BOLTON, Mass. –– As a rookie, one of Laurence Maroney’s goals was to get better as a pass-catcher. Last year, it was to improve his blocking.

This year, fully healthy, the running back didn’t narrow his focus on one area of his game; he broadened it, to try and make himself an all-around better player.

“It wasn’t one thing that I focused on, I focused on everything,” the former first-round pick said yesterday before the start of the Patriots’ annual charity golf tournament. “This is the first time I had a chance to focus on everything and try to make me better as a whole instead of the pass (catching), the blocking.

“It let me focus on me as a whole. How can I get better as a whole? Can my speed get faster, can I get bigger, stronger, can I catch better, can I know the offense better?”

Time will tell how much Maroney was able to improve. It’s impossible to gauge during New England’s recently completed minicamp, as the players didn’t have pads on.

But as he enters his third season, Maroney seems ready to go. Unlike last year, when shoulder surgery limited his participation in the offseason workout program and training camp he’s been able to build on the foundation he feels he began laying last season, once he was healed from the groin injury that had him on the shelf for weeks four through six.

He finished the season on a high note, totaling 586 yards over New England’s last six games (including playoffs), and averaged 4.9 yards per carry.

“The good games I had toward the end of the season, (I’m going to) just try to build off them and try to have them all year this year,” Maroney said. “As long as I’m improving from year to year, that’s all I want to do. I don’t ever want to take a step back and I don’t want to do the same. I think I did a little bit better last year than I did the year before and I want to get better this year than I was last year, just keep going up.”

As he was at The International for golf and not football, Maroney was asked about his skill on the fairways, and he admitted that he’s no Tiger Woods.

“I’m going to let you know off the top: I cannot golf. I’m just here for the fun of it. I’m driving,” the golf cart, he said.

After the long-drive competition at the practice range, Maroney and Chad Jackson, likely his best friend on the team, spent several minutes trying to hit some straight shots. Jackson was more successful than Maroney, who whiffed more than once.

As he enjoys his six-week break until training camp begins next month, Maroney will head home to St. Louis to work out with locals who have also made it to the NFL.

After all the work he’s put in to this point, he can’t let it all go to waste.

“Dreading it,” Maroney said of training camp. “Training camp, I don’t care how in shape you are or how prepared you think you are, you can never be prepared for training camp.”

Harrison hits links

Rodney Harrison reclaimed the long-drive title he abdicated last year, outdistancing Stephen Gostkowski and Chris Hanson in the finals with a drive of 287 yards. Hanson had the longest shot of the day, 296 yards in the first round. Tom Brady, last year’s champion, didn’t arrive at the course in time to defend his title.

An avid golfer, Harrison was asked how he’d fare at Torrey Pines, the site of the U.S. Open this year, under difficult Open conditions. Dallas quarterback Tony Romo and a couple others took on the challenge of breaking 100 there last week: “I could break 100. I’d break 100. I’ve played it and I shot 83, 84, but that was before the rough and all the conditions. I could break it,” he repeated with a smile, as if to convince himself. Romo shot an 84.

smanza@projo.com