Are You Kidding Me?: The Story of Rocco Mediate's Extraordinary Battle With Tiger Woods at the US Open (29 page)

But Rocco was a big part of the story too, arguably the lead supporting actor. People wanted to know where in the heck he
had come from after playing so poorly all year prior to the Memorial, to know how his back felt, to hear his story about the
qualifier and laugh at his one-liners. While Woods was amazing America, Rocco was charming America.

“I just can’t begin to tell you guys how much fun I’m having out there,” he kept saying. “This has been an amazing experience.
I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

He was being honest. He was keenly aware of Woods’s record when leading going into the final day of a major. When someone
brought that up in the interview room, Rocco didn’t even wait for the question to be finished.

“When Tiger has a lead going into the final round, as you know…”

“He’s never lost.”

“Right.”

“Yeah, I know about all that.”

“How difficult…”

“It’s going to take a ridiculous round by one of us to beat him. If we can go out and shoot four or five under par, one of
us, you never know… But you can’t ever count on anything. It’s just you can’t really predict what is going to happen.

“But it’s not over yet. And I’m sure he’ll tell you the same thing. Because this is a U.S. Open course, and you just don’t
know what the heck is happening sometimes.

“But it will take a pretty spectacular round, it will take a perfect day, a perfectly clean day for me, with making five or
six birdies and no bogeys, to win this golf tournament. And that still might not do it. You never know. But it will take something
crazy.”

He also said — again — that he was disappointed not to play with Woods. “How many chances do you get to do that?” he said.
“Because he was in front of us, it was just exciting all day, it was just cool to be part of that.” He smiled. “Maybe he’ll
get to see me do something good tomorrow. You never know.”

Many in the media were skeptical about the notion that someone would actually want to play with Tiger in the final round.
Rocco was asked repeatedly to explain why he felt that way.

“Look, it’s the most, it’s the most difficult pairing, because there is so much going on,” he said. “He’s the best in the
game, so everybody is watching him and pulling for him.

“But I don’t understand why — I feel like he either brings out the worst in you, when he’s against you, or the best. And I’ve
loved playing with him, like I said, a handful of times over however long he’s been out here, ten, eleven years. And I’ve
played some of my best golf with him. And I love that fact. And nine times out of ten, yeah, he’s probably going to kick my
butt, but that one time is what you’re looking for. Because if you can, he’s one of those guys where you can say to, you know,
I can say to my boys, like when I beat him in Phoenix in ’99, when he was a couple years out, I can always tell my kids, ‘I
beat the best player in the world this week, guys.’ It doesn’t happen very often.”

He paused. “Actually, that’s the only time I can tell them that so far. I just want another chance to try to compete against
him. You want to see what you have. I don’t want to lose before I tee off. I know it’s easy to do that. But if I get beat,
I want to get beat going down there and fighting, just like he does. That’s what you want to do. You always want to be around
the best players. I haven’t been there that many times, but I loved it when I have been.”

Though not in the same twosome, he would get the chance to compete with Woods, the next day, with a U.S. Open at stake. That,
he thought, was a pretty good deal.

When Rand Jerris, the USGA press conference moderator, wrapped up the thirty-minute session, Rocco said the exact same thing
that he had said as he departed on Friday. “Thanks. Hopefully I’ll see you guys back here tomorrow.”

I
T WAS WELL AFTER EIGHT O’CLOCK
by the time Rocco finished in the interview room. Often, when players are in contention in a major on Saturday evening, they
will try to spend time on the range, hoping to find something that will make them a little better on Sunday and perhaps be
the difference between winning and losing.

Woods will frequently do this, even when he’s leading, sometimes staying on the range by himself until nightfall in his never-ending
search for perfection.

But none of the leaders went to the Torrey Pines range after finishing up on Saturday. Woods needed to get treatment for his
knee. Rocco — and everyone else — was exhausted, and the late finish hadn’t left very much daylight anyway.

