Are You Kidding Me?: The Story of Rocco Mediate's Extraordinary Battle With Tiger Woods at the US Open (19 page)

“I think he’d gotten used to me being there by then — not just to work on his back but being on the golf course, being the
one who started every day saying, ‘Hey, it’s going to be a great day,’ ” Cindi said. “I might be a little bit Pollyanna at
times, but I think he needed that, since he was so pessimistic so much of the time.”

Cindi was healthy enough to travel to Hilton Head in April. She had been counseling Rocco all through Florida to think about
going back to the conventional putter. “I didn’t think his problem had been putting,” she said. “He wasn’t hitting the ball
as crisply as he did when he was playing his best when we were on the West Coast. Plus, he had a lot on his mind. I think
that was it as much as anything.”

It was after the first round at Hilton Head that the long putter got shelved again. “I hit the ball great all day and I didn’t
make a thing,” Rocco said. “I shot three over [74] and I really should have been more like three under,” he said. “I think
I had 12 three-putts that day.”

That was a Rocco exaggeration but not by much. After the frustrating round was over, Rocco, Cindi, and Matt went to the putting
green. “I’m begging you,” Cindi said. “You’ve got that Sabertooth putter in Matt’s car. Try it. You can’t possibly get any
worse.”

Rocco agreed. He sent Matt out to the car for the putter. “I put five balls down from 10 feet and made all five of them,”
he said. “After that, it was a pretty easy decision. Of course the putting green and the golf course are two different things.

“First nine holes the next day I shot 31. Made everything I looked at. The back felt fine; it was no problem — which was especially
nice, since it was exactly a year ago I’d had to withdraw because of it. I knew I wasn’t going to putt like that every day,
but I just decided to stick with it for a while and see what would happen.”

He ended up shooting 65 on Friday, reversing what had been the norm for the year — good Thursday, bad Friday — and made the
cut with room to spare. He ended up in a tie for 36th place, nothing to throw a party over, but his best finish of the year.
“I was still inconsistent from tee to green at that point,” he said. “That’s always the key to my game. Even though I was
putting better, I wasn’t getting myself in position to shoot a low number as often as I would have liked. Still, I was starting
to feel as if I was pointed in the right direction. I knew, as long as I was healthy, that sooner or later I was going to
start to hit the ball better.”

He made three of the next four cuts but was spending the weekends eating what the pros call “rabbit food.” It’s a term players
use to describe those who tee off early on Saturday and Sunday — they’re good enough to make the cut, but not in serious contention,
meaning they aren’t going to be making the big money that leads to big steak dinners. Rocco was dining on a lot of carrots
and celery in the month of May but was glad that he at least had a seat at the weekend table. Still, when he arrived at Jack
Nicklaus’s tournament, the Memorial, in early June, the 36th place at Hilton Head was still his highest finish of the year.

“I think I had made about a hundred dollars all year,” he said.

In truth, he had made just under $120,000 in fifteen tournaments for the year, putting him in 178th place on the money list.

The week of the Memorial was an important one for Rocco. Muirfield Village, the Nicklaus-designed golf course that the Memorial
is played on, is one of the tougher layouts on the PGA Tour, which was usually good for Rocco. What’s more, on the Monday
after the tournament, he would be joining many of his fellow pros in the 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier that would be held on
two golf courses not far from Muirfield Village.

“I really wanted to make the Open,” he said. “I’d missed it the year before and I’d missed the cut the year before that at
Winged Foot. I had no excuses. I was healthy and there just wasn’t any reason for me not to play well enough to make it through
the qualifier. I knew it was a tough day, 36 holes is always tough, but I’d done it before and I knew I could do it again.

“The
last
thing I wanted to do was miss the cut and have to wait through the weekend to play on Monday. I thought I needed a good Memorial
to help my confidence
and
my checkbook going into the qualifier.”

On Tuesday, Frank Zoracki made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Greensburg to the Columbus suburbs to go over some business
issues with Rocco and to spend some time with him. Late in the day, the two of them sat on the stone wall that divides the
two levels of the putting green just outside the clubhouse, to relax for a few minutes before Zoracki made the drive home.

“I had a dream about you the other night,” Zoracki told Rocco.

