwhile idea.
Marino whacked a few out of the sand, from imbedded lies, sidehill situations and any number of variables, and looked like the second coming of Gary Player. He and Messer realized there was nothing lacking in his bunker play and that stats can be misleading.
Sometimes.
"At times, stats can lie, but when you see his overall numbers, those numbers don't," Messer said.
Marino ranks 22nd in the tour's all-around category, a composite of eight key statistical areas such as putting, driving, sand play and greens in regulation. That's one notch ahead of Sergio Garcia, the No. 3 player in the world rankings, three spots ahead of Adam Scott and four better than Vijay Singh.
Right -- guys the sidewalk sports fans have actually heard of. Given time, Marino might join that list. He certainly seemed to be wired right in the head, which is the final frontier that separates the dudes who can and can't get it done when it matters.
Messer flew to San Diego last year to watch Marino play in the Buick Invitational, his third start as a rookie. Marino smoked a drive 50 yards past his playing partners on the first hole, shot 65 and finished 20th. Messer asked him afterward if he had the jitters on the first tee, and Marino nearly laughed.
"No, why should I?' he said.
Messer wanted to kiss the guy, since landing a fearless student who can hang mentally at this level is like found gold. Then again, when he has been mostly playing for your own cash for four years, a guy's fear threshold tends to shrink.
"Steve will eat your heart, spit it out and then laugh at you," Messer said.
It's easy to see why. The South Florida tours where Marino spent much of his early professional career required members to fork over $18,000 at the beginning of each season. It's what fueled the weekly purses.
"It was organized gambling, basically," Marino said.
He kept his head above the red ink, always a good thing for an aspiring pro at the Class A level. He had a sponsor out of college, but the man passed away soon thereafter. Thankfully, Marino won his next start for some much-needed, and self-sustaining, seed money. He used to drive a beat-up Acura with one door that didn't open. Not anymore.
"I was always at least comfortable financially," Marino said.
It's a lot more fun, not to mention lucrative, to play for other people's cash, and he has gotten pretty darned good at it. Though he could walk into any pro shop in the country and hardly draw a second look, Marino has hauled home $3 million in two seasons in golf's big leagues and has become astoundingly consistent at collecting payroll checks.
"He is a cash machine," said Messer, the director of instruction at Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach.
After playing his way through Qualifying School in late 2006, he finished 80th on the tour money list as a raw rookie, barely knowing the tour terrain. This time, he has halved that number again, climbing to 41st. With a finish of second or better at Disney, he can climb into the top 30, which would assure him slots in the Masters and U.S. Open next year.
He has 12 top 25 finishes this season, five of those in the top 10, including second at the event in Mexico earlier this spring. He has made 27 of 32 cuts and made it to the third stage of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Unlike the majority of young players these days, who were raised on a steady diet of instruction and video replays, Marino has a non-traditional swing. He refuses to look at it on tape, in fact, making him the rarest of the rare -- a feel player under age 30.
"I've got a lot of guys who swing it textbook, but they don't have what Steve Marino does," Messer said.
Throw in a win and the guy would represent the total package. He has been close on the personal and social fronts -- a few weeks back, running mate Marc Turnesa won in Las Vegas and Marino was waiting behind the 18th green to greet him.
"I see some of the players around my age winning, like Anthony Kim and those guys, and I really want to get that first one," Marino said.
That said, Marino is as low-compression as a Noodle golf ball. He sort of has that Southern California vibe going.
"He's a 'yo, dude,' type," Messer laughed.
"I'm a pretty laid-back, low-key guy," Marino said. "I don't get super-excited. But if I win, that would definitely be a 'wow' moment, that's for sure."
