CHUBB CLASSIC PRESENTED BY SERVPRO

February 17, 2024

Rocco Mediate

Tiburón Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. 1-under 71 today. Walk us through your round, particularly that back nine.

ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, came out nice. I didn't have any feel for the greens. They felt so slow. I didn't hit them long enough. Not that I would have made 100 birdies, but I had some opportunities. Hit it close on the first hole. Playing with Ernie now, it's awesome. I love it. Ernie is a great guy, so I'm always hitting first into most of the holes because they were way up there.

I hung in there. Kind of lost it a little bit, and then just slowly regained it, and all of a sudden, boom, it turned out good so far.

Q. How did in particular the final few holes and the birdie on 18, did that kind of rejuvenate you?

ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, the pitch on the par-5, 15, was silly. That kind of opened it up a little. But then I followed Ernie's ball into the next hole because he had a perfect little 9 in. Nice little 8, same place. Then just get through 17, it's so hard. Then 18, you need to make a -- it's not easy. I had a nasty little pitch into there. It was cool because it could have been silly around here with some of those pitches. The ball could have dropped into the bunker easy, but thank goodness it worked out.

It was a good day. I haven't been in this situation in quite some time, but it felt good. I never got in front of myself. It wasn't like, oh, my God. Even when I made double, I just missed by line by three or four yards, and that was that.

Q. Knowing you had the lead going into today, you haven't been in this situation for a while, and knowing we had weather coming tomorrow, was there a different mindset --

ROCCO MEDIATE: I think we all played like that's it, today is it. It very well might be. But I don't really want it to be. The nine holes tomorrow is kind of cool actually, 1 through 4, 14 through 18, because there's some things that can happen there. But the weather is supposed to just get, as you guys know, no good. But we'll do what they're going to do. Chubb does a great job, and we're lucky and happy to be here.

Q. If you don't get to play any golf tomorrow, how big was that birdie at 18?

ROCCO MEDIATE: Apparently -- I looked at the board because I didn't really see a board. You couldn't hardly -- I think there was one on 16 maybe, and every time I looked, I wasn't there. They were on something else.

I looked up an 18, and I saw that 9 was posted, and I was 9. I'm like, ooh, maybe if I knock this thing in somehow, and then I ended up -- yeah, I thought, one more would be nice. Even if we don't be done today, one more would be nice, be in there with Stephen tomorrow. I enjoy Stephen a lot.

Q. Take us through that pitch on 18, tight lie --

ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, it's just nasty. It's wet. It's like -- I'm reasonably decent at it, but it still doesn't matter. If you miss -- either way, either a little bladey or a little heavy, you look like a fool, and it happens. I had a nasty into the grain on 8 -- I mean, it looked like the grass was eating my shoes when I was standing there it was so grainy. I just tried to trap it, and I hit the ball first and it went 10 feet by, and it happens. It's easy to leave it there, too.

Q. The guy you're chasing, you said you enjoy Stephen?

ROCCO MEDIATE: Stephen is great. He's playing his absolute butt off the last couple years. He's good. He's also a good guy, good buddy.

Q. He learned to kind of close last year --

ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, he won the PLAYERS, too, if you think about it. But yeah, he strikes it so good. If he putts half decent, he's going to be there a lot. He's just good. Alker, same way. They're both in the same -- they're always going to be around. I'm trying to do that. It's good to start at 9-under.