Carrying the burden of history and the success of 13 wins in majors on one good leg yesterday at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, Tiger Woods outlasted a game Rocco Mediate, whose three main clubs were hope, prayer and a heart as big as the Pacific Ocean.
History, and the guy with one good leg and now 14 majors, won. Now Woods is one closer to Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 victories in majors.
And Mediate? Purists, those historians who only want golf royalty to win majors, will say Mediate just got in the way of the greatest golfer in the world. But realists will say Rocco Anthony Mediate made a name for himself so huge yesterday that whenever the name “Rocco” is mentioned, golf fans will remember his role in what arguably was one of the greatest U.S. Opens.
An avid Texas Hold'em player, Mediate knows that nothing sometimes is a pretty cool hand, and that's not saying that Mediate had nothing, not at all. And it's not saying that, at 45, he doesn't have a game good enough to win a major.
And who knows what might have been for this Western Pennsylvanian had Mediate been healthy all 22 years on tour, or all those years he battled a bad back?
“I got what I wanted, a chance to play the No. 1 player in the world, a chance to beat him with a putt at 18,” Mediate said after losing the playoff with a bogey to Woods' routine par on the 91st hole. “I just came up a little short. I'm a little disappointed. My heart is all over that golf course. I have nothing left.
“I told Tiger I wanted to go up against him one more time, one last time and in something big. I got my wish, and now I want to do it again.”
Mediate, who has never won a major and has won just five times in 22 years on tour, had a chance to put Woods away on the 90th hole. Leading by one stroke, Mediate saw his 15-foot birdie putt on 18 scoot by because there was no way he was going to lag a putt of destiny.
Mediate, who earned $810,000 for second, drew respect and high marks from Woods.
“He's not only one of the nicest guys, but people don't realize how much of a competitor he is,” Woods said. “He's finally healthy. And when Rocco's healthy, he's a hell of a player.”
Mediate said his driver arrived broken after his flight, and his new driver isn't quite the same.
“It gave me a few surprises,” Mediate said. “It seemed to draw a little more than I wanted to a few times, not blaming the club, but it was a little different.”
His overcooked shots went left, and that cost him the championship at the par-4 seventh, the 19th hole of the playoff, when he found the left fairway bunker with his drive.
What lingers now is Mediate's antics on the course, how he got Woods to smile, how his nervousness (“I make coffee nervous,” he said.) came in all forms of stretching, club moves, towel wiping, constant chirping. He wore a buckle with a huge peace sign on it Sunday. Yesterday, he wore a red shirt under a black sweater vest and swore he didn't know Tiger would wear red. When he was asked if Woods was taking too much time in order to slow him, he said, “I think it was just because I was intimidating him a little early.”
When he was given a drop after his ball hit against the grandstand at No. 7, his last hole, Mediate took the ball and feigned a toss toward the green. A fan yelled, “Throw it, Rocco.” Fans yelled his name all week. They yelled it all day yesterday. And he deserved every chant of “Let's go, Rocco. Let's go, Rocco.”
“It means a lot to all of us to hear fans cheer for him like that,” said friend Vince Monteparte, who lives in San Diego and was on the course with one of Mediate's college buddies, Steve Puertas. “This was the best week of his life, the best week of our lives to be here with him and experience it.”
Mediate failed to qualify for last year's U.S. Open at Oakmont, near his hometown of Greensburg, Pa. But he qualified for Torrey Pines.
It turned out to be Oakmont's loss and San Diego's gain.
