U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 12, 2008

Rocco Mediate

Q. Did it play as fair as everybody said?

ROCCO MEDIATE: Very fair. This golf course setup is perfect. It has been all week. It's good.

Q. There's been so much talk about the super pairing and everything, your thoughts about it and does it let you kind of fly under the radar and maybe play a little bit?

ROCCO MEDIATE: I kind of live under the radar, actually, so I'm used to that. No, I think it's great. I think it's great. It's the one, two, and three players and with what Tiger's gone through everyone's going crazy wondering what's going on. It looks like he's doing okay for how he's feeling.

I think it was great.

Q. What were your expectations?

ROCCO MEDIATE: It's hard to have expectations on the golf course like this. On a U.S. Open setup you got to go out and see what you got. It's one thing I love, tomorrow I get to go see what I got again and hopefully it's somewhere similar to this and this is just the greatest test there is. They set the golf course up perfect.

Q. How much tougher do you think conditions will get here this afternoon?

ROCCO MEDIATE: I don't know if it's supposed to -- well it's windier than it was when I teed off at 7:30, but I don't know how much it's supposed to blow.

But it's going to, the screws will tighten down all week and by Sunday this place will be unreal. But it will be fair. It will be fair.

Q. That's the word everyone used, is it a synonym for easier or not?

ROCCO MEDIATE: No, it's not easier. Couple guys were talking yesterday, one or two of the instructors, how guys are saying the course is easy. I haven't seen easy out here. There's not one hole out here where you can fall asleep. You just have to, you got to really work upon what you're doing and more so than any other event, I think. In my opinion. It's just, it's just you have to have a much tighter tolerances here or you're going to get ripped to pieces and I love that part about the U.S. Open. This is my favorite event, so.

Q. How do you assess where you are?

ROCCO MEDIATE: I'm ecstatic. It's day one. Anywhere around par for three or four days is going to be fine. Believe me, I don't know what the winning score is going to be, but when it all comes to the end it will be around par.

Q. Tiger's playing pretty well. How tough is it to play after taking that much time off?

ROCCO MEDIATE: I've been injured over the years and come back, but not obviously no one really knew. Everyone is watching him, everything he does, and he is the best player that ever walked on grass.

So, yeah, it's got to be really hard, but he's -- everyone asked me and my friends and said, is he still the favorite? Absolutely he's still the favorite. No disrespect to anybody else. But he's still the favorite. He's still the best player in the world. He has some rust going maybe, but if he shoots around par, even par, 1-under, 1-over, he'll be very happy.