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Thursday
May162013

Rocco On Tiger Signing His Photo: "That's just the way he conducts things. That's not him."

I finally got around to watching Rocco Mediate's appearance on Feherty and it was as much fun as you'd expect when you put two maniacs in a room in front of cameras.

Thankfully this clip of Mediate talking about asking Tiger to personalize a photo and pin sheet was posted online.

There's also a seven-minute outtake online where Rocco talks about the state of the game, the First Tee (genius but "where do they go"?), growing up on muni's and the worst rule in golf.

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Reader Comments (34)

We all realise that Tiger was in pain in that 2008 US Open playoff. But he won it, that was then, this is now, and you might think he could take on board that a relativeky journeyman player had a thrilling experience. And yet, all these years later, and with all the forgiveness he has received despite being proven to be a class-A jerk, he could not offer a few words from his pen to make that experience a happy memory for a friendly and happy opponent, who did not commit the indignity of beating him?

Wayto define meanness. His overriding characteristic. Roccos's unmeanly-told anecdote sums up for me what I have detested about this creature for so long.

What a very small creature it is. His place in the record books is assured. His place in the history books will be less forgiving.
05.16.2013 | Unregistered CommenterGhillie
chico, oh chico ... where do they go ...

Ghillie ... words fail me.
Well, at that time, Tiger was most likely too busy sexting bedside fantasies to his continental sized harem of bar maids and social climbers. Too busy being a "Playa" to jot down more than just his name for a lowly journeyman like Rocco.


FWIW, I've always thought that Rocco's always been a great measuring stick in terms of whether or not Player 'X' is an a-hole...or not?" Rocco's got no filter on his brain, and nary a mean bone.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered Commenterjohnnnycz
Tiger proves himself a classless winner. no surprise. look at the contrast with Nicklaus. or for that matter with Seve who could be a petulant loser but was pretty kind to his runner-up's. look at the comments he made to Nick Price at Lytham in '88 as an example.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterTed Ray's Pipe
Be interesting to see what the pros say after Tiger retires.

Seems the brotherhood of PGA players, like most sports, keeps quiet about what douches their opponents are.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterWeb Simpson
johnnycz
I don't know Rocco personally but I have seen behavior from him that would contradict your "nary a mean bone" compliment. Rocco seems.a lot like Trevino - when the camera's red light is on, they are the fun-loving, wisecracking "characters" that fans tend to love. Behind the scenes, not so much. I know of one incident where Rocco showed up in cargo shorts and flip flops - drunk - for the dinner/silent auction portion of a corporate charity event. He then "borrowed" two dozen Callaways from the pro shop the next day for the golf portion because he hadn't packed any in his golf bag. But he had no trouble cashing the sizeable 5 figure check. Or telling you how he admired Arnie's professionalism and tried to do the same.
Unfortunately, these types of stories are more the norm than the exception. I understand we all have our bad days, but c'mon, is it really that difficult to just be decent?
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterShady golf
Have the class to wear shoes for your interview, Rocco. No one wants to look at your feet.

And I love how he finds it a tough choice between being a U.S. Open champ and forgoing his week with Tiger. Really, Rocco?

And Feherty looks like a perfect idiot with those silly sideburns.

Otherwise, everything was ok, lol.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered Commenterfyg
So it should be called "Somewhere in Ireland, A Village is Missing a PERFECT Idiot"?

Fine. And he does, fyg.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterGhillie
To me Rocco's anecdote sheds light (or is another example of, actually) of 2 types of golf fans, and how these view TW. One camp says I don't care about the person, I care about the performance. This is very common in our society today. Sadly, winning does take care of everything, in sport, in business, in entertainment being nice, or classy is pretty far down the list of traits needed for success. The other side says I don't care how good you are, if you are a D-bag, or just generally a jerk then that is who you are and I'm not interested. Hard to make an argument that TW doesn't fall into this camp. The Rocco story is just the latest example. And this camp is fine too.