Rocco, Cindi, and Steve Puertas headed straight back to the hotel room. The group had grown since the start of the week. Michael,
Cindi’s son, had driven down from Los Angeles, and a friend of Steve’s, Gary Dylewski, was also there, as was Vince Monteparte,
a boyhood friend of Rocco’s who lived in San Diego. Steve and Gary went back to Fleming’s to perform what had become the nightly
pickup ritual.

They all sat around eating and watching replays of the day. Once again they stayed up late so that sleeping in wouldn’t be
so difficult. The tee times were earlier the next day — NBC didn’t want as late a finish on a Sunday as on a Saturday — but
there would still be plenty of time to kill in the morning.

Even though his back nine had been shaky — two bogeys, a double bogey, and two birdies for a 38 — Rocco felt good about the
way he had played, buoyed in large part by the birdie at 17. “If I hadn’t gotten that late birdie after what happened at 13
and 15, I might have been a little down,” he said. “But I’d been able to bounce back and I was still right there. I knew how
tough Tiger was going to be to beat, but I also knew he was hurting and it was the U.S. Open. I had a chance. That was all
I could possibly ask for.”

He had arranged through a friend to get Cindi a media badge for the next day so she would be able to walk inside the ropes.
It hadn’t been that tough to follow his group the first two days, but on Saturday, as the crowds swelled, it had become more
difficult for her to get a clear view of what was going on. This would allow her to move around more easily and see what was
happening.

“I wanted to look like a reporter,” she said. “So I got a pen and carried it with me. The only problem, if anyone was looking
closely, was that I didn’t have anything to write on.”

Rocco slept well — better, actually, than he had thought he would. Perhaps not being in the lead helped. Even though he was
no longer under the radar, he still wasn’t the focus of most people’s attention — Woods was. No one really expected him to
win the next day with the exception of a handful of friends and family — and, increasingly, Rocco himself.

___

S
UNDAY WAS ONE OF THOSE
perfect San Diego days. Rocco and Cindi went back to Bruegger’s for a fourth straight day and then on to Starbucks again.
By the time they made the short drive to the golf course, the sun was shining brilliantly and there was just the hint of a
breeze. The cool weather would make for a fast golf course, but that was okay. The only real concern was the greens. Poa annua
greens, which grow best on the West Coast, tend to get bumpy after a lot of play on them. After a week of practice rounds
and three days of play without a hint of rain, they would be bumpy.

“It could come down to someone getting a lucky bounce or an unlucky bounce,” Rocco said to Cindi as he warmed up on the range.
As always, Cindi was standing on the range with him just in case he needed to have his back loosened up one more time before
he walked to the tee. As it turned out, there was no need. The back felt fine.

There are few places quieter than the range on the last day of a major, especially once the early groups have teed off and
their spots have been taken by the players who are in contention. In all there were thirteen players within six shots of Woods.
But while the most important thing at stake was the title, there were other things to play for too: The top 15 finishers automatically
qualified for the 2009 Open; the top eight qualified for the 2009 Masters. There was also a good deal of money on the table,
a total of $7.5 million in prize money.

Walk onto a range on a Thursday or a Friday at most tour stops, especially in the afternoon, and you might think you’ve blundered
into Cheers. In fact, Jeff Sluman, the 1988 PGA champion who is now on the Champions Tour, has been known to his friends as
Norm for years because when he walks onto a range everyone yells, “Slu!” in anticipation of him telling stories for the next
hour. “He’s the only man in golf who needs two hours to hit one bucket of balls,” his friend Jay Haas has often said of Sluman.

Rocco can be that way too. But not on Sunday, June 15 — Father’s Day to most of the country, U.S. Open Sunday to the golf
world. Like everyone else, he was quiet warming up, knowing he had a long day and a big job ahead of him. He was paired with
Geoff Ogilvy, like Appleby an Australian and someone whose Open pedigree was strong — he had won the championship two years
earlier, after Phil Mickelson’s epic 18th-hole collapse at Winged Foot.

“Loved the pairing,” Rocco said. “Geoff’s a good guy and a really good player. It was great.”

Understand, if Rocco had been paired with Ebenezer Scrooge (before his Christmas Eve dream), he would love the pairing. Rocco
can play with just about anyone, which is one reason why players enjoy being paired with him.

