Player Profile - Rocco Mediate

This week’s player profile highlights the successful career of forty-seven year old Rocco Mediate. Born in the suburb of Greenburg near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to a family with Italian roots - Mediate showed an interest in golf from a young age. Developing his talent for golf further at Florida Southern College, he played frequently on the college golf team with classmate Lee Janzen, who also went on to enjoy a successful career on the PGA tour.

Mediate turned pro after college in 1985. Though a promising young player on the tour, the first few years of his career saw him plagued by constant back problems. By 1991 he had overcome this challenge, compensating by using a long putter, which he used to win his first championship that year at the Doral-Ryder Open – the first player to ever do so. Another victory came in 1993 at the K-Mart Greater Greensboro Open, but following this win Mediate ruptured a disc in his back which practically halted his career until 1999. With the support of the US PGA which granted him a medical dispensation to play in these challenging years, Mediate recovered and won again in 1999 at the Phoenix Open. The following year he continued his good form, claiming victory at the Buick Open, and again in 2002 at the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic.

In 2004, Mediate’s battle with back pain once again prevented him from competing, but he recovered fast and played consistently, almost beating Tiger Woods at the 2008 US Open in a sudden-death playoff. Though Woods was victorious, Mediate had the world number one on his toes for seven holes of the playoff. This weekend, Mediate was back in winning form when he won the Frys.com challenge. At the age of Forty-seven, he weathered the challenges of the course to win by a single stroke.

The career of Rocco Mediate serves as an example of courage and persistence. With constant physical injury threatening to end his career before it even began, Mediate proved that hard work and dedication can overcome the most trying of circumstances. Golf fans will look forward to seeing Rocco Mediate, one of the finest putters in golf, carving up many more courses as he competes on the US PGA Tour.