The problem becomes when someone from the "performance" camp wants to pretend they are from the "character" camp. I used to be this guy. "Tiger's not a jerk, he's driven and he needs to be this way to perform". That was me, I was soooo wrong. We understand not everyone is the same, some need quiet, some need a little fire, some need chatter to perform. And I also admit that what I (an outsider) see on TV and magazines is very likely not the whole picture, but it's normally all we get to see. I don't pal around with these guys, so I evaluate what I see: Stricker seems like a nice classy guy, I can root for him. Even Mickelson, with all the rumors, gives in depth (an also usually fairly self centered) answers to questions. Padraig is another, and these are part of the joy and entertainment for me, a viewer/consumer. Luke Donald, Adam Scott, Mike Weir, Matt Kuchar, etc.

But Tiger, and Sergio, come on....is it that hard to not be a pr*@k, You don't have to be insincere, or mister jovial, just don't make an effort to be mean.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterNC Phyllis
I want to see his interview with Faldo, and with Strange. Rocco, Trump, etc-pass.

I'll get around to the 2 when I quit erasing them.

BTW, just switched to TIVO as my DVR system- so far -I like it!
05.17.2013 | Unregistered Commenterdigsouth
I wonder if Tiger's attitude would be different now given what he has gone thru in his personal life.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterHP
Nice comments, NCPhyllis.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterChris
If it meant so much to him Rocco should have asked in person.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterJazzman
John Cook thinks Rocco is being too much of a Tiger bootlick.

I'm sorry, but the question and answer about losing to Tiger/beating someone else for the US Open are ridiculous.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterTighthead
Tiger's behavior is that of a near autistic man-child. Like the Jim Carrey character in "The Truman Show," he was raised in a totally artificial world to think he was the center of the universe, and his reactions to life outside golf are not unlike what Truman would go through after the scrim is punctured and he has to deal with the fact that the world is not what he always assumed. I'm sure his reaction to Rocco's story would be one of bafflement, thinking he did what he was asked, he signed the picture, what's the problem...? It's not so much that he's a pr*ck, but that he doesn't even seem to know what a pr*ck is. The distance he has from regular human interaction is almost frightening. Seems his gift of offending will just keep on giving, and yet he'll be simultaneously dumbfounded by why winning doesn't "take care of everything." Offensive as it is to those of us outside the scrim, I find his character fascinating -- in the way Oliver Sacks is fascinated, for instance, by a man who can genuinely mistake his wife for a hat... I can't see how this story can ever end well, but I also can see that it will always be capable of amazing... which is how I feel after hearing Rocco's story -- just amazed...
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterRLL
@RLL - your points are compelling. He probably doesn't know, or realize. Which is somewhat sad. If he's nearly devoid of these attributes, what else could he be missing? Does he ever experience joy, actual joy and contentment. Or better still: wonderment. Hard to say from my vantage point if what we see is armor or the core.

Either way, any dimwit of an agent would know that his marketability would skyrocket if he would move 10% toward civility. Take some acting classes if need be, ha!
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterNC Phyllis
Totally agree, Phyllis. Although I know it would be an impossibility, I'd give quite a lot to be let into his world to really see it, and if i could understand it, try and describe the truth in it, which I think could be both triumphantly happy and disappointingly sad, and yet utterly brilliant and maybe even do him some good. I genuinely think he's one of the most amazing athletes in history, and my guess is his real story could be an illuminating insight into the truths involved in winning -- which I know are not always pleasant, much to the surprise of what most people think.

I smile at your suggestion of acting classes, but only because I fear he'd come off as wooden as that presser in front of the blue curtain... <g>

What I'd like to have is a conversation out on the Privacy that would last as long as it needed to...
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterRLL
@RLL - from the glints we have seen of his private persona, I would believe that the conversation would be very uncomfortable for him. You can picture him fidgeting, changing the topic. Not sure that gear exists, maybe several Michelob Ultras first - maybe ask Sergio to spare a few.

