	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

AT&T NATIONAL

July 1, 2008

Rocco Mediate

BETHESDA, MARYLAND

NELSON SILVERIO: Welcome, Rocco, to the AT&T National media center. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us. Get us started by chatting about the last couple weeks for you.
ROCCO MEDIATE: It's been fun and it's been insane and it's been amazing, actually. There's really nothing else to say. It's just been unbelievable. People have been remarkable, all because of our host that's missing this week, unfortunately. It's been a lot of fun and I don't know what else to say.
I still don't even know what the heck's going on but it's a lot of fun and I'm trying to do my best to do the right thing for all this. I wish he was here. I wish he wasn't hurt but he'll be fine, I'm sure.

Q. Of all the things that's happened to you, what do you think is the most interesting or the most surprising to you?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Fan reaction. Went to CVS the week after the Open, last Monday and Tuesday, a week ago yesterday -- or what is today, Tuesday? It's unbelievable, I don't know how else to explain it. Yelling and screaming; it's funny. But I've enjoyed it.
Last week at the Buick, it was unbelievable. A lot of people are coming out to watch, which is really cool. It's cool. They just wanted a match and that's what happened, they had a really good match.

Q. The reaction that you've gotten, is there one that stands out --
ROCCO MEDIATE: I think the thing is as big as the U.S. Open now, and as many people watching television and Tiger, it all adds up to everybody sees it.
The coolest thing that happened in the remarks that I've got is hundreds of remarks and it's because of both us of us, not just me. They hate this and that, we couldn't believe, or that "my sister hates golf and she watched the whole thing, we couldn't believe it, we couldn't stop watching it." And because of not just me, maybe because a 45-year-old is up against the man, but still it's the power that he brings to the game is just remarkable. I knew it was huge, but this is amazing. I think that's the coolest thing and a lot of people that didn't watch or care about the came or certainly didn't know who I was, these people that came -- everybody knows Tiger whether you play golf or not, but they say: "We watched it and put it on our computers and we did that." I can't believe it. It's amazing.
It was definitely my most enjoyable day on the golf course, ever, was Monday.

Q. Have you watched a tape of it?
ROCCO MEDIATE: I've watched some of the tape. I haven't watched the whole thing from start to finish. It's hard to believe, you don't realize what you're doing until you're done and some of the feelings you have over those shots, and he's done it all the time. He's done it 14 times and this was my first attempt at winning one. It was cool.
Like I said, you've got the taste. No matter what I go through the rest of my career, and I think I can do that again; whether I win or not, I think I can do one of those again, nothing will ever compare to the feelings that I had. Because how do you get anymore intense when you're playing for the National Championship against the best player that ever played? There's not much more you can do.
So it's going to make it a little easier -- not easy, but easier if I get into that situation again; I'll hang in there and know that next time I can do it whether it's him again or whoever it is. I would love to have that opportunity with him again on Sunday afternoon. I think it would be cool, win or lose.
And I know what you guys will say about that. And I'm not angry about it, but of course you would expect me to get beat up. I think the only one that didn't expect me to get beat up is me, and a few other people.

Q. Did it seem strange to be going on Leno?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, it did. There was a comment made on the 17th hole, I think it was Saturday. I had a birdie putt, like a 20- or 25-footer, and it was really quiet and the guy said to me, I don't know who it was, a fan yelled out, "Tiger Who!"
And I went, "Tiger, the 2008 U.S. Open Champion." Did we forget that he won? You have to keep telling people that, because he's the U.S. Open Champion; I'm the runner-up. I made it an interesting day, but I got beat. That's what I keep trying to tell people; it's just respect.
I love what's happened. It been a lot of fun. I'm glad that it was a great day and a great match, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. I would assume he did, too, especially being that he won.
And I just keep reminding people that this is the greatest thing in the world, and I love that challenge. But you know, it was a runner-up. I don't have the big beautiful trophy. I have a beautiful little medal, which is fine. If you would have said I would have had a chance to win at the beginning of the week, I would have said, okay, I'll take that.

Q. In the interim when he's out, I don't want to call you colorful but --
ROCCO MEDIATE: I know what you're saying, colorful. Go ahead, you can say it.

