MARCONI PENNSYLVANIA CLASSIC

September 23, 2001

Rocco Mediate

ROCCO MEDIATE: Almost good. Almost real good. It was good, though. It was fun. It was fun playing in front of everybody. A little more difficult than I thought, but it was fun.

ROCCO MEDIATE: A little more expectations, but it was good it was fun.

ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, all week, but I felt very calm today. That shot on 18, I was snickering to myself, which usually doesn't -- that was not the easiest of shots, but if you can't finish first, I guess second is okay.

ROCCO MEDIATE: Like, "What are you doing? You're not supposed to do that here." He just played tremendous golf. You've still got to try to make birdies, I birdied 10 and 11 but I just didn't get it close enough to the hole. I fanned a 9-iron on 12, trying to blast it back in there and just didn't get the ball close enough to the hole and didn't put any heat on him, not that it would have mattered. I had chances. Almost birdied 1, 2. Lipped out eagle on 3 -- who knows? But 1 and 2, I thought I made them both, caught the edges, and same with 3, caught the edge for eagle. So, who knows.

ROCCO MEDIATE: No. Because on this course, anything could happen. I hit a bunch of good shots, a few good shots here and there, but didn't make many good putts, though, really. You know, there's nothing -- I just didn't play good. Didn't get the ball close enough to the hole, most of the day.

ROCCO MEDIATE: It was the same thing. I got run over by two buzz saws this year. I played pretty good, both times and got waxed. But that's -- these guys are good. That's why they say it.

ROCCO MEDIATE: 8 got me a couple times, 14 got me once, 17 got me once, that's it, and 12 once. But it's easy to make 4s on those holes. One little slip-up and you're done. I hit a 4-wood on 3, 253 to the hole and I hit it about 20 feet and just missed and made birdie. 6, I hit a good drive and a 2-iron about 30 feet, again. Left it short, dead-in about a foot, from 225, 1228. 10, I hit a really nice 8-iron, a little cut 8-iron about ten feet and made that. 11, I made about a 6-footer. I hit a 52-degree wedge in there, pretty close. Then 18, did that silly stuff over the lake thing. That was a 2-iron, 225 yards. If it hits a little shorter where it did, it would have hit and came right back down that hill. It was close from getting close.

ROCCO MEDIATE: Who is that?

ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, I said, "The heck with you, they like me better." (Laughter.) He goes, "I know, I know." It was beautiful.

ROCCO MEDIATE: Probably 30 feet. It was nice to cozy that one up, though. I didn't feel like making another 4-footer, today. I was kind of kind of tired of doing that. But it was fun. It was good to hit that shot with a little bit riding on it, as far as my goal, which is THE TOUR Championship. If that shot goes in the lake, you know, it's bad. So it was a good shot to hit, and I'll put that in the memory bank.

ROCCO MEDIATE: No. I never hit it far enough to. But today I knew if I could get a little zip on one, I knew the line to take. You go up the right edge, it's a little firmer and it kicks it. That's exactly where I hit it. I went up to Pete and said, "I can reach the green now." He said, "How do you know?" I said, "Just trust me."

ROCCO MEDIATE: I go Vegas, Disney, Southern. That's it. And then hopefully TOUR Championship.

ROCCO MEDIATE: Callaway, Buick. Well Buick is Southern. Excuse me.

ROCCO MEDIATE: Well, they are hard, but those trees get in your way. I can go real vertical with clubs with no loft on it, so they don't bother me. But I would have had to go over the tree this time which would have been foolish. I wanted to go at the hole. I wasn't going to hit it to the middle of the green. I wanted to go at the hole. It's a hard shot, it's downhill, obviously sloping away with tree -- just misery. Especially where the pin was. If the pin is in the back, it's an easy shot.

ROCCO MEDIATE: I figured when I hit that ball where I hit it, and I knew where I was, I figured there wasn't many guys that knocked it on this green today, with the exception of maybe Daly or somebody like that. So I could hear -- when that ball was in the air, it was so cool, because they are going, "Get up, get down." It was like they were right there. I would like to have a tape of that. It would be neat to see that. I think it was exciting. It was a good show for them.

ROCCO MEDIATE: I don't know. He's solid. His whole game is solid. He putts good. He's a great iron player, great driver. Obviously, this week he was good at everything. He got up-and-down a few times today. The best shot he hit all week was on 13, the pitch from short of the green. You can have all the other ones. He chipped that out -- his next shot, the third. That was -- that was silly, how tough that was. He hit it up there two feet. That's what I told him, "All those other shot, no, this was better." I thought that was the most impressive shot I saw him hit and he hit a bunch of great shots.

ROCCO MEDIATE: For him. Absolutely. You don't know what happens, if he makes bogey there, who knows. The pin is up over this little hump and it's going into the tier there and then it goes away and it's perfect; I thought he made it. He was just very impressive.

ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, you hear it all the time, but there's nothing we can do but whatever the President does, whatever he tells us to do. The TOUR needed to get back to business, and so did everything else.

ROCCO MEDIATE: I am currently a Flex-Jet participant.

ROCCO MEDIATE: This year. January.

ROCCO MEDIATE: Absolutely. Absolutely. In our business, it's very affordable right now. It's expensive, but it's very affordable right now.

ROCCO MEDIATE: I pay -- well, per year -- I'll be happy to tell them. It doesn't matter. Per year, I play 206,000, 50 hours. But for the money I make it's, quite affordable. 50 hours.

ROCCO MEDIATE: There's a Lear 45 which is a spectacular airplane.

ROCCO MEDIATE: I probably need about 70 hours, but 50 is fine for now. I have extras -- a couple of my friends signed up . Between 70 and 80 hours would be ideal for me. It is expensive, but in relative terms, it's not. It's probably three times more than we would spend normally.

ROCCO MEDIATE: It might be harder. It might be harder to do. You could do it; give them the cash up front or lease the whole thing, which is pay by the month, which is what I do. A piece of cake. It's tough, you need to have -- it's like I tell everybody: "Don't do it until you can afford it." Get the best deal. Flex-Jet is the best, period, the Mercedes Benz. Lombardi has Mercedes Benz. Some of these guys jump on this other stuff that you hear about; the planes are 20 years old. The oldest plane is four years. Once they get five years old, they sell them. That's why they are five-year leases.