I think you're right, the cost of winning is high, some get away with less due to immense talent. The cost of long term winning is very high, the cost of generational dominance is hard to contemplate, let alone solve for.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterNC Phyllis
Agree again, Phyllis. And to take it one step further, I would bet that, like a lot of highly successful creative people, he'd think that even acknowledging that gear might jeopardize his ability to skip over it on the way to the higher gear required to do what he does in order to accomplish what he's accomplished.

And I empathize with that. I acknowledge that it isn't superstition, as it's sometimes called in great athletes, but rather an almost inhuman capability that winning on the highest of high levels requires. The place that people like Tiger, Michael Jordan, Magic, Bird, Borg have to go in order to do what they do in the moment when they do it. Most will never understand it, let alone experience it, let alone know that it isn't necessarily synonymous with fun. And that it sometimes demands skipping that gear, which in all honesty, I think these people rightly think they shouldn't open themselves to until they're finished with their moment in sports.

Maybe unfortunately for Tiger -- and for us -- because golf is the one sport that is a sport for life, it won't ever happen. That's what's sad to me.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterRLL
C andC I'll have to wait to answer that one!I can't open the videos on my I pad for some reason.Will try at work tomorrow and see what it's all about!
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterChico
I guess it really comes down to values. Not society's values, but your own. And if he's being true to his then he's correct to live that way. Another's values are another's values.

You know, every now and again it slips out that some of them may have regrets. I feel like I've heard Faldo say, "maybe I could have been nicer, but I didn't know how to do both". Curtis Strange echoed these on Feherty a little bit. Almost to admit that the pinnacle of achievement is not worth the price.

What would be really cool though would be someone to take these experiences and work to blow the doors off of the current achievement requirements. Maybe after his playing days, Tiger would sit down with someone, maybe a Rotella type, maybe another and discuss what really went through his mind at these times. Once the "perceived" threats or intimations of weakness are no longer a risk...probably not going to happen but it could certainly advance the study of human performance, because love him or hate him, there is no credible way to dispute his abilities/records.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterNC Phyllis
Nick Faldo's talk with David Feherty is actually a great example. Like a lot of people, I was surprised by it, and didn't think we'd ever hear Faldo reveal quite so much of himself. I think part of it is that Feherty understands "the dark side," has a good bit of it in his gut that even he knows he can't master completely, and this allows others to reveal some things in them that they normally would have trouble talking about.

But I don't think Faldo was saying he regretted any of the way he was, or that it wasn't worth it. He was just saying being the way he was was part of what he accomplished and why. In fact, I think that interview was about as close as one could get to a good feel for that particular moment when Faldo was King, and what it took for him to be there. It reminded me of some things I heard Bjorn Borg say once, and helped me to understand that from the inside, the unusual nature that these guys find appears simpler and more matter of fact to them than it does to those looking in -- and that that's part of the secret of why it works for them.

The only way I can imagine Tiger ever reaching a point where he'd allow for any accessibility would be if he was no longer physically able to compete. Short of that, I think his referring a few times to Watson almost winning The Open at age 60 is how he sees his future -- except that he'd see himself making that final putt... and he probably would, too. <g>
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterRLL
another story of what a fine human being Woody is...not
05.17.2013 | Unregistered Commenterchicago pt
David Beckham is a great global success. Some may even say he is a bigger international star than Tiger -- I'll leave that to others to determine. He may never have been quite the "one," in a team sport -- there were others all the time -- but he had a very distinguished carer. Just add up his caps and trophies. And from stories that got about, apparently not a saint. But his public manners have always been impeccable. The working class kid with the lower class voice has cleaned up real good, as they say, and has rarely put a foot wrong in his dealings with the press, the public, the authorities, the sponsors or the fans. Think what you like about his wife (of 14 years) and the celebrity lifestyle -- he retires a beloved figure. His place in the game will be analysed and there will be people who will say he was as good as he could be, or he wasn't. But they won't have much to say against him personally.

