	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 25, 2015

Rocco Mediate

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Next on the podium, Rocco Mediate, he shot a 1 under, 69.

ROCCO MEDIATE: No, I didn't. I shot 2 over. If you want to give me the 1 under, as long as these guys tell me it's okay.

Q. Never supposed to let them see you sweat. Is that what your shirt says?
ROCCO MEDIATE: It's pretty warm out. It's nice. What do you guys want to hear here? This golf course is fantastic. It's one of my favorite setups I've seen in a long time. Whenever I see these letters, I like it anyway. I don't care what it is. You got to deal with it and play. But I love it. This place is fantastic.

Q. What about the setup?
ROCCO MEDIATE: I don't know how to say it. It's all perfect. The fairways are perfect. The rough's nasty, and that's how it's supposed to be. There are some areas on certain sides of the fairways that are less higher. If you miss, you could maybe sneak a good lie in a few yards off the fairway. I missed a few fairways by a few yards, and most of the time I was toast. That's what Opens are about. They weren't horrible tee shots. They were just kind of on the edge. If it moves one more yard left, or mostly left for me, they're on the fairway, but they weren't. That's the beauty of this. The fairways are plenty wide. The greens are absolutely fantastic.

Q. Nice conditions, obviously out there the best part of the day?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, early. I like heat. I don't care what it's going to be tomorrow. I like when it's hot. The ball goes further. Doesn't bother me.

Q. Drink more water?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah.

Q. Going into the weekend, do you think that tomorrow could be a chance for Tom --
ROCCO MEDIATE: Tom, how about him? How about Watson? He's unbelievable, always has been. He was right in front of us, so watched him make a lot of birdies.

Q. You think that you score well today, you score well going into the weekend, then maybe when you get to Saturday or Sunday, those scores, you can't get there because of the way the course is set up?
ROCCO MEDIATE: They'll tighten it down. If they do it like the regular Open, they keep turning the screw as it goes further, which is what you want to see. There's four days of this, so you never know. You never plan for that. My goal tomorrow is to drive my ball in the first fairway, or near it and then go from there. There's nothing else you can really do. I take it for what's in front of me. I don't think about what am I going to off No. 5 tomorrow? I don't know. When I get there, hopefully I'll know then. I think most of the guys that play and have played for a long time look at it that way. Yeah, we want to shoot under par, but you have to drive on the first fairway to start the day and go from there. It's kind of simple, but I love these setups. I love it. It makes you look good, and then if you hit some shots, bad shots or reasonably bad shots, you pay. I enjoy that part of golf.

Q. You mentioned Watson. He said he was grinding out a putt on No. 9, his last hole, to shoot his age, a 65. He wanted that so bad.
ROCCO MEDIATE: He's unbelievable. Nothing else to say about him. He's just something else. He's always been great. He's still great, and he's 65. It doesn't surprise me at all, but it's just amazing how he doesn't play a lot either. He just comes out every once in a while and plays pretty good most of the time. Cool to see.

Q. Rocco, how about Hale Irwin just posted even par?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Doesn't surprise me either. He's won three of them. So he knows how to play them anywhere. You've got a golf course that's moving a little bit. He's tough. I'm not surprised at all. At all. Goes to show how good the course is set up, though.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297