Q. Somebody has to help carry things along here. Do you feel like you can be one of those guys?
ROCCO MEDIATE: I hope so. That's a big -- no one can -- I don't know how to react to that. There's no one that can fill his shoes, especially me.
Is it more interesting that more people want to see and how it turns out? Absolutely. I said before, the TOUR is doing just fine, but it certainly is not the same without him on these golf courses.
There's two majors coming up and several tournaments that he would have played in. The difference in those majors -- I would have loved to have a chance to win those majors. But the difference in those majors is you do not have to look him in the eye and play him. That's different, because you know he's going to be somewhere around there at the end like he always is, or so he would have been.
It's going to be a different feeling. It's not going to take away from it. But if I had the opportunity, I would have wanted to have that opportunity on Sunday every single time with him, whether I ever win or not. Chances are I won't, but you never know, like I said, there's that one time that you could win and you could, whatever.
I think that the whole thing, you know, I've gotten lots of jokes about his knee, and you did this and you did that, that I didn't take funny at all. Actually it made me kind of angry, because what happened to him is quite serious. And I'm sure he'll be fine. The surgery was last week or so I guess, and he'll be back stronger than ever hopefully, because we need him, it's bottom line, it's just as simple as that.

Q. You've become sort of an iconic "every man" in the aftermath.
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah.

Q. Is it becoming tedious or do you kind of get it?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Oh, I definitely get it. It's a whole new learning experience for me. It's a whole new game for me. People are watching closer. They are expecting more.
And one thing I've learned over watching through all these years is I'm not changing a thing. Like I said, the only thing I did different over last two weeks is I played really good in a really big tournament. That's the only thing that's happened different, and I proved to myself that I can hang and my golf swing works under the most intensive situations. That's not why I lost. I lost because I played him. I lost because he played better, and I blinked first on the first playoff hole, and it was over, quick, after 91 holes.
So, yeah, it's definitely a learning experience, and it takes time. It's amazing. Like Tiger's whole life and the guys that have won majors, multiple majors, it's hard to do. But especially now that it's getting so big and he brings so much that people want to watch, so all of a sudden everybody sees it.
I still am amazed at the turnout, amazed.