“That’s a little bit scary, isn’t it?” Rocco answered.

Zoracki laughed. “I’d say so. In it I saw you holding a trophy, a big trophy. I think it’s a sign that something good is about
to happen. You’re going to start playing well.”

“Your dreams to God’s ears,” Rocco said.

The next day, Cindi flew in to spend the weekend and Monday. On Thursday and Friday, Rocco played solidly, shooting 70– 73,
which was one under par and put him in contention, since the scores, in windy weather, were high. The 36-hole lead was held
by Kenny Perry and Matthew Goggin at seven under par.

There was rain in the forecast for Saturday afternoon and the conditions were tough from the start. Still, that was no excuse
for the way Rocco played the front nine. “I was six over after 10 holes,” he said. “I was awful. I couldn’t hit the ball straight
and I couldn’t make a putt. If it hadn’t rained, I might have shot 100.”

But it did rain after he had parred the 11th hole. More important, there was lightning in the storm passing through, and the
players were pulled off the golf course. Rocco’s mood was at least as foul as the weather when he and Cindi were taken to
the clubhouse on a golf cart after the siren blew, signaling a delay.

“I cannot believe I’m playing like this,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”

“Calm down,” she said. “You aren’t that far off. You missed one or two shots. You make a few putts coming in and you’ll be
fine.”

“Are you kidding? I’m terrible. I can’t play at all.”

“I’m serious. Get over yourself. You’ve got more important things to worry about than missing a few putts today. Monday is
what matters. I think the way you’re playing right now, you’re going to make the Open on Monday.”

Rocco laughed mirthlessly. “The Open? The way I’m playing? I’m losing my mind out here, I’ve made a hundred dollars all year,
and you’re talking about me making the Open? You know, right now I don’t even care about the Open.”

“Well, I do,” she said. “And I think you’re going to make it.”

They rode in silence the rest of the way in.

During the delay, Tony Renaud, who runs the annual Skins Game that is played on Thanksgiving weekend, sat down at the table
where Rocco and Cindi were waiting out the rain.

“You know, Tony, Rocco could help your event,” Cindi said. “He has just the kind of personality that people enjoy in something
like that, especially since you mike the players.”

“Looking back, it was funny that she would bring it up,” Rocco said. “I mean, I hadn’t broken an egg all year. But you could
almost see something in his eyes, as if she’d planted a seed. If nothing else, it took my mind off how badly I’d been playing.”

He was in a better mood when the storm passed. “I don’t know if it was something she said or thinking about the Open or just
getting a chance to catch my breath,” he said. “All I know is I went out and birdied 12, 13, and 14 and made an eagle at 15.
All of a sudden I turn an 80-plus into a 74, which keeps me in the ball game. Life went from total darkness to seeing a light
in a couple of hours.”

The 74 allowed him to stay in position to finish well if he had a good round on Sunday. Because all the scoring was high,
he had dropped only from a tie for 11th place to a tie for 18th place. Goggin, the leader, was seven shots ahead of him, so
he probably wasn’t going to catch him. But a top ten finish was certainly possible.

“When you haven’t been in the top 30 all year, being in 18th place after three rounds, it feels as if you have a five-shot
lead on the field,” he said.

On Sunday he started well and played good golf all day. His three-under-par 69 was one of the lowest rounds of the day, and
he jumped from a tie for 18th to a tie for 6th when it was over. That was worth $201,000 — far more money than he had made
in his previous fifteen events combined — and vaulted him from 178th on the money list to 126th. All of that was nice, but
it wasn’t the most important thing that happened during the weekend.

“For the first time all year, I felt good about my game for more than just a day. The 69 was great, but being able to hang
in Saturday and make those putts on the back nine was just as important. It was the first time all year I had taken a bad
round and made it better rather than taking a bad round and making it worse. That was very important in terms of my mind-set
going into Monday.”

Regardless of his mind-set, Rocco knew without doubt that Monday was going to be a very long day.

E
ACH YEAR SEVERAL THOUSAND GOLFERS
pay $100 to enter the U.S. Open. Anyone who is a registered professional or an amateur with a handicap index of 1.4 or lower
can enter. In 2008, a total of 8,390 players entered the Open. The oldest entrant was seventy-nine, the youngest was twelve.
A few of them — seventy-two — were exempt into the championship itself. Several hundred more — including Rocco — were exempt
from the first round of local qualifying. The rest had to advance through local qualifying to the sectionals. In all, there
were 450 players competing in the sectionals for the remaining 84 spots.

