Rocco Mediate Quotations

Phil is right there, he's close. Tiger is always close -- as long as he's upright, Tiger's close.

I almost went to my knees on the tee shot at 12 it hurt so bad. What can I say? It was the best 71 holes I've ever played in a major.

I wonder every morning (about the back). I wake up (and think) 'OK. I'm good right now.' It's just how it is.

I was tied for the lead at that point and feeling tremendous. I seriously thought I was going to win this golf tournament.

What Chad did today was remarkable. He's a great ball-hitter though, so I'm really not surprised.

There have been players who have completely neglected their families to be the best players in the world, ... Well, what about your wife and kids? The trophies don't mean anything in the end. It's about your family.

The shot on 12 stood me up. I was afraid I couldn't get the wedge shots over the water.

Sometimes you'll get guys who can't advance the ball at all. They're put there by their companies, and I feel bad for them because there's a bunch of people watching and these guys are embarrassed. And there isn't much you can do.

Actually, they didn't. But I'd tell them, 'Just look at last year's U.S. Open,' and then they shut up.

As any athlete knows, momentum is the most unstoppable force in sports. The only way to stop it is if you get in your own way, start making stupid mistakes or stop believing in yourself.

That was absolutely the coolest thing. The fans here are knowledgeable, and they knew I was in trouble and appreciated the effort, I guess.

You never know where the wind is coming from. You think you do, but you don't.

They've been there many more times. Phil is right there, he's close. Tiger is always close. As long as he's upright, he's close. If those guys go out and play a good round of golf, it's going to be tough to beat them, even though I'm a few ahead of them. But I know what I have to do. I'll see if I can do it.

A lot of strange things happened out there today -- a lot of them. I almost couldn't go off No. 10 (because of back pain that dogged him the last two days). I almost went to my knees on No. 12.

That's a good question. If this were Sunday, it would be (like) a royal flush. Today, it's 4 of a kind.

It's so hard, so penalizing and so good, it won't let you relax.

It's so hard and so penalizing and so good, that it won't let you lay down. If you can't do certain things around this golf course, you don't get to win. It's whoever shoots a low score, I don't care how you shoot it.

They wanted to make the course play like it used to. Well it does. It plays like it did when I first came here in 1991.

It's not because he stinks. It's something happened, and he can't find back what he had before.

I'm getting closer to the winning thing. Earlier in the year, everybody was asking, 'What's wrong?' I had a period from March through June where my body just wasn't feeling that good. You can't come out here at 50 percent and beat the best. This week was fun, finally, again. It was almost really good.

I just challenged myself as much as I could out there to keep playing good. You know it's so hard and so penalizing, that it won't let you lay down. it won't let you relax.

All of that is way less of a concern than it was earlier in the year,