Rocco Anthony Mediate (born December 17, 1962) is an American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who has won six times on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

and three times on the

PGA Tour Champions PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many years ...

. In the 2008 U.S. Open at

Torrey Pines South Course Torrey Pines Golf Course is a 36-hole municipal golf facility on the west coast of the United States, owned by the city of San Diego, California. It sits on the coastal cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the community of La Jolla, just south ...

, he finished runner-up after losing the first sudden-death hole after an 18-hole playoff to

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

. In

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, Mediate won the

Senior PGA Championship The Senior PGA Championship, established in 1937, is the oldest of the five major championships in men's senior golf. It is administered by the Professional Golfers' Association of America and is recognized as a major championship by both PGA ...

, one of the five senior majors.

Early years

Mediate was born in

Greensburg, Pennsylvania Greensburg is a city in and the county seat of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The city lies within the Laurel Highlands and the ecoregion of the Western Allegheny Plateau (ecoregion), W ...

. According to the

Golf Channel Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply Golf) is an American sports television television network, network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently ...

, he is the son of a barber and has Italian ancestral heritage. Mediate attended

Hempfield Area High School Hempfield Area High School is a high school for students in the Hempfield Township area of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. History On November 17, 1952, the Articles of Agreement of the Hempfield Area Joint Schools were adopted and work beg ...

. When he attended

Florida Southern College Florida Southern College (Florida Southern, Southern or FSC) is a private college in Lakeland, Florida. In 2019, the student population at FSC consisted of 3,073 students along with 130 full-time faculty members. The college offers 50 undergradu ...

, he was a member of the

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

team. His close friend

Lee Janzen Lee McLeod Janzen (born August 28, 1964) is an American professional golfer who is best known for winning the U.S. Open twice in 1993 and 1998. He currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions, and was an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour. Early y ...

, another

pro, also played there. They helped lead Florida Southern to the 1985 Division II national team championship.

Professional career

Mediate turned professional in 1985. His golfing career has been marred by back trouble. Early on, he compensated by using a long putter. In 1991 he became the first player to win on the

using a long putter when he won the

Doral-Ryder Open The Doral Open was a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in the southeastern United States. It was played annually for 45 seasons, from 1962 to 2006, on the "Blue Monster" course at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Doral, Florida, a suburb ...

. He picked up another victory at the 1993

KMart Greater Greensboro Open The Wyndham Championship is a professional golf tournament in North Carolina on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in Greensboro and was originally the Greater Greensboro Open. History Founded in 1938 as the Greater Greensboro Open, it was usua ...

, but he then had a long layoff due to a ruptured disk. He underwent major back surgery in 1999, but lost practically five years of his career. Back pain returned in 2004 and later nearly ended his career. Bio of Mediate
Gaylord Sports Mediate returned to the Tour in 1996 playing under a special medical extension and performed steadily. He picked up wins on the Tour in 1999, 2000 and 2002. After improving his fitness to minimize his back problems, he returned to using a conventional putter in 2003. Mediate has been featured in the top 20 of the

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

and considered to be one of the best putters in golf. At the 2006 Masters, Mediate was in contention to win the event on the final day until he took a septuple-bogey ten on the par-three 12th hole. His best finish in a major championship was a second-place showing at the 2008 U.S. Open at

. Tied with

at -1 after regular tournament play, then tied again at even par through the 18 hole playoff, Woods finally bested Mediate on the first hole (hole #7) of sudden death, the 91st hole of the tournament. It was only the third time a U.S. Open playoff had gone to sudden death. Mediate's performance gained him 111 spots in the world golf rankings, moving him from 158th to 47th place. Mediate earned his first win since 2002 at the 2010 Frys.com Open by beating

Bo Van Pelt Bo Van Pelt (born May 16, 1975) is an American professional golfer who has played on both the Nationwide Tour and the PGA Tour. He has featured in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Ranking. Van Pelt was born in Richmond, Indiana. He graduat ...

and

Alex Prugh Alexander Prugh (born September 1, 1984) is an American professional golfer who has played on the Web.com Tour and the PGA Tour. Early years Prugh was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. He attended Joel E. Ferris High School, where he was a ...

by one shot. During the tournament, Mediate holed out all four days. He started on Thursday, with a

hole-in-one In golf, a hole in one or hole-in-one (also known as an ace, mostly in American English) occurs when a ball hit from a tee to start a hole finishes in the cup. A ball hit from a tee following a lost ball, out-of-bounds, or water hazard is not a ho ...