Two of the sectional qualifiers are designated as “tour qualifiers.” These are sites near a tour stop — one is held on the
Monday after a tournament has just been held (in this case the Memorial); the other is held on Tuesday just prior to the next
tournament (which was in Memphis). Because there are more spots available at the tour qualifiers, they attract the most players
and, naturally, the toughest fields.

In the case of Columbus, a total of 140 players were entered, vying for 23 spots in the Open field. Among those entered were
players like Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Chad Campbell (who would go on to make the Ryder Cup team), Jesper Parnevik, and
Kenny Perry, who withdrew after winning the day before at the Memorial. The players were split up onto two golf courses, playing
18 holes on one course in the morning, breaking briefly for lunch, and then switching courses for the afternoon. The lunch
break was usually no more than thirty minutes because it was assumed there would be a playoff for the final spots at the end
of the day and the hope was to finish before dark.

Early in the day it didn’t look as if Rocco was going to have to worry about a playoff or making hotel reservations for San
Diego.

“First nine holes I hit eight greens and I was two over par,” he said. “I couldn’t make anything. I was giving away shots
and I was getting more and more frustrated by the hole.”

Cindi was frustrated too — with Rocco. She thought he was talking himself out of playing well, that he was getting so down
on himself every time he missed a putt that he was making it impossible to get something going.

“After nine holes, she was so angry with me she was ready to leave,” he said. “I remember her saying, ‘I’m going to leave
you alone for a while; we’re not good for one another right now.’ I didn’t believe her, but she took off. Instead of walking
with me, she ran up ahead.”

There are no ropes at qualifiers and almost no spectators. Cindi had been walking in the fairway with Rocco and Matt during
the first nine holes.

“I got it up and down for par at the 10th and then I caught up with her on the 11th tee and I said, ‘I don’t like this. Would
you please walk with me?’ She said okay, and I birdied 11. After that, things went a lot better.”

He managed to get through the first 18 holes on the tougher of the two layouts, Ohio State’s Scarlet course, with a one-over-par
72, which put him back in the pack but still in contention. He was calmer in the afternoon, grinding his way around, playing
a bogeyless round at Brookside Golf and Country Club. Even so, he knew coming down the stretch that he was right around the
qualifying number. “Everyone was saying 140 was the number, so I figured it would take 139 to play off,” he said. “Any time
you hear a number in those things, you have to figure it’s going to be one or two shots lower than that. You don’t figure
that, you’re in trouble.”

He birdied the 17th hole to get to four under par for the afternoon and for the day (the golf courses were par 71–72) and
tried valiantly to birdie 18, figuring that would give him a safety net. But his birdie putt from twenty feet swerved low,
and he signed for 139.

Then he waited.

“That may be the toughest thing about qualifiers — the waiting,” he said. “You finish and then you stand there around the
scoreboard and you see guys come in. Anyone smiling, you know that’s bad news for you. You see guys you know and ask them
how they did, and they say, ‘Eight under,’ and you say, ‘Great!’ and you’re happy for them, but inside you’re dying because
that’s one less spot for you.”

Rocco had finished more than two hours before the last group would finish. That meant he and Cindi and Matt had to wait. Rocco
decided to go sit in the car.

“He was sulking,” Cindi said. “He was feeling sorry for himself. At one point Matt, who was sick, said, ‘I’m going to go into
the clubhouse and get some water.’ Rocco said, ‘I don’t need any water.’ I looked at him and said, ‘Did it ever occur to you
that
Matt
might need some water, Mr. I’m-the-Only-One-on-Earth?’ He was a little better after that.”

When the 132 players who made it through all 36 holes were finished, Rocco’s analysis proved to be exactly right: Carl Pettersson,
a fine tour player, was the medalist at 131. In all, sixteen players had shot 138 or better, and they were all being handed
paperwork to take with them as they headed for their cars — and San Diego. There were eleven players tied at 139 and seven
spots still available. That meant a playoff — eleven players vying for seven spots in the Open.