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JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

July 10, 2010

Rocco Mediate

SILVIS, ILLINOIS

Q. Rocco, let's start with the double eagle, almost.
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah. That was close.

Q. What did you hit?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Just a nice hybrid shot from, I don't know how far I was, 230 or something. It almost went in.

Q. But you didn't use the hybrid at 7.
ROCCO MEDIATE: No. It was a 4-iron. It was a pretty shot, hit a little short of the hole and fell on the front edge. So it was really cool.

Q. And yet you're playing with a guy who makes nine birdies. You didn't even have the tee all day.
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah. Playing with a guy who's really, really good. He's going to be something. Drives it a long way. His wedge game is superb. He's got it figured out. He's getting healthier, too. I guess he's had some shoulder problems. Sweetheart of a guy.

Q. Besides 2 and 7 where is this course gettable today?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Well, you just have to put it in the fairways. The wind's a little different, not that much, but it is a little different. The greens are perfect and they're soft. These scores are going to happen. It's been a long time.

Q. Firm and fast in the fairways, but the greens still very receptive?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Not really firm. They're rolling out, but the greens are soft, being flat right to the hole.

Q. Just as soft as the last couple of days?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Pretty much. Maybe a touch firmer, but not much.

Q. How about your game, 64?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah. It was -- it's been a long time. I told the other day it's coming around. It's slowly coming around. I made a good putt on the last yesterday to get into today, so it's going okay.

Q. You think you've got yourself kind of back in it? You got a long way to go.
ROCCO MEDIATE: No, no, no. No, they're going to be 22 or 3. That's all I have. I would think. As good as Strick's playing, as good as Pauly's playing, they're going to be at least 20-some-odd.
I don't care about that. I'm just trying to get back on the horse, and so far so good.

Q. Keep riding.
ROCCO MEDIATE: Thanks.

Q. Fantastic morning for you. Can you talk about your day and nice round?
ROCCO MEDIATE: No, it was good. I'm just getting back on the horse here, and things are getting better and it's showing a little bit this week. It's nice to see some results, because I'm putting the work in for sure.

Q. A couple of eagles, a hole-in-one. Is it one of those days where things just go your way?
ROCCO MEDIATE: I hit it beautiful second to No. 2. I just turned right off the bunker, went up there three, four, five feet. And then the hole-in-one was a pretty 4-iron shot. Obviously it's lucky, but it just fell right over the front. It's been a long time since this happened.

Q. When you mentioned that, does it kind of help mentally when you're putting all that hard work in, is this kind of the light at the end of the tunnel?
ROCCO MEDIATE: It definitely helps, and finishing off the round, it's just we were talking, after the hole-in-one, it's like when you break serve in tennis, the next game's always the hardest.
So hit a good tee, made a good par on 8, 9. So you know, just I haven't been in this situation shooting a low score for a long, long time and it was fun to try to finish it off pretty darn solid, pretty darn solid. Almost made a couple more.

Q. You mentioned the next shot, next round, does that kind of play in that where you enter this one and then you follow it up with another one tomorrow?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah. I just want to drive it on the first fairway tomorrow and move on. I don't ever really think of anything forward. There might be storms coming they said inside, but it's going to be soft and there's going to be some low scores.

Q. Did you come out today thinking you were going to have an aggressive day from the get-go?
ROCCO MEDIATE: I'm just trying to get back in the game here, guys. I didn't know what to expect. I knew I'm swinging the club a lot better; I'm putting the ball a little bit better, and it showed the last three days.
Yesterday not so much. I was a little nervy yesterday, but today was solid all day pretty much. Made a few mistakes, but that's going to happen. 47, I make a little bit more mistakes.

Q. Your thoughts on the 59 and 60 on Thursday, does that give you confidence, does that say that's out there this week with the course?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Well, those rounds are few and far between. There's only four guys in the history of the world that have done that.
Like I said, I'm just trying to -- boring as it may sound, first fairway is the only thing I'm thinking about going into tomorrow and then adjusting to what I see after that.
Scores are low. Some tournaments you gotta come and shoot low scores to do good. This is one of them. It's because it's soft. If it was firm, it would be much more difficult because the greens would not be as holding.

Q. Much more difficult? They got wide fairways.
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, they got wide fairways, but if the rough's up a little bit, the greens are firm, you can't shoot the ball -- somebody's going -- not like ten shots harder, but it would be hard to shoot low, low scores like you've seen this week.

Q. Should this course be harder?
ROCCO MEDIATE: No, no.

Q. Why?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Some places, like other places we play, the membership or someone gets angry when we shoot low scores, but if you give us a soft golf course with perfect greens, we'll tear the grass off of places we tour. We're the best in what we do, you know.
So it's like you can't -- once you trick this golf course up, if it's soft like it is, it's going to get destroyed. That's nothing bad about the golf course. It's a receptive course. That's happening and that's what you can do. When it's soft, that's how it is.
So no, there's no reason to make it any harder. This week's a week where you gotta shoot a bunch of 66s or 7s to have a chance, and that's okay.

Q. 59s and 60s are kind of fun.
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah. Could you imagine if Strick, if he tied, if he shot 59, we could have just called the event, make them co-champions and we all left.

Q. Then you wouldn't have had your round today.
ROCCO MEDIATE: Right. You know what I mean. It was truly remarkable, a remarkable day.
I remember coming off the course, I played one of my better rounds of the year, because it's been a lousy year so far, I shot 4-under and I'm like, God, I'm really not that good anymore, am I. Getting beat by 8 the first day. As I said, these guys are good.

Q. You missed the main event to come here.
ROCCO MEDIATE: I haven't played -- I only played there one time. Takes too long. I'm not that patient. I can't sit there and wait. I gotta play.

Q. (Indiscernible).
ROCCO MEDIATE: You can't read me because I'm always moving, so I'm not going to give up any of my cards.

Q. How much do you reflect back on Torrey Pines?
ROCCO MEDIATE: It's just a great -- it was just a great week. It was a great Monday. It was what I wanted, you know. And he just obviously -- I don't know how he pulled it off after what I put on him the last seven or eight holes. I'm still shocked. But that's Tiger.
You know, obviously I'd love to have that trophy. That would have been the coolest thing ever, but you never know, I may have another shot at it. It's coming around. It's coming around. A lot of things have been going on. It's clearing up.

End of FastScripts

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