on the 189 yard par-3 3rd hole. On Friday, he holed out from 160 yards on the par-4 4th hole for an eagle, followed on Saturday with a hole-out from 111 yards on the par-5 15th hole, also for eagle. On Sunday, he was tied for the lead on the 17th hole when he holed from 116 yards for eagle to take a two-shot lead. He parred the 18th to win the tournament. He also became the oldest wire-to-wire winner on the PGA Tour since at least 1970. Mediate has PGA Tour career earnings of over $16 million. Mediate joined the

Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many years ...

for 2013 after turning 50 and his exemption for his 2010 PGA Tour win ended. He won in his debut at the

Allianz Championship :''There was also a tournament by the same name now called the Principal Charity Classic'' The Boca Raton Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour Champions. Since 2007, it has been played at the Old Course at Broken Sound Club in Boca R ...

, the 16th Champions Tour player to do so. After shooting a 61 in the second round, he claimed victory by two strokes over

Bernhard Langer Bernhard Langer (; born 27 August 1957) is a German professional golfer. He is a two-time Masters champion and was one of the world's leading golfers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, he became the sport's first official number one ra ...

and

Tom Pernice Jr. Thomas Charles Pernice Jr. (born September 5, 1959) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He previously played on the PGA Tour, where he won two tournaments. Pernice was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He attende ...

with a birdie at the last hole. He won his second Champions Tour tournament that September, at the Shaw Charity Classic. Mediate finished seven strokes ahead of runner-up,

Tom Byrum } Thomas Elliott Byrum (born September 28, 1960) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions. Byrum was born in Onida, South Dakota. He attended the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University bef ...

. In May 2016, Mediate won his first senior major championship at the

, with a three-stroke victory over the defending champion

Colin Montgomerie Colin Stuart Montgomerie, Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 23 June 1963) is a Scotland, Scottish professional golfer. He has won a record eight European Tour PGA European Tour#Order of Merit winners, Order of Merit titles, including a stre ...

. His winning total of 265 (−19) broke the previous record by three and was the first wire-to-wire victory at the event since Jack Nicklaus in 1991. His victory was sealed when he holed out from a greenside bunker on the 71st hole of regulation play for birdie. On September 22, 2019, Mediate won the

Sanford International The Sanford International is a PGA Tour Champions event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at Minnehaha Country Club, making its debut in September 2018. The tournament is sponsored by Sanford Health. Steve Stricker won the inaugural event. Winners ...

on the PGA Tour Champions in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

Other activities

On October 9, 2006, it was announced that Mediate would become an on-course reporter for

The Golf Channel Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply Golf) is an American sports television network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently based out of NBC Sp ...

's 2007 PGA Tour coverage.

Personal life

Mediate is a distant cousin of

Puerto Rico Islanders Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to: Places *El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain *Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines *Puerto Colombia, Colombia *Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela *Puerto Galera, Orient ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player

Domenic Mediate Domenic Mediate (born June 1, 1982 in Sheridan, Wyoming) is a retired American soccer player who played for DC United in Major League Soccer and Puerto Rico Islanders of the USL First Division. Career College and amateur Mediate grew up in Sout ...

Professional wins (13)

PGA Tour wins (6)

PGA Tour playoff record (2–1)

Other wins (3)

Other playoff record (0–1)

PGA Tour Champions wins (4)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
WD = Withdrew
"T" = tied

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 8 (1991 PGA – 1993 PGA) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (four times)

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

¹Cancelled due to

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
WD = Withdrew
"T" = tied
NT = No Tournament

Senior major championships

Wins (1)

Results timeline

''Results not in chronological order before 2022.'' CUT = missed the halfway cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place
NT = No tournament due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

U.S. national team appearances

UBS Cup The UBS Cup was a team golf tournament contested by the United States and a team representing the "Rest of the World" which ran from 2001 to 2004. In 2001 and 2002 it was called the UBS Warburg Cup. Six golfers on each side had to be 50 or over, and ...

: 2003 (tie) *

Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge The Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge was an unofficial golf event held in November at the Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada. The tournament was a unique stroke play event, and, as the name suggests, pitted three teams, with three members per team, ...

(representing PGA Tour): 2000 (winners), 2008

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mediate, Rocco American male golfers Florida Southern Moccasins men's golfers PGA Tour golfers PGA Tour Champions golfers Winners of senior major golf championships Golfers from Pennsylvania Golfers from Florida American people of Italian descent People from Greensburg, Pennsylvania Sportspeople from Naples, Florida 1962 births Living people