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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 16, 2009

Steve Marino

HONOLULU, HAWAII

DOUG MILNE: Steve, thanks for joining us for a few minutes after round two here of the Sony Open in Hawaii. Good round today, especially considering the conditions. You guys were fighting through, a 3-under 67 today. Just a little bit about the course conditions and how you're feeling as you head into the weekend.
STEVE MARINO: The wind was obviously crazy out there today. You know, you've just got to stay patient. I hit the ball real solid today, and you know, was hitting it where I was looking. Yesterday, I struggled with my driver a little bit and got off to a bad start, and if you're not hitting your driver well and you're miss-hitting it, it just gets in that wind and can go anywhere.
But today, I hit my driver real well and I hit a lot of fairways, and once you're in the fairway, it makes this course play a lot easier. The fairways are so hard to hit, once you get in the rough, you never know what you're going to get out there.

Q. Was it any different than yesterday?
STEVE MARINO: I think probably the wind blew a little bit harder than yesterday.

Q. Characteristics any different?
STEVE MARINO: No, it blew the same direction. It wasn't as hat as it was yesterday. I felt like the greens might have been a little slower today and they might have done that on purpose because of the high wind expectancy.

Q. When you left last night under the forecast of death and destruction, what were you coming to the course -- what were your expectations when you got here?
STEVE MARINO: To be honest with you, I wasn't really even thinking about the weather and the heavy winds. I knew it was going to be windy. But I wasn't worried about it. I mean, everybody was going to have to play through those winds, so I just came out here, and all I wanted to do was just be patient and just do the best that I could do. When it gets tough out there like that, if you're not on your game, you're going to shoot like 80.
So I knew that anything could happen out there today. So I just wanted to go out and just stay patient and have fun and just do the best that I could. You can't control the weather, so you've just got to go with it.

Q. Have you got the better of the times?
STEVE MARINO: You know, I don't know, maybe. We'll wait and see this afternoon.

Q. What about this course fits your game so well?
STEVE MARINO: I just think it's fairly similar -- I live in Florida now, so I've played a lot of golf down there, playing mini-tours and stuff like that.
So I'm used to playing off this kind of a grass and playing in the wind. I've been playing down there in the off-season the past month or so, and you come here, and it's kind of familiar to what I've been seeing over the past month.

Q. What's different about you coming here this year compared with two years ago?
STEVE MARINO: Well, I'm not paired with Michelle Wie. (Laughter).
I don't know, probably just I'm a little more seasoned than I was a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago when I came out here as a rookie, when you come out here as a rookie, you don't really know what to expect. I always felt like before I came out here, my rookie year, that I was going to be good enough to play out here, but at the same time, there's that little -- the not knowing part is what can kind of get you sometimes.
So now I felt like I belong out here, and I've played with some really good players and I've seen what the best have. So I know exactly what I'm getting myself into.

Q. When do you think you hit that moment of losing some of that, either the fear or the doubt or whatever you're alluding to?
STEVE MARINO: Pretty early probably my rookie year, four or five events. I can't put my finger on a certain moment where I felt like, hey, I belong, but probably after four or five events when I was playing and making cuts and having good finishes, I realised, hey, you know, I can do this with these guys.

Q. Now, there was a moment on the range the other day where you kind of sauntered up and were having some good exchanges with Ernie.
STEVE MARINO: Yeah.

Q. What was it like, do you remember, your first couple of events, were you at all intimidated to just walk up to anybody and carry on a conversation, and how do you break through that?
STEVE MARINO: I probably was maybe a little bit intimidated. So therefore, I didn't really go up to guys like Ernie or Phil and just start talking to them when I first got out here. But the more you get out here, the more you see those guys, the more they see you and then you can kind of build a pap report with them.
I just think, you know, it takes time. It's not like a rookie is going to come out here and just go start talking to everybody, because you know, you don't really want to step on anybody's toes right off the bat.
I think when I first got out here, I kind of just stuck to myself and worked hard and did my own thing and didn't really -- you know, I wasn't really worried about those other guys. It was cool being on the range with them and obviously playing in the same tournaments that they were, but you're trying to beat those guys now. It's not like you're watching them on TV being like, oh, man, Ernie is nasty or something like that. You're playing against them and you're trying to beat them.

Q. But I think you don't have that attitude, even though it's true, that those are the guys you're trying to beat; week one it's different.
STEVE MARINO: Oh, when you first come out? Yeah, probably, yeah, it's tough to have that kind of attitude. But at the same time when you're out there playing, you're trying to do the best that you can. You're not going to be looking around worrying about, oh, Ernie for Phil is like 5-, or 6-under today, or, oh, God, I can't play with him. It's not like that.
It's just I'm sure some guys are like that and they probably won't stay out here for very long.

Q. Do you notice any of the rookies this week being tentative in that kind of way?
STEVE MARINO: No, I haven't really noticed any rookies actually at all. (Laughter) I've seen some guys I didn't know, and then some of the rookies I do know. It's just same old stuff.

Q. When you played with Michelle, one of your first weeks out, do you figure it's got to get simpler after that?
STEVE MARINO: Yeah, I was kind of thrown into the lion's den playing with her. In a way I think that actually helped me, my first event on the PGA TOUR, getting paired with Michelle Wie. There's so many people around, I think it was good for me to experience something like that right off the bat, and it gave me some confidence to realise that I handled it well and I made the cut and I didn't get overwhelmed by the situation.
So, yeah, I think it was definitely a good thing for me.

Q. And you beat her.
STEVE MARINO: I did beat her. And that's the main thing out here. (Laughter).

Q. Did you talk to her --
STEVE MARINO: No, but I asked her for a PlayStation three and she said she couldn't get me one.

Q. What did you do in your off-season?
STEVE MARINO: Pretty much just -- I bought a house down in Florida, so dealing with that, and just kind of hung out and took it easy. Took some time away from the game. My brother actually came down and stayed with me for probably three weeks or a month or so, so we just kind of hung out and took it easy. I took probably 2 to 3 weeks off of golf, and then I started playing with him a little bit.
Yeah, just really enjoyed my time off and just enjoyed myself.

Q. Where did you settle?
STEVE MARINO: Tequesta, Florida.

Q. Who is down in Tequesta? Is Olin down there?
STEVE MARINO: Olin is there, Will Mackenzie is there, Camilo is there, Richard Johnson is there, Jesper is there, a bunch of guys live right around there.

Q. What course do you play?
STEVE MARINO: The Dye Preserve.

Q. If we were only going to write about one shot, what would you like us to do?
STEVE MARINO: Probably my chip-in for par on 17 after I muffed it out of the bunker. I didn't get it on the green and I chipped it in for par.
You know, it's playing so tough out there --

Q. Right or left?
STEVE MARINO: Right bunker. It was playing so tough out there, I felt like I was playing pretty good, and I wasn't really getting much out of my round and I hit a poor tee shot on 17, and hit a decent bunker shot. It just didn't carry far enough, and you know when it lands in that bermuda, it just stops, and there's no chance of it bouncing out. I was right on the edge of the rough from the fringe and I chipped in for par, so I think that was a huge momentum saver for my round.

Q. The whole clan out this week?
STEVE MARINO: Yeah, my family is here, my mom, dad, brother. I think we are going to go to the north shore this afternoon and check out the waves. They are like 35 feet I hear.
DOUG MILNE: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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