Q. What is it about your past or about you that allows you to take an experience like this, for some people, which would just be heartbreaking, and turn it around and be happy in the experience?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Because we talked -- I'll tell you the whole story and you guys -- this is going to embarrass her, you can talk to Cindy (Hilfman) about this, too.
The long story short is a couple three weeks ago, maybe during Memorial, we were talking -- Cindy and I were talking, and I told her, I said, you know, I just want -- and I had not played good at all yet this year. I had made a couple cuts in a row and I think my best finish was 36th at Harbour Town. So it's not like I was doing anything that anybody was waiting for me to do something.
But as we talked -- I think I told this story last week at the Buick, and it is quite interesting. At the beginning of the year, I came out, and I was expecting to do well and ready to do well and it just was not good. I was hitting the ball well. I wasn't making a score at all. I couldn't do anything. And I remember she me, she goes, "Well, let's try to make some cuts first. Let's go back to the beginning."
"I can't do that! I've been out here 23 years! I should be able to win!"
"Well, you haven't made any cuts. So how are you expecting to do that?"
So I started from the beginning and made a few cuts, very frustrated finished 50th, 60th, 58th, whatever, horrible.
Then Harbour Town happened. We changed the putter from a long putter back to the Sabertooth now that I'm using and that was her idea, and I birdied the first five holes I played with at Harbour Town and I putted with it like ten minutes the day before. So that came into play; I started to putt better.
Then Muirfield came, and I said just before I finish this PGA TOUR stuff, I want another shot at playing with Tiger in a big moment, somewhere, whether it's the AT&T, U.S. Open, who cares what it is. But playing with Tiger at my tournament on Sunday afternoon trying to win is a big moment. And I wanted to do that.
And of course the U.S. Open is my favorite event, and that would be the ultimate thing. And I played good at Muirfield and then I had to go qualify for the Open; and I'm tired and I'm miserable, and she kept telling me, "You're going to make it; you're going to qualify; you're going to qualify." And I did qualify; I got into a playoff.
As the week went on, I went home and came out to San Diego/L.A. early, and we kept talking about it, and all of a sudden, it happened. I got the chance. You don't really get what you want most of the time, and I wanted to see what I had against him again, and boy, did I ever get to see; and the biggest stage in the history of the world in a playoff. It's just you can't draw this up, because we just talked about it three weeks before.
You're not thinking it's ever going to happen, because it would have been great to have that. I wanted to play with him on Sunday and I missed. I had a chance to birdie the last and I didn't, and if I did, I would have got in that final group, I think. Anyway, whatever. I didn't get to play with him Sunday and I was disappointed because I wanted to see what happened.
All of the sudden I post a number and he ties and I got what I wanted. I would have liked to make another birdie, of course, but I didn't. I got what I wanted, I got a chance to go up against him head-to-head, and it was the most fun I've ever had. Nervy, very nervy, I've never been in that situation, and neither has he in a playoff; but he's won 13 of them before that. So he was a little more comfy than I was, for sure.
I don't know that everybody expected me -- alls I wanted to do was win. When I woke up, I said, I know if I shoot from 69 to 72, I've got a shot at this guy, because it's a U.S. Open golf course. Didn't have to shoot 65. And obviously it was 71. 70 would have done it, if 71 tied, which was amazing.
So I knew that I could do that. I knew that he could not stop me from shooting a score -- and I always have said that about us. Nobody can stop you from making a score. It's only you that can stop you. Do you think I'm going to let this opportunity fall away? I wasn't going to do it.
And at times, it looked -- I really didn't play -- I made a couple stupid little mistakes, 9 and 10, and all of a sudden I'm toast. Still U.S. Open course, let's keep hitting good shots and from then on I didn't miss and I got to 1-up.
I think everybody in the world was going: Holy crap, what did he just do? I felt comfortable there. I hit good shots after that. Hit a bad tee shot on 18 and tried to hit a hard draw; and I did, and it just drew too much. I knew I was going to have to make a birdie, and I knew I was going to have to try to reach that green in two because I knew he would. And he hit a drive to the tune of 320, and he's standing there with a 4-iron and not going to mess it up. You never stand there wondering if he's going to make it. You never think he's going to hit it in the water. He did hit it 35 feet from the hole, and I thought he would hit it in there close and make eagle and I'm done.
You know, I'm looking at it that way. Anybody else, you never know, but not him.

Q. How has all of the added attention since the Open made it more difficult to focus on golf? Obviously you played in the Buick last week.
ROCCO MEDIATE: Believe it or not last week, I was tired but I really played pretty good. I was surprised. I hit the ball pretty good. First day, I don't know what happened the first day, I don't remember. I shot 71. I still don't know how I did it. But I made a few putts and hit it okay.
And the next couple of days it got better and Sunday I just threw away -- I missed a bunch of putts on the back nine to shoot a good score, and it wasn't -- it's just how it is. I was surprised. And I remember Zinger told me, he goes, "Look, you're going to go Buick next week, it's going to be crazy, it's going to be tough to play. Don't worry if you shoot bad scores. Write that week off because it's going to be hard."
I had never been there. I said to myself, "I don't want that to happen." At least make the cut and play four days and keep the momentum because I had made a few cuts in a row or however many because I wanted to come here because this is one of my favorite courses in the whole world, a U.S. Open golf course here.
So that's how it changed. You've got to do -- they want to know how you play. The funniest thing I saw I was telling Steve Rintoul, one of our officials, Friday morning, USA Today said, "Mediate struggles in first event back after U.S. Open runner-up finish." I thought that was funny because everybody's watching. I don't mind that. I don't mind having to do something. I don't mind that at all, but it is different.
By no means am I complaining, but it's a learning process, because I don't know how to say no most of the time; and I don't like to say no and I guess I'll have to. I don't know how Tiger does it. That's one of the things I respect most about him is how does he do it, I don't know.

