SENIOR CLASSIC AT MESA VERDE : Early Bird Senior Tour Player Has a Heck of a Tournament : Golf: Floridian goes from merely hoping to qualify at Mesa Verde to placing fourth.

Marion Heck had shown up five minutes early for his tee time Monday at Yorba Linda Country Club--one of 101 golfers hoping to qualify for four spots in the Toshiba Senior Classic--when a PGA official walked up.

“He told me Billy Casper had dropped out and I was in,” said Heck, who finished 16th in the qualifying school last year. “I flew out here with every intention of having to qualify, so I felt very fortunate to be in the tournament.”

Then Heck found out that making the field meant having to play the Nos. 1 and 14 holes at Mesa Verde Country Club. And on Friday and Saturday, those two holes made Heck feel anything but lucky. After playing the 424-yard, par-four opening hole and the 440-yard, par-four No. 14 twice, he was a combined six-over-par on the two.

Sunday, Heck, 56, from Naples, Fla., parred both and said the seven-foot uphill putt he made at 14 was the key to his round.

Buoyed by that par-saver, Heck birdied three of the last four holes and shot a seven-under 63, his best round as a senior. He finished in fourth place and earned $48,000.

“This is as good as it gets for me,” said Heck, who made $110,097 last year and only $1,125 in 1993. “I was just trying to tell myself to stay cool, to just play it shot by shot. But this is really big-time for me. I’m broke.”

It isn’t just the money, either. Really. Heck thinks the confidence he gained this week could carry him to a lot of five-, even six-digit paychecks in the future.

“With the swing I have now, I can play with these guys,” Heck said. “I learned that this week. Of course, you’ve got to make your putts.”

Heck did that Sunday. He didn’t make a bogey and made seven birdies.

He knocked in a six-footer on No. 6 and then hit a three-iron to within 10 feet on the 175-yard, par-three ninth hole and made that putt. He put a five-iron four feet from the hole on the 169-yard, par-three No. 12 and dropped in his third birdie putt.

After sinking the par putt on his nemesis, Heck made a 12-foot birdie putt on 15, a 25-footer on 17 and a 14-foot downhill birdie putt on 18.

The birdie on 17 was “just lucky,” Heck said, but it was his iron play that carried him to his biggest paycheck as a professional. And the swing that enabled him to hit all but one fairway and all but two greens Sunday is only two weeks old.

“I was talking to Ed Griffiths (a teaching pro from Florida) after a local tournament back home and told him I needed some help,” Heck said. “He was the same guy who gave me my first professional lesson in 1961. He said, ‘Meet me on the practice tee at noon.’

“We left at seven that evening. Seven hours of whacking balls and working on my swing. And I really feel good right now.”

Heck didn’t need this kind of pressure. He had half-ownership of a Naples rib restaurant called Pete and Danny’s that he says was grossing $1.4 million a year. But he had time to play golf only a couple of times a week and had no time to practice.

His “limited” experience on the regular tour--he earned $20,098 during five years (1972-77)--and the gold mine available to today’s seniors was enough to convince him to sell his interest in the restaurant when he was 49 and head back to the practice range.

His best finish before Sunday was a tie for 13th at the Ameritech Senior Open last year. The high point of his career was a playoff victory over Tom Weiskopf in the 1962 U.S. Amateur Champion-ships.

“I’ve had my PGA card for 24 years but this is the highlight,” Heck said, standing outside the ESPN booth before an interview. “By the way, how do I get in there? Is that the door?

“I’ve never been there before, you know.”