Mediate challenges U.S. Open, and himself
SAN DIEGO - You didn't need the sound. You could read his lips. This was Rocco Mediate, hitting his second at Torrey Pines' par-5 18th, a scary long shot across a fatal little pond just in front of the green.“Go!” Mediate is saying. “Go!”
Mediate, the man with the oft-sore back, found himself in an unfamiliar place Friday - contending already in the second round of the U.S. Open. To think he was leading by two earlier in the day, at 4-under. That melted away, and you wouldn't be surprised if the knowledgeable were saying, yep, there he goes, down the drain. You knew he wouldn't last. On a lovely, sunny breezy day on the cliffs above the Pacific, it was getting pretty hot. Maybe a little too hot for a guy who had won only four times in a 22-year career.
The shot did go. A nifty 3-wood from 240 yards that carried the pond and stopped about 20 feet from the pin. He was grinning.
“It was all I had, so thank goodness it came off,” said Mediate, a guy who likes to kid people, kid folks in the gallery, kid himself.
His try for the eagle stopped nearby, and he tapped in for a birdie and a par 71, and tied for the lead at 140. For a while.
(Of course, Tiger Woods was coming up from behind, showing no effects of the knee surgery, so would he. Would he birdie his last hole to tie? Well, yes, but it was the par-5 No. 9, no water, and he shot 68, but before he could claim the lead, there was Australia's Stuart Appleby, nearly butchering the 18th, pitching on to a distant 25 feet after laying up with his second. But he dropped the putt for a birdie and a 70 for a one-stroke lead at 139, over Mediate, Robert Karlsson, and Woods.)
“Looked like a hero for a minute,” Mediate said, chuckling about that bold 3-wood at the 18th. “It may make a difference for the week. You never know.”
Those who expected him to lay up and be content with what he could coax from the hole had to be surprised. It wouldn't be for lack of trying.
“Bet you didn't think I'd be back here, did you?” Mediate cracked to the media corps.
A summary of his round?
“I played as good a front nine as I could play,” he said. “I hit every fairway and a couple of greens, a couple of fringes. It's my favorite kind of golf. It's hard. Most of us are not machines, especially myself. I missed a few on the back nine and I had to pay.”
No one was really expecting to see Mediate in the picture, but he forced his way in with two birdies over his first four holes, on a wedge to 30 feet at No. 2, and a 5-iron to about 20 at No. 4. He's started straying coming in, the racked up three bogeys before the clutch birdie at the 18th.
There's something about the U.S. Open that brings out the best in Mediate. Or maybe it brings out the worst in others, leaving Mediate to shine with his street-fight with the course. He was fourth in 2001, tied for sixth in 2005, and most of his poor finishes can be tagged - bad back, see ya later. One of pro golf's all-time bad backs, even after extensive surgery and awesome rehabilitation, sometimes just wears out on him. The worst was in 1994 at Oakmont, near his hometown, Greensburg, Pa., and he was paired with his boyhood hero, Arnie Palmer, practically a neighbor. Palmer missed the cut, as expected. Mediate made it, then had to withdraw after the third round with pain so great he could barely walk.
“I like the fact that it's a driver's course,” Mediate was saying. “You got to put the ball in the fairway, unlike a lot of tournaments we play, where you're rewarded. I love these set-ups. It doesn't require eight birdies a day and 25-under-par to win.
“It's such a good examination of everything you got. Especially in your head.”
In his head, the examination finds much goodwill and laughter.
His very presence answered the question, “Can he play well enough to win a U.S. Open?” He's here, isn't he? the questioner concluded.
Maybe eight or 10 more tries at the Open, he said. He's 45 now, and felt like a grandfather in the qualifier at Columbus, which got him here.
Bogeys are part of the U.S. Open experience. Who deals with adversity best will be “right there,” as they say in golf. Not a sure winner, but in the hunt. Mediate has deal with adversity, with that celebrated back, the pain, and the laughter despite it.
“So if you're in position, if your physical part's doing fine,” he said, “it's the mental part you got to keep.
“So we'll see what I got starting tomorrow afternoon sometime.”
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