Rocco Mediate is 54 and has a damn good golf résumé that he is still building. He's won six times on the PGA Tour and three times on the PGA Tour Champions, with his latest victory coming at the 2016 Senior PGA Championship. He has four top-ten major finishes and peaked at No. 12 in the World Golf Rankings.

But of course, even nine years later, his 2008 U.S. Open playoff duel with Tiger Woods remains a defining moment.

"I'm still feeling the impact," Mediate says. "People talk about it every day and it's cool. I get questions a lot. We were just trying to kill each other out there. We didn't know the impact it had on the sport. And that was in '08. I still get questions every day unless I'm sitting in the house. I don't ask myself the questions."

In 2008 at Torrey Pines, Mediate opened as the No. 159 player in the world. He had not actually played a round at a major since the 2006 U.S. Open and had not made a cut since the 2006 Masters. But four solid rounds put Mediate in the clubhouse at -1 Sunday, finishing one group ahead of Woods and Lee Westwood. A birdie by Woods on the par-5 18th hole forced an 18-hole playoff on Monday.

Woods jumped out to a three-stroke lead through ten holes, but by No. 15, Mediate held a one-shot lead. For the second straight day, Woods tied Mediate with a birdie on No. 18. Woods then closed Mediate out in a 19th hole sudden-death playoff for Woods' last major championship to date.


If all that drama was not enough, Woods spent much of the tournament, especially Monday, hobbling up and down the course. After coming in second to Trevor Immelman at the Masters in April, Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. The U.S. Open was his first tournament back and would be his last tournament of the year. Woods later revealed that he suffered a double stress fracture of the left tibia during his rehab. Right after winning the U.S. Open, Woods underwent surgery on his ACL and then rehabbed both injuries. "I knew that something special was happening right when Tiger had decided that he was going to play on a broken leg with a torn ACL," then-swing coach Hank Haney said in 2009.

"We really don't know what happened then," Mediate says now with a smile.

Mediate claims he and Woods were "buddies" at the time and kept things loose that Monday.

"We talked the whole day. He's just a normal guy. He was just better than everybody else."

Wood and Mediate were paired again at Torrey Pines for the first two rounds of the 2011 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Woods finished tied for 44th, and Mediate missed the cut.

Rocco Mediate, Tiger Woods

Mediate notes that although he's been back to Torrey Pines multiple times since 2008, the course is "never gonna be the same" and is "set up differently." The U.S. Open returns to La Jolla in 2021.

By then, he will be 58, and unless he wins the 2020 U.S. Senior Open at Newport Country Club, it will be hard to see Mediate landing himself in the field. Instead, he will watch the younger crop of players, who, he sometimes does not understand.

"There's too many people around the players," Mediate says. "I don't like that at all. They've got their conditioning coach, they've got their chiropractor, they've got their psychologist, their nutritionist. Just play golf and just stop it. Just stop it. It's changed. I'm not saying they're wrong, but it's weird to me."

So who did Mediate have around him during his prime?

"Nobody, just me. My caddie, myself. I'd work with Rick Smith a lot, but he was out once every four months. You don't need babysitters. These kids like babysitters. I don't like them. And it works. They're playing great, but I could never have that many people around me all the time."

Sitting with Mediate for a few minutes, there is one part of his wardrobe that cannot be ignored. In bold red letters on his official on-course attire reads the word, "TRUMP." Mediate previously wore Donald Trump's brand on his sleeve, but the text recently moved to the front of the shirt.

"I don't have to," Mediate says of representing Trump. "I choose to. I met President Trump in '08. I asked him, I said why don't I wear the Trump name on my shirt because I get to hang out at his golf course. I'm not a member at any of them. But if I want to go play them, I can go play them and hang around. I can go to the hotels and stay there. He doesn't per say give me anything to do this. I did it just as a favor. He doesn't need anybody to do that, but I felt like I give something back because I can go to anywhere I want, at his golf courses and practice and play and hang out with the members and everything else, but never a member or a membership, it's just, I can go hang."

Mediate says Trump's election to the Oval Office has not affected his frequency of using Trump golf courses in greater or lesser amounts, and he calls the non-monetary partnership "a lot of fun."

In May, when the Senior PGA Championship came to Trump National Golf Club-Washington, D.C., Mediate, as the reigning championship, was part of a promotional photo shoot in the Washington, D.C. area. He wore the Trump name for photos in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol. Mediate has also said that Trump called him during his 2016 Senior PGA Championship title run to wish him good luck.

John Daly, Rocco Mediate

Mediate spoke to ThePostGame at The Golf Club at Chelsea Piers on behalf of Osteo Bi-Flex, one of his (paid) sponsors. In his older age, Mediate says he has taken to Pilates and using a VersaClimber. About a year ago, Mediate starting "testing" Osteo Bi-Flex, a joint health supplement. He now uses the product regularly and says his movement feels "smoother." He also wears the brand's name on his hat.


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