The U.S. Open and Rocco Mediate

I talked a little bit in my personal blog about watching the U.S. Open on Sunday. I consider myself a fan of golf because I enjoy playing it even though I'm not that good and it can frustrate me to no end. My mom, dad, and brother Roury however are good at golf and enjoy watching it on TV any chance they get, whereas I can think of many other things I'd rather do than watch golf on TV. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching the last few holes of a tournament to see who wins, but 4 days in a row is a bit much for me. On Father's Day, however, we were at my father's house and Roury has been home from his LDS mission for only a few days so golf was on display on the 65" TV in my parents living room. I enjoyed heckling everyone and trying to get them to root for someone other than Tiger Woods. It's not that I don't like Tiger Woods, I think he's an amazing golfer, definitely #1 in the world, but I just like to see someone else win and put some pressure on him. That someone that I was hoping to have win was Rocco Mediate. What an entertaining golfer! He looked like he was having so much fun out there, always smiling and joking with his caddie and other golfers. Once Tiger came and tied it up on the 18th hole on Sunday to force Monday's 18 hole playoff, I knew the TVs at work would be on, so I was able to catch quite a bit of the playoff. The thing that capped it off for me and has made Rocco my favorite golfer was they were playing on hole #7 the first hole of the sudden death playoff since they were tied after 18 yet again. Rocco is not hitting the ball well and it looks like Tiger is going to win. Rocco hits a shot that almost bounces off the cart path and into the crowd. By rule, there is a spray painted white circle that Rocco is allowed to go drop his ball in. He goes to pick up his ball by the crowd and his talking to the rules guy the whole time. He's pointing at his ball and he's saying to the guy "so I can pick it up right?" Rules Guy (RG): "Yes." Rocco: "Ok". So Rocco picks it up and then pretends to throw it toward the green and hides the ball behind his back and he's like "What, what do you mean I can't throw it? Come on man!" It was hillarious!! Right then and there solidified my thought that this guy is cool. He ended up losing as we all know, but he was very grateful for the opportunity he had to play the #1 player in the world and have a chance to win. A class act all the way, and wouldn't you know it but good old karma awarded him with a 118 position jump from the 158th ranked player in the world all the way to 40!! Way to go Rocco, you deserve it man! Let's hope that this gives this entertaining golfer more opportunities to shine at the majors left this year and put himself in a better position to win the 1st major of his career, I think he deserves it. One last thought, I know we're in the United States and everything but it pains my ears to hear the way we have Americanized this guys last name. Can we please pronounce it the Italian way!!!! It won't make any of us less American, but it will make us more educated.