MASTERS NOTES
AUGUSTA – Rocco Mediate felt the fickle finger of fate that Augusta National dishes out in the cruelest of ways.
Mediate, tied for the tournament lead at 4-under, hit his approach shot to the ninth green and nearly jarred it – the ball hitting the bottom of the flagstick and bounding away, rolling back off the green some 30 yards down the hill.
Mediate pitched his third shot to within three feet and made the putt for par. Had that approach shot gone in the cup, Mediate would have taken the lead.
Shortly afterward, Mediate’s round imploded as he took a 10 on the par-3 12th hole after sending three shots into Rae’s Creek. That came after a bogey on 11. Later, he added a bogey on 14 and another on 18, finishing with a final-round 80 after carding a 46 on the back.
Mediate later revealed his back “went psycho” on the very swing that sent the ball into the pin on No. 9. His playing partner, Miguel Angel Jimenez, had to fix the ball mark near the cup because Mediate couldn’t bend over to do it.
“I almost made a 2 on No. 9 and almost couldn’t continue on No. 10,” Mediate said. “I almost had to quit. I seriously thought I would win this golf tournament after No. 9. I was tied for the lead at that point feeling tremendous. That second shot on nine was a double-whammy.”
Mediate called the tournament “the best 71 holes of golf I’ve ever played.”
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Tim Clark, the other South African (besides Ernie Els and Retief Goosen), finished second behind Phil Mickelson at 5-under-par after holing out a bunker shot on No. 18 for birdie. He talked about the shot being on the same line as Mark O’Meara‘s winning putt in 1998.