Not a bad legacy.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterGhillie
Am I the only one who thinks Rocco is coming across as a loser? "He didn't sign my pin sheet! But it's OK!" Shut up about it if it's OK. "Tiger's biggest fan" is telling interviewers what a dick he is? For what purpose?

I also think Rocco is way too impressed with his runner up finish in the US Open. If I remember correctly, Ricky Barnes also had a 2nd place finish and I've yet to hear him talk about it ad nauseum. Come to think of it, Mediate gets more attention than Lee Janzen and he won the thing twice!

Congrats Rocco...you lost and you've had way more than your 15 minutes of fame due to that bastard who wouldn't sign a piece of paper for you to hang in your living room.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterLip Out
Agree with you, Ghillie. Being a success in sports and being a gentleman -- (even one covered with tatoos of naked ladies and such...<g>) -- don't have to be mutually exclusive.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterRLL
Do people really need to vent about TW on here every 3 days? If so then by all means carry on with it, but everybody has already formed their own opinion of the guy.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterRon
Lip Out,

Pointing out the inconsistencies in Rocco's words and action is fine, but you're holding him to a standard that's probably unfair. Rocco strikes me as someone who thinks and talks with his heart rather than his head, so I think it's likely that he is sincere about BOTH things. He feels Tiger is clueless about other people's emotions (kind of Asperger-y) yet Rocco also genuinely likes the guy.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered Commenter3foot1
What we're dealing with in TW is class A Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He finds no attachment with others (cite absence of real friends on tour despite pros falling over to kiss his ass). His few 'friendships' are really just relationships that further enhance his own perception of greatness (mark o'meara). People who are his equal in talent are held at arms length.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterALGolf
I'm not sure a professional golfing lifestyle, which TW has basically been living since the age of what, 12? 16 for sure, is conducive to traditional "bro" friendships. He was friends with his dad and that's about it as far as I know.
Does Phil have all kinds of buddies he's always talking about flying to events with him? Do any of em? These guys are like traveling salesman.
Like they say, "get a dog"
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterRon
I think I saw real joy in Tiger this past Sunday. But I don't think it was for winning The Players. I think it was because he beat down Sergio and that Sergio was not up to his standard of competition.

Woods, in my opinion, is one of the mentally strongest competitors I've ever seen. He's in the mold of the old hockey players, a Gordie Howe or a Ted Lindsay. It's an "I don't care if I hurt you, I don't care if I hurt me. I'm gonna win this."

The more of a challenge, Tiger will rise to the occasion. And in a way, he gets even more from it when it's presented as a criticism; the media, Sergio, Steven Ames.

I pity him. He's a winner, but one without the heart of a champion.
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterOPGolfer
"People who are his equal in talent are held at arms length."

ALGolf, who might you be referring to?
05.17.2013 | Unregistered CommenterDTF
When will all this nonsense end??? Rocco should have asked Tiger in person and not relate the episode on the air, forever ending the possiblity. THATS being a gentleman.... airing your own dirty laundry to make another guy look bad makes you look like a jerk. He GOT an autograph, just not the one he was expecting.
05.18.2013 | Unregistered Commenterenigma
Right on Enigma. I had previously had no problem with Mediate and considered him a decent sort. But this is trashing Tiger publicly to get himself a little attention, and so Mediate just lost any class he might have had. He seems to hold himself in much higher regard than he ought. What I remember very well are Tiger's kind and supportive words for Mediate in the post playoff trophy ceremony. I guess Mediate is that hard up for attention, even when unearned. A long winded way to say 'classless' I guess :) . And I always got great amusement from Feherty, but he ought to be ashamed. This smacks of the Jerry Springer show.
05.22.2013 | Unregistered Commentergolflover2013

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