On Thursday last, Stephen Marino would have none of the talk that tomorrow’s second round of the Miccosukee Championship would be his most important of 2006.

Nevertheless, to Marino’s questioner, the up-against-the-wall premise made all the sense in the golf world.

To set the scene: Marino, 26, sat in 61st position on the Nationwide Tour money list entering the long season’s final full-field event. He matched par of 71 in the first round and sat one shot on the wrong side of the 36-hole cut line with a whole lot riding on the number he would post in the second. Marino only could afford to fall one spot on the money list if he hoped to wiggle into the elite, 62-player field at the Nationwide Tour Championship at The Houstonian two weeks hence and continue to dream impossible dreams.

But Marino simply did not see it that way. He said he viewed the season as a success, no matter the Miccosukee outcome. And he has valid reasons. Marino began the season in professional golf’s version of purgatory with the two ugliest words in the game -- "no status" -- attached to his name. Sure, the mini-tour avenues always remained open, but the third-year pro, who failed in the first stage of 2006 PGA TOUR Qualifying School by an agonizing stroke, had been there and done that.

“The last thing I wanted to do was play another season out there (on the mini-tours),’’ Marino said. “Missing in the first stage was tough to take. I lost some motivation and my attitude was bad. I had to do something to shake up things.’’

So Marino decided to take a calculated risk, opting to play in the dog-eat-dog Monday qualifying rounds for the Nationwide Tour, where 14 spots are available prior to each event; where players go home wanting unless they can go very low.

Stephen Marino currently ranks 54th on the Nationwide Tour money list. (Ehrmann/WireImage)

Positive returns were slow in coming, testing Marino’s patience and bank account. But persistence finally paid off and he tasted enough of them to reach the point where he was entering the second round in Miami last week.

“I’m guaranteed a place in the top 70 and I’m already through to the second stage,’’ Marino said Thursday evening. “I’m a lot better off than I was at this time last year and if something happens in Q-school I’ll have some status out here to fall back on.’’

No need. Marino took care of business Friday, shooting a timely and sweet six-birdie, one-bogey 66. He backed up that solid-gold performance with two more sub-70 rounds to grab a share of seventh place. The check for $15,533.33 was enough to move him into 54th place on the money ladder with $107,975.

That means his status issues are over for 2007. Marino can finish dead last in the Nationwide Tour Championship, bomb out in the second stage and he’ll still be a member a Nationwide Tour member next season. But he also can master the possibilities of what one magical week at the Nationwide Tour Championship might do for him. Should all his stars be aligned, he could squeeze into the Top 20 and earn playing privileges on the PGA TOUR in ’07.

That’s heady stuff for Marino, a player who grew up in Fairfax, Va., and attended the University of Virginia on a golf scholarship. Nevertheless few people had heard of him prior to 2006. Just how obscure was he?

Try finding a sentence on him in the 2006 Nationwide Tour guide. Go to PGATOUR.com and call up his profile.

His statistics and results are there if you do a little surfing. But the square where his mug shot should be is empty. It says: “photo not available.’’

What’s more, Marino was close to hitting rock bottom after failing in his first three attempts at Monday qualifying.

“I wasn’t getting it done and was being tested,’’ he said. “But I also knew I wasn’t playing my best, that my scores weren’t the best I had. I refused to get down on myself or re-think what I was doing. I stuck to my guns.’’

His luck started changing at the Henrico County Open in his native Virginia in mid-May. He birdied the last hole to make a playoff, where 12 players were vying for three spots. He was the last man in and turned that good fortune into a tie for 10th, automatically qualifying for the following week by finishing in the top 25. He followed a missed cut with another good Monday qualifying performance at Knoxville, where he finished tied for 11th.

“Those two tournaments got the ball rolling,’’ he said. But Marino wasn’t out of the woods until a tie for eighth in the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic in August provided him with status. He has not missed a cut since, although his results until last week were rather pedestrian.

“My caddy, Dan Padawer, joked about it, saying I should pretend I don’t have a card and play like I needed to top 25 every week,’’ he said. “But looking back it was a shot here or a shot there that was costing me.’’

Marino’s theory is borne out in fact. He played well enough in 2006 to finish fifth in the All-Around statistical category, which measures where a player ranks in every stat. That says he has game. “I guess it gets down to I knew this is where I belonged this season,’’ a satisfied Marino said. “And now I feel I’m as ready as I’ll ever be for anything, even Q-school.

“I think I’ve about seen it all. So I’m not losing sleep any more. I’m just going to go out and play. If I don’t make it, I’ll always have my status here to fall back on next year.’’