Q. You seem to have one consistent personality, easygoing, great sense of humor, whether you're in competition or in here with us. Tiger is said to have two personalities: Behind the scenes, have a great since of humor and hangs with the guys, but when he gets inside the ropes, ice cold. Can you attest to that?
ROCCO MEDIATE: He was not ice cold when we played on Monday. It's like, I don't know how to explain it. It was very -- it's not that he's not ever cordial, but it wasn't as -- I don't know how to explain it. It was more of -- I don't know why that happened, but if you noticed and I watched it all, did he ever -- was there no fist-pump during the day? Not one. He made a lot of good putts, hit a lot of good shots. He made the putt on 18 from four and a half feet again to stay in. Sunday afternoon making that putt to tie, of course, I might have jumped in the lake, of course you're going to go crazy, because you miss, you lose. And that's where he thrives, he wants that ball; he wants that putt.
But on Monday, I could be wrong, but it was a different match, because it wasn't like -- I don't know how to explain it. But I am not Tiger's closest friend. I do not know him that well. I just always say hello to him and have talked to him for 10 or 11 years and he's always been nice to me, and I've always watched what he does and what he's up to. It just seemed to be a match that was just not normal, if you can ever say that. He had a chance a couple of times, which is fine, because I was waiting for it to happen. I knew he was going to do something, and he made a bunch of good putts and all of a sudden we both started playing really good on the back nine; and he made a mistake; and I did this and I made a mistake; and it was just back and forth.
Most Open playoffs, you know, everybody expected a 71 to 77; don't blame them. I don't know how -- the question before, I don't know how I could be angry. Of course I wanted to win. Of course, I wasn't angry, I was just a little, slightly disappointed that I had the should, but I had the shot the only shot I went over was the read on this putt because it fooled me, the 18-footer or whatever it was to beat him on the 90th hole. I read it inside-left and it moved left, and I hit it just like I wanted to. And even Zinger watched: "How did it go left? It never goes left." Well, it did that time, because when I watched the replay, it started just on the left edge and had speed.
How Tiger plays the game -- I was thinking over that putt, it was interesting because I had had time to think about it; when he hits a putt like that, for instance, he doesn't care what the next one is going to do, on any shot that he hits, most of us do care what we are going to have back; and therein lies the difference. He doesn't care about what's next. Some of us don't and some of us do.
I've said this before: "You waited your entire life for this opportunity, give it speed, hit it like he would." That's what I said and I did. It just went a little more -- it went the opposite way. And then I had the 3 1/2, 4-footer to stay alive, and that was the most nervous I've ever been on a golf course, ever. I accomplished everything except for making it go in.
So I really can't complain.

Q. How big of a deal would this be for to you win Tiger's tournament?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Now we're going to go crazy here, geez. It would be great. It's just as you all know, I've been a huge fan of his since he came out here, and I remember talking with his father a lot earlier in his career about it, and it's just funny how his dad called it, to the t, and back then, no one believed him.
I remember, I don't know when it was, years ago, I remember seeing him -- might have been at Augusta. I said, "It's funny how things turn out. "
He goes, "It sure is." I remember that. I think it was when he finished the Grand Slam after the four in a row -- you can call it whatever you want, but it's a Grand Slam. No one has ever held them all on the mantle at the same time.
Yeah, it would be an amazing honor. Yeah, of course it would; anything with his name on it.

Q. Has anybody approached you about being the unofficial host this week?
ROCCO MEDIATE: No. (Laughter).
Seriously, it was just like I said, I couldn't have asked for anything more except for one more shot on Sunday or one shot less on Monday.

Q. At the stage you're at, guys are trying to be competitive enough for the Champions Tour or to win a tournament along the way; does what happened at Torrey Pines change that for you, or are you at that position yet?
ROCCO MEDIATE: I want to do that again what I just did a couple weeks ago. I think I can do that again. That golf course was the longest we have ever played. I am not the longest who has ever played. It's all about precision and putting your ball where you're looking and putting okay.
You know, the Open is not about -- it's about everything, but you make two or three birdies a day, you're going to do great and that's about what I did, two, three, four a day.
Mike Davis set the golf course up for everybody to be able to compete, but on certain holes, the 18th hole became huge, because I reached it one day and it was a slightly helping wind and I had 245 to carry the lake, and that's a long way and I couldn't reach it. I had to change my attitude towards, 'I think I can.' I didn't, but I likened it to a tennis player hitting the ball up against the wall; it always comes back. You know that's how it is when you play Tiger. You know he's not going to hand you anything. You can't expect him to miss. You always expect him to do something like he does.

