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DEL.ICIO.USRocky road for Rocco
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Augusta — If shouts of, “Way to go, Rocco! You’re on TV!” seemed like atypical background noise for a Masters Thursday, well, it’s not like Rocco Mediate was exuding confidence either at the start of the day. Or any day.
The late George Burns joked he began every morning by reading the obituaries. The punch line: “And if I’m not in there, then I have breakfast.”
Mediate begins every morning wondering if he’ll be able to step out of bed. The punch line: If his back doesn’t lock up, he’ll take at least momentary hold of a major.
A year ago, he followed a blur of back problems and flab issues by taking the first-round lead in the U.S. Open. A sixth-place finish secured a spot in this year’s Masters. That’s fortunate, because nothing he has done since was going to get him through the front gates Thursday.
He is winless since 2002. He has failed to even make the cut in four out of six tournaments this year. But he is becoming somewhat of a majors specialist. In Mediate’s first major since the Open, he fired a career-best 4-under-68 at Augusta National to rank second on the leaderboard.
From Mediate, dipped in sarcasm: “Oh yeah, I’m a big majors player. I scare the crap out of everybody. Like, ‘Oh no! He’s coming again!’ “
Hey, he’s upright again. Always a good start. In 1994, he had surgery for a ruptured disk and needed a special medical extension to return in 1996. He dropped about 60 pounds from a high of 260. (“I was big boned.”) He won a few events, but the back issues returned.
He tried chiropractors, acupuncture — everything short of incense and Yanni.
It got so bad one day in March 2004 that his back locked up while alone at home in Naples. After his first round at the Open, he recalled, “I have a trophy case in the house, but to take the pressure off, I kind of placed myself on the thing and no one was home for 3 hours. I was stuck, couldn’t move. Then I remember having to crawl up the stairs to bed.”
He took up Pilates, lost a few more pounds and improved. He now stretches every morning. “I wonder every morning,” he said. “I wake up and go, ‘OK, I’m good right now.’ It’s just how it is. I’ve come to those terms. I know, once it goes, it goes.
“If I would’ve lost my game because I lost my game, it would’ve been a different story. But I never lost my ability. My body was just saying, ‘You can’t do this any more.’ That’s why I was always very upbeat about playing golf.”
He stood upright in the minority Thursday. He didn’t bogey. “I would’ve taken 18 straights pars,” he said.
As it was, he hit par the first 10 holes, then birdied 11, 13, 14 and 15. “I made about a 10-, 15-footer on 11. You’re not supposed to do that. I actually kind of apologized to that hole as I left.”
As Mediate’s score dropped, more fans predictably started following him. Others probably just wondered what he was doing in the tournament. “I’d tell them to just look at last year’s U.S. Open and shut up,” he joked. “But you know, I wouldn’t blame them. I haven’t been playing a lot of golf. But it’s all been body related. Otherwise, I probably would’ve killed myself by now.”
He looked comfortable at Augusta, despite all of the course changes, and can’t understand the complaints from his fraternity members. “It’s their tournament, and if you don’t want to abide by what they do, then don’t come,” he said.
“The golf course may beat me. But I won’t let it beat me before I play.”
Now if he can just carry that aggressiveness into poker. Mediate played in the World Series of Poker last year. He finished about 600th. Or, as he prefers to put it, “I was in the top 10 percent of 6,000 [entries].”
He has become close friends with professional poker player and 2004 champion Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, who was in the gallery Thursday. Raymer tutors Mediate in poker. Mediate reciprocates in golf.
“I think he’s helped me more than I’ve helped him,” said Mediate.
When asked if a Masters upset would mean he wouldn’t have to play as much poker, Mediate said, “Actually, it would mean I could play more.”
And poker players get to sit.
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