Print this page  |  Close Window

By Dave Lagarde
PGATOUR.com Correspondent

SAN DIEGO, Ca. -- No telling how many times Marc Turnesa repeated his stock answer to the stock family and golf question during his rookie season on the Nationwide Tour in 2007.

Marc Turnesa

RELATED JOY

After a full season of talking about his famous relatives, Marc Turnesa finally made history of his own on Sunday with his victory at the Miccosukee Championship -- the final full-field event of the season on the Nationwide Tour.  • Complete story,  click here

"Yes,'' he would say patiently whenever someone would mention the Turnesas, a tribe of seven brothers, six of whom competed on the PGA TOUR while another won a pair of U.S. Amateurs, "it's really nice to have a pedigree in golf and the benefits that go with it. But anyone who really knows golf understands how difficult it is to be successful.''

Turnesa always politely but firmly followed with a rejoinder. "My aim is to make a name for myself,'' he'd say.

It took have-tournament, will-play Turnesa 29 events to carve out a significant niche on the Nationwide Tour. But he accomplished his mission Sunday, when the engraver etched his name on the trophy that goes to the winner of the Miccosukee Championship, the final full-field event of the season.

"This is good,'' Turnesa said hours after he turned a comfortable victory into a nerve-jangling one-shot win over David Mathis and Jon Mills by hitting his drive on the 72nd into a lake, necessitating a clutch up-and-down from a greenside bunker.

Good?

"Actually it's great,'' he said, catching himself seconds later and upping the octane on his descriptive adjective.

It's great when your break-through victory punches your ticket to the PGA TOUR in 2008 like Turnesa's did.

It's great when your professional portfolio is a little skimpy, with nothing more than a modicum of success on the Gateway Tour and a string of failures in the first stage of the PGA TOUR National Qualifying Tournament, like Turnesa's was.

It's great when you're in the lead down the stretch and feel comfortable, when you could think about winning and all its trappings between shots and then lock in like Turnesa did.

And it's especially great when your dad, Mike Turnesa, Jr., the head professional at Rockville Links on Long Island, serendipitously is in South Florida playing golf with some of his members. After an early morning round, Mike rushes over to watch you close the deal on the final nine holes.

Add it all up and it becomes the harmonic convergence of great.

Matter of fact, had Turnesa not held an airline ticket for passage from Miami to San Diego on Monday, he still would have made it to this week's $775,000 Nationwide Tour Championship at Barona finale without a hitch. That's how high he was flying following his first victory that answered so many questions players typically ask themselves when they move up a level in their profession.

Although Turnesa, 29, did not rush through the professional ranks, he felt he had enough game to compete on the Nationwide Tour. Winning so quickly, however, presented a much thornier inquiry.

That's the toughest one for a rookie who is learning golf courses and where to stay and eat, as well as how to travel on the Nationwide Tour. So Turnesa came up with a back-up plan before the start of the season. His goal was making the top 60 in order to maintain his status.

"I damn well better make the top 60,'' he said in March. "I know how this game works and I don't want to go backward.''

It became apparent in late September that Turnesa would meet the goal thanks mainly to three top-five finishes.

"That freed me up,'' he said.

Nevertheless he took a practical approach to the stretch run.

"To be honest I thought I probably needed one more year out here (on the Nationwide Tour),'' he said. "And I still might, but it won't be next year.''

Turnesa punctuated that sentence with a satisfied laugh. The late bloomer who fought so long and so hard in professional golf's hinterlands deserved the moment.

"It was a tough grind,'' he said.

But something special happened in 2006. Turnesa always had made cuts and money on the Gateway Tour, but, in his words, his game "stepped up big time'' last year. He posted 15 top-10 finishes, including nine in the top five, in 22 events. Although the winner's circle proved to be elusive, he earned over $100,000 and gained golf's most valuable commodity -- confidence.

"I hit it better and started making some putts,'' he said of his season. "And I started believing in myself.''

Turnesa carried that belief to q-school last fall. He sailed through the first stage for the first time and advanced to the finals by making the grade as co-medalist in stage two. He showed his mettle, bouncing back from an 11-over-par 83 in the first round with five successive sub-par efforts to finish tied for 46th and earn his Nationwide Tour card.

He had taken his biggest step. It's less than a year later and he has taken another, this one even bigger, insuring the Turnesa name can be found once again on the PGA TOUR.