Q. You seem to understand the gravity of Tiger's surgery. Kenny Perry and other guys have had knee surgery; do you think that's a product of the strength involved in the game now, or do you have any theories on that?
ROCCO MEDIATE: What we do, no matter how technically perfect our golf swings are or whatever, it's still not natural. Things are going all over the place. Especially with his speed and strength. It just magnifies the problem.
I have a slight right knee problem, but I've had it for one year. I have a meniscus tear. It doesn't bother me because I don't put the stress on it like he does. So I may probably never have to get it touched. That's a simple one and a couple-week thing.
What he had to do the whole reconstruction, was it the ACL? Yeah, it's scary, I'm sure he wasn't like, 'la, la, we're going to surgery.' I read something that the doctors say it's not career-threatening. But obviously the surgery went great and he'll be back just as strong as ever.
You know, I said, they asked me, all my friends and a lot of the media guys asked me, who is the favorite. I said, well who do you think is the favorite at Torrey Pines?
Well, he hasn't played in ten weeks. So what? He's still the best player ever, do you think he was going to come unprepared? He was hurting, but that's what the guys who are the greatest at their sport do, they find way, way to get it done.
One of his interviews he said, "I got the W." Doesn't matter how. What I found out about playing that type of golf, maybe every week, but technique goes out the door; there's no time for it. You just try to get it done, no matter how you get it done, and no one's been better at it than him. He's got it done pretty and he's got it done ugly. A lot of guys can't do that.

Q. If you look back through his career, and you look at all of the close calls he's had and the guys who have really pushed him, Bob May, you, Rich Beem who actually clipped him, a lot of guys who were not at the top of the World Rankings; do you have a theory on that?
ROCCO MEDIATE: No. Alls I know is sometimes those things happen and you see what he did to all those things that happened. He doesn't care who's there. He's not going like, well, I should beat him, he's ranked 108th. He doesn't think like that.
He thinks: Well, if he's in a playoff with me, he must be doing something well because we're tied. So we have to do this again.

Q. More from the other end, not from his end, but from your end.
ROCCO MEDIATE: From my end, I'm just looking at the type of golf that has to be played there. If we are playing the San Diego Open, the Buick Invitational, forget it. I'm not going to put those scores up. Just not going to do it. I'm not going to shoot 20-under par there. But I look at it that way to when par means something, certain guys are in the tournament and they are not and it all about driving at the U.S. Open and putting the ball in the right spot, and I think that's what happened at some of those majors.
Augusta is totally different. What Chris did was amazing because he's the complete opposite player of Tiger. Tiger is the big, strong Tiger and then Chris is not. That was a different situation.
Bob May, same thing at Valhalla. That was not a long-playing golf course so it played different. It's hard to explain why. I'm just glad that the U.S. Open wasn't a sudden death playoff. I'm glad it was 18 holes, because I don't know why, it was just, you can't dream that scenario up any better. Like I said, win or lose, I couldn't believe that I got the chance to do that.

Q. What is it that makes Congressional such a special course to you, and how does it challenge your game? What does it do to stretch you?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Well, it's a total U.S. Open golf course, and I haven't seen the course yet, but I'm sure the rough is up like it was last year; and the greens are going to be firm and fast, I think, I don't know how much it's rained. It's all about the same thing as it was at Torrey. Greens won't be quite as fast and softer because it's rained, but I don't know what won last year -- K.J. was under pretty good, wasn't he? I don't remember.
But it's not about making nine birdies a day here. It's about making a fewer birdies and minimizing the mistakes and making it a championship golf course. That's why they are having it here in 2011.
I seriously love to play golf courses like that three times a month where par means something. We all might be completely crazy after a year of that, because it does wear. I never felt like I did for the last week after the Open being in contention, because it just -- you don't know what the heck's going on. But I think this kind of golf course, I love these more than the ones you've got to shoot 22-under par to win.
NELSON SILVERIO: Rocco, thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297