Game plan won't change for co-leaders Marino, Goydos

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Paul Goydos, nicknamed "Sunshine" by his friends, is hoping to capture his third PGA TOUR win on Sunday.

Aug. 29, 2009
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- The last time Steve Marino won a golf tournament was in 2006 when he shot a third-round 59 and went on to take a 10-stroke victory in the Stanley Frank Memorial on the Gateway Tour.

"It was awesome," Marino recalled Saturday evening, his eyes bugging wide at the memory of a $60,000 that must have seemed like $6 million to the mini-tour whiz kid.

The stakes are considerably higher on Sunday, though, when Marino and Paul Goydos take the lead into the final round The Barclays at Liberty National. The two are 9 under and two ahead of their nearest competition, Webb Simpson and Fredrik Jacobson.

Both Marino and Goydos have a chance to vault into second in the standings after the first event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. A win would be Marino's first on TOUR and the third of Goydos' career.

Take a look a little further down the leaderboard, though, and the challenges are many.

World No. 1 Tiger Woods is five strokes off the pace -- a deficit he's already successfully made up once this year in his five wins. Steve Stricker, who ranks second to Woods in the FedExCup standings, and Zach Johnson, who is third, are also within five strokes. So is three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, to name a few.

Given the caliber of the players giving chase, wouldn't Marino and Goydos be tempted to look over their shoulders? At least at Mr. Woods, who finally got untracked with a 67 on Saturday?

"First of all, he's going to be in front of me, not behind me," Goydos said in his own droll style. "So I'll be looking straight ahead."

Marino agrees. He knows he can't control what Woods, who has won two of his last three starts, does. He'll expect only Woods' best, as well as his Sunday red, and move on.

"I'm sure he's probably going to play pretty well tomorrow," Marino said. "He always seems to play well on Sundays. ... I can only control what I do and I feel like if I play well, being five ahead of him, I shouldn't really have to worry about him if I play well."

The sun -- that big yellow orb that has taken a vacation this week -- is expected to return to Jersey City on Sunday. The temperatures will heat up but Liberty National, which has taken about an inch-and-a-half of rain over the last two days, will still be long and wet.

Compounding the challenge will be winds expected to top out at roughly 25 mph. Liberty National was built on a toxic waste dump and trees that were planted three years ago -- even the most mature ones -- won't exactly provide much of a defense.

"You have to be careful what to take what this golf course gives you each day," said Goydos, who has done that better than most this week.

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Will Steve Marino win his first PGA TOUR event at The Barclays?

Marino knows he's got the moxie if not the pedigree -- yet. He lost in a playoff at the Crowne Plaza Invitational in May, the second runner-up finish of his career. He held the lead at the midway point of the 138th Open Championship at Turnberry, as well.

Marino ranks first in putting this week which means he has a handle on the vexing greens at Liberty National. He's made a total of 15 birdies and he's avoided the big numbers that have others shaking their heads.

If Sunday brings more of the same, and he knows that it must for him to succeed, the Virginia grad feels like he should be in pretty good shape. He doesn't plan to start playing defense and try to protect the three-shot lead.

"If you start to change, it's like a basketball game where they have got a 25 point lead in the fourth quarter and they start playing not to lose instead of continuing to play the way they kept playing," Marino said. "That's when things start going bad -- when you change it up, when you're not doing the same things that you were doing."

Goydos, a two-time winner on TOUR, has more experience than Marino, but his goal for the final round is the same. The 45-year-old has been working with Jamie Mulligan and Pat Burke, a former PGA TOUR pro, and the results have been solid, if not spectacular -- yet -- this year.

Goydos had a chance to win the Valero Texas Open but his game deserted him for the final two holes. And at Memphis, where Brian Gay went on one of his patented runs. Kenny Perry "gave a clinic on how to win a golf tournament" at Hartford, Goydos said.

That's three top-four finishes in the last four months, a rank of 49th in the FedExCup and another $1 million season for the single dad. Goydos has heeded the counsel of Mulligan and Burke, who have taught the man people call "Sunshine" to trust himself.

"I'm just feeling pretty comfortable with where my game is," Goydos said. "I think I'm more knowledgeable about myself than I've ever been before. ... I think that in the long run hopefully it will lead to better golf."

So when he steps to the first tee at Liberty National at 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, Goydos will be taking a similar approach to Marino. They won't have blinders on exactly, but they are confident in the way they are playing and eager to see if they are equal to the test.

"Everybody is here to win the golf tournament. Just because you're playing with, you know, Tiger Woods or Paul Goydos, what difference does it make?" Marino said. "You've got to go out there and you've got to play your own game and you've got to do your own thing, and it shouldn't matter who you're playing with or what golf course you're playing or how much money you're playing for.

"All those things are outside pressures that sometimes they do affect you, but if you think about it, why should they; because you are just trying to go out there and play golf the best that you can. "