Chris DiMarco went into the players' locker room at Augusta National Golf Club just a little loud and proud Tuesday morning.

Chris DiMarco, playing in his sixth Masters, pitches up to the eighth green during practice. (Michael Holahan/Staff)

"How about that orange and blue?" he boasted.

There was an audience of only one to hear him, but Davis Love III smiled.

DiMarco wore a blue polo shirt and orange sweater vest in honor of his Florida Gators' winning the NCAA basketball tournament Monday night.

His celebration was not on par with his joy for the old alma mater. He was in bed at 12:30 a.m.

"Not as hard as I would have liked to have celebrated, I can promise you that," DiMarco said. "I wish I was in Gainesville, but obviously there's a very important event going on this week here."

DiMarco returns for his sixth appearance at the Masters Tournament after a strong showing in 2005. He beat everyone in the field by seven shots, except Tiger Woods.

That's the story of his career. DiMarco has only three PGA Tour wins on his rsum.

"Chris has been there in a bunch of tournaments, and just unfortunately, guys have come up with the goods at the wrong time for him," said Woods, who beat him on the first hole of a playoff here last year. "That's not saying that Chris has played poorly. It's just that he's been there enough times when guys have just played better."

DiMarco was also in the final pairing in 2004, getting a front-row seat for Phil Mickelson's first major tournament breakthrough.

His Masters history is good: He has finished in the top 10 in three of his five appearances.

Chris DiMarco follows his drive off the 9 tee during Tuesday's practice round. (Michael Holahan/Staff)

"It's one of those courses that just fits my eye," he said.

But he has played in only six PGA Tour events this year. He is 71st on the money list and has missed two cuts. His best finish was a tie for ninth place at the WGC-Match Play Championship.

His lone highlight was a January win at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship on the European Tour.

He's been bothered by an injury he suffered skiing in March and didn't play any golf for more than two weeks because of a pulled rib muscle. Last week's BellSouth Classic was his first event in almost a month.

There's precedent to say inactivity shouldn't matter to him. He arrived last year having missed the cut at The Players Championship and skipping the BellSouth because of the rain that backed up the tournament.

"The only difference being, I'm a little bit more rusty here obviously with my injury not playing golf for about 17 days," he said."

The rib now bothers him only when he tries to sleep and wasn't a factor in his missed cut last week at the BellSouth.

"It's a non-issue now," DiMarco said. And really the biggest problem last week was my foot. My foot started hurting because I was putting so much pressure on that side of my body and I kind of got tendinitis in my foot a little bit. I've got rid of that since then. I feel like I am 90, 95 percent, and hopefully by Thursday I will be 100 percent."

Reach Jeff Sentell at (706) 823-3425 or jeff.sentell@augustachronicle.com.