“He’s going to talk all day, but guys don’t mind,” Lee Janzen said. “They know that’s Rocco and they know he isn’t doing it
to get inside their heads or anything. He’s just being Rocco when he does it.”

Janzen was at the golf course early that day too. He had missed the cut but had stayed for the weekend. He was flying to Hartford
on the charter plane the tournament was sending the next day. He went out to the range early to work on some things before
the players still in contention got there. Once he finished his work, he left to spend some time with his fourteen-year-old
son, Connor, and a friend of Connor’s.

“I knew I was going to be too nervous to sit there and watch for the entire afternoon,” Janzen said. “So I made plans to do
stuff with the boys during the early part of the afternoon, and then I figured I would go back to the hotel and see how Rocco
was doing.”

By now, all of those who knew Rocco were completely caught up in what was happening outside San Diego. Tony and Donna, who
had moved into a new one-story house to make it easier for Donna to get around, didn’t invite anyone over to watch with them
that day.

“It would have been too nerve-racking,” Donna said. “Tony can never sit still when Rocco’s playing well. He has to get up
and walk around and talk as if Rocco can somehow hear him. ‘Come on, you need this putt,’ or ‘Make sure this one’s in the
fairway.’ He feels inhibited when people are there and it makes him more nervous.”

Frank Zoracki had planned a golf outing with friends in Michigan long before Rocco had even qualified for the Open. On Saturday
night he called Rocco to remind him about the dream he’d had in which Rocco had been holding a trophy. “Maybe both our dreams
are about to come true,” he said.

All of Rocco’s old golf buddies from boyhood and from Florida Southern had gathered in different places to watch the last
day. Logic told them that if their old pal finished in the top five, it would be a great week. But something else told them
that winning wasn’t out of the question. “That’s always been the thing with Rocc,” said Dave Lucas, his friend dating back
to when the two of them would be dropped at the golf course and not play golf. “When you think there’s no way he can do something,
he somehow finds a way to do it.”

Jim Ferree, watching with friends in Hilton Head, had that same feeling. “When Rocco was on the leader board on Thursday,
people were saying to me, ‘So your old student can still play a little, that’s nice,’ ” he said. “I told them not to be surprised
if he was still in contention on Sunday. I was looking at his golf swing. It certainly wasn’t the same swing I’d taught him,
but it had a lot of the basics. He’s had to adjust it through the years because of his back, but it’s still a very good golf
swing.”

In Naples, Rocco’s sons had invited friends over to watch their dad play that afternoon, his tee time not coming until 4:20
on the East Coast. Linda Mediate watched as her sons and their friends cheered her husband on and couldn’t help but feel bittersweet
about it all.

“I couldn’t help it,” she said. “A big part of me was thrilled because I knew he had dreamed of being in this situation —
especially at the Open — his whole life. We had talked about it for years. I was nervous the whole day because I wanted him
to do well. But I couldn’t help but feel sad that none of us was there with him — on Father’s Day. That part was tough.”

When Rocco had walked onto the 10th tee early on Thursday morning, there weren’t more than a couple of hundred people watching.
Now, as he and Ogilvy walked onto the first tee, every inch of available space was packed with people. Many had been there
for a while, jockeying for position to see Woods and Westwood, and would stay right there once Rocco and Ogilvy left the tee.
But many others wanted to see the kid from Greensburg.

“I think it was one of those deals where a lot of people were going to stay with me as long as I still had a chance,” Rocco
said. “That turned out to be quite a while.”

Nerves jangling, Rocco again managed to find the fairway on number one. It was the fourth straight day — the third with his
stomach in a knot at the start of the round — that he had found the fairway on his first hole.

In fact, his start was almost identical to Saturday’s. He hit the green with a six-iron at the first and made a routine par
— except that nothing was routine now. Then he hit a perfect three-wood once again at the second and an almost perfect seven-iron
to 10 feet. When the putt rolled in, it occurred to him that this was not going to be a day of simply trying to hang on to
make a good check. He had a chance to win.