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AT&T PEBBLE BEACH NATIONAL PRO-AM

February 10, 2011

Steve Marino

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA

DOUG MILNE: Steve, thanks for joining us for a few minutes. Great round today: 7-under, 65. If I looked at it correctly, your best rounds here. I think you played here twice before.
You had a good tournaments last year, T4 or something like that, so obviously this tournament is well-suited for you. Talk about the round today, and then we'll take a few questions.
STEVE MARINO: I just got off to a real good start. I was hitting fairways and lots of greens and gave myself a lot of looks on the first nine holes.
And then kind of hit a rough patch for a little bit in the middle of the round, but saved some nice pars.
Finished great with birdies on 6, 8, and 9.
DOUG MILNE: Okay. Questions.

Q. 7-under and to shoot 67 at Spyglass, how much more significant is that? Traditionally, as you know, it plays the hardest.
STEVE MARINO: Yeah, definitely it was pretty cool. That's my favorite course of the three. I think it's the hardest course of the three. Felt pretty good.
You've got to drive the ball well there; you've got to hit good iron shots. It's the longest 6,900 yard golf course ever. So it was a lot fun.
I just played great and made a few putts, and I'm just real thrilled about it.

Q. Did it play significantly short today? Because it's obviously firmer than normal for this time of year.
STEVE MARINO: Yeah, definitely played shorter than in years past. The fairways are a lot firmer. There were a number of holes where I was hitting irons in, like 9-irons and wedges, where I've hit hybrids and 3-woods in before.

Q. (No microphone.)
STEVE MARINO: Yeah, 16. It was a little downwind today. I remember in years past hitting a hybrid club in there, and we just hit driver over the trees and had a little 9-iron in there. So it was definitely different.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about your season so far? You had a great tournament at the Bob Hope, and maybe your motivation for the year.
STEVE MARINO: Uh-huh, yeah. It was actually the Sony, yeah. No, I just was excited about playing this year. I did not play well for the majority of last year; towards the end of the year last year I started to play a lot better.
I was just real excited to come out this year and start playing. Had a great tournament in Hawaii; had a pretty good tournament at the Hope; not so great in Torrey Pines. But I am just really excited to be playing good golf again, and I'm having fun out there. It's a blast.

Q. (No microphone.)
STEVE MARINO: Yeah, I wasn't driving it good and had a bad attitude and got down on myself and down on my golf. It wasn't fun like to normally is. So I kind of rekindled the fire, I guess, and just really started to enjoy myself a lot more this year and towards the end of last year.
That's the thing: this is a game; it's supposed to be fun. If you're not having fun, then it's going to be hard to play well. That's what was really missing last year was the enjoyment factor.

Q. You say you got down on yourself. Is that your normal personality?
STEVE MARINO: Yeah, you know, I'm pretty hard on myself sometimes. I think the year before I had a really good year, and things weren't coming to me as easily last year as they did the year before.
You know, I just kept working at it and working at it and wasn't seeing any results, and, you know, I just got down. I wasn't enjoying it. Kind of got in a downward spiral.
I mean, I wasn't playing terrible, but I wasn't playing the kind of golf that I wanted to play. Just took me a while to get out of it.

Q. Traditionally, this is an event where the veterans are the ones that people look at to do well. Just curious, has Dustin's success - and he's played here three, four times - has that given guys like yourself and younger guys hope, like, Hey, you can just come in here and win?
STEVE MARINO: Well, I think anybody in the field could come in here and win. I've never really had the mindset that because I'm not an older player or veteran that I can't come in here and win this tournament. I never even really thought about it, to be honest with you, until you just mentioned it.
Yeah, I think obviously Dustin loves this place. I don't know what he's doing today, but I would be surprised if he shot higher than 67.
Yeah, I don't know. It's definitely differently this year than years past because it's firm and fast. Like Pebble Beach is almost like the U.S. Open. It's kind of crazy. I mean, normally you're out there at Pebble trying to hit a wedge from 95 yards because you're worried about the spin; now you're worried about keeping it on the green because it's so firm.
So I think it's going to play out a little bit different this year and you're going to see a lot of different stuff.

Q. Is it in general going to make it harder to score? The scores look pretty good today.
STEVE MARINO: I would think it would be. Yes, as the week goes on and the greens -- I mean, they're going to have to put some water on 'em so they don't get crazy with 'em.
But I think it's going to be tougher. I haven't really seen the scores, but I played there yesterday and it was kind of scary, some of the holes.

Q. Anyone ever said in February they'll have to put water on the greens?
STEVE MARINO: I don't think so.

Q. How restless are you? You established yourself on Tour, but you're one of the more accomplished players to not have won. How close are you? How eager? Restless?
STEVE MARINO: I'm not really restless or eager. I've been close. I feel like I could win any tournament out here that I play. I just haven't won one yet.
I'm just going to keep playing golf and doing the best I can. One of these days I think I'll win one.
DOUG MILNE: All right, well, Steve, great playing. Keep it up. We look forward to having you back.
STEVE MARINO: All right thanks, guys.

End of FastScripts

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