THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606040132
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 73 lines
Cox High School senior Ryan Marks isn't getting a run-of-the-mill graduation present this year. He's getting a new set of golf clubs.
And although it would seem as if a new set of clubs could only entice Marks away from his studies at Mississippi State University in the fall, the gift is highly appropriate for the 17-year-old who already has decided to make golf a career.
``I've already declared my major,'' Marks said.
The young golfer is enrolled in the Professional Golf Management program at Mississippi State, where he'll earn a degree in business administration. He also will learn everything about being a pro golfer from how to coach the sport to how to run a pro shop.
Becoming a part of the golf program at Mississippi State is a two-step process. First, a student must be accepted by the university and then he must be accepted into the golf program.
Marks, who says he might second-guess aspects of his golf game, has no doubts about deciding upon golf as a career before he's even entered the hallowed halls of academia.
``I might have questions about using an 8-iron or a 7-iron,'' he said, ``but not about this decision.''
It helps, he said, that his decision, as well as all his major choices in life have been supported by his mother, Heidi Marks, and his father, Judge Ronald Marks. With that kind of backing, he doesn't feel insecure at all in determining a career so early.
``Golf has been a pretty big part of my life,'' he said. ``It's not a hobby I could just walk away from.''
When he's not in school, Marks is playing golf, practicing on the driving range, attending summer tournaments and working in the pro shop at the Broad Bay Country Club. He does everything from collecting balls on the driving range to cleaning clubs in the bag room.
Marks, a better than B-average student at Cox, also likes to surf, but golf takes up so much of his time that surfing is mainly a relaxing change of pace when tournament season ends in the fall.
Although golf is a major part of his life now, Marks took up the sport only four years ago, in the summer before his freshman year of high school.
``My parents wanted me to choose a sport,'' he said. ``I was burned out on baseball, football and soccer, and I was pretty much sitting around the house.''
About that time, his father decided to take up golf again. Marks began playing with his dad and in no time, young Marks was addicted.
``Golf gets under your skin,'' he said. ``You get someone hooked on golf and you play it and play it and play it.''
Before too long, Marks was beating his dad as much as he was losing to him. He set his goal to make the Cox High School golf team. By his junior year, he was a team starter.
``And then my goal was to make a college golf team,'' he said.
That will have to wait until Marks tries out for the Mississippi State team in the fall. After that, his goal is to go on the Professional Golf Association tour. He knows it's a lofty aim, because only 1 percent of junior golfers ever qualify for the tour.
Marks ended his career at Cox, ranked 10th in the state in individual play. He had hoped the Cox golf team would win the Virginia High School League AAA Golf Championship, but that was a goal he couldn't achieve. Although Cox won the district and region in both of the years that Marks was a starter, the team lost the state title by a stroke in his junior year and by five strokes this year.
``I won't just say I play golf. I want to play successfully,'' Marks said. ``Second place is like the first loser.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
``I might have questions about using an 8-iron or a 7-iron, but not
about this decision,'' Ryan Marks says of entering the Professional
Golf Management program at Mississippi State. ``. . . It's not a
hobby I could just walk away from.'' by CNB