Q. That was a pretty good round.
ROCCO MEDIATE: There was no suck in that round. Zero suck.
Q. Talk a little bit about what you felt most good about.
ROCCO MEDIATE: Well, redid the whole spiel in the winter. You don't know what's going to happen. I played nicely at Hualalai. It's like my first top 10 in 100 years. So things were working. I messed around a little bit more the last couple weeks and brought it here.
But the 3rd hole, started off good, hit two really good beauties -- hit a beauty to 2, good 5-iron shot. I thought, all right, it's there. I kind of overdrew it, or you could call it a hook, on 3. I thought, okay, it's in the hazard. That's where it belongs. As I'm walking up, Pete is way up in front, and I'm looking, and I almost stepped on my ball, which hit something and came back 80 yards in the first -- it was a perfect lie, 174, 175 yards. Then I just made a 2. Hit a 5-iron in the hole. Pete pulled me off of 6, and I hit a 5. It was pretty obvious I was just trying to hit it on the green really. Pretty-looking shot, big high draw, right up over the deal, and it went in. So we were off and rolling there.
Q. Four birdies in the last five holes, four consecutive. How good did that feel?
ROCCO MEDIATE: It was good, especially you play -- I don't even know what I shot on the front nine until I added it up, but a good putt on 9, the par-3 now -- see, the route changed. I don't know where I am. Okay, 10. I hit a crappy 3-iron, kicked left and went in the sand -- whatever you call that.
Q. Barranca?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, in the Sandy area. Went by about 12 feet on the fringe in, one of those days. Then I just kept hitting good shot after good shot after that. Where did I make bogey? Oh, on what used to be 16, I think. Like I said, I don't know where I am. Hit a real pretty 7-iron a hair right of the hole, hits just on the fringe, and the water, jumped in there, I hit it out, two-putted, made 5 and run. Then all of a sudden I hit a lot of good shots coming home. Just didn't hit that putt on 18 -- I hit the corner not on purpose on 18. Pete thought I did it on purpose, but I didn't. Just hit it too far.
I birdied 17, that was cool, though. Those don't come around for me very often, a driver and a 4-iron. So it was good. The ball was in front of me all day.
Q. What was the rest of that four-birdie run?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Well, I hit a pretty 9-iron into like 15 feet, 10 feet left of the hole.
Par-5, somehow I had 245 front and I hit it on the green. I was just trying to hit it short, and it gets up on the green, two-putted.
Then I hit a real nice-looking 7-iron on 16 to five feet, six feet.
17 was like maybe three feet behind the hole. Maybe.
Q. What did you hit there?
ROCCO MEDIATE: 4-iron. That was cool.
Then 18, I blocked it. I blocked it, but I thought it was okay, but I over -- I just hit it solid, it just went -- I thought it might have caught -- anyway, I had an opening, hit a 3-iron, and I hit a pretty good pitch. I thought I skipped it up closer than I did. I knew it was into the grain and uphill, and I still didn't hit it hard enough.
Q. How long was that putt?
ROCCO MEDIATE: 15 feet. I didn't complain about that. Oh, my God, if you would have birdied -- I made plenty of putts.
Q. To go that low and you really didn't get the 5s today --
ROCCO MEDIATE: I think I got one -- did I get one or two of them?
Q. I thought you got one.
ROCCO MEDIATE: I think you might be -- I don't even know. Well, no, I'm relying on what I re-taught myself. I'm trusting it. I don't care what it looks like. I don't care what -- the Instagram guys are hilarious. Hilarious. I'm like, well, all you've got to do is watch the ball. I've never done things normal, and I'm not going to do things normal. So far, it's nice.
Is it going to happen every day? No. But I just want to keep hitting it in front of me.
Q. In layman's terms, what's the biggest thing you tried to do with your swing?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Well, first of all, have it work. Because it hasn't been working in a long time. And I want the stress off my body. I was in pain before. So the off-season I was just making quick -- since you asked. In the off-season, for like a month and a half, two months, I literally would try on purpose something different every three or four days. Like all right, this next four days I'm going to do this. This three or four days I'm going to do this. Five or six different ways, all the stuff I know.
About two weeks before Hualalai, I went, this is what I'm going to do, and we're not deviating. That's what happened.
Wider stance, way taller, handle up, lower body supporting with a monster lateral upper. Oh, my God, you're swaying. No, I'm not swaying. I'm supported with the lower body. All of a sudden, the shots are coming off, most of them, like I'm looking.
It's like Pete goes, what are you so surprised for. I'm like, trust me, I'm surprised sometimes. So that's all I did. You don't know if it's going to work or not.
I saw a lot of things happen good -- that little 9-iron into -- I don't know, what hole, after I made bogey. 14? I just stood there, looked at that back, right flag and went, we're going over there. It's just a 9-iron, but the things in all of us, we have things that when we do something, we're like, uh-oh, that was something I want, and you remember that feel, and then you just carry it.
But I'm trying not to mess around. I've fussed on two holes. Two of them I messed around.
Q. Is there any Lee Trevino in that?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, and a lot of cool little -- I hit a terrible pitch on the par-5, just hit it too low. I didn't hit it hard enough on -- the other par-5. That one was nice. But just low -- I know where the club is, so I'm trying to hit the shots I want to hit. Like 17, I looked at Pete, and I went, this has got to go straight at it because I can't draw it or it'll hit the tree. And it went straight at it. The fact it ended up where it ended up, who cares. The line was right and the club was right, so it ended up -- 20 feet is a good shot on that hole with a 4-iron.
So all that stuff -- and it's not a guarantee, but things keep happening. I keep waking up doing the same thing, and kind of the same thing is happening. That's good.
Q. Doing this as long as you've done it --
ROCCO MEDIATE: It's crazy.
Q. How do you stir the fire to kind of get going?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Well, I'll tell you what I did, since you asked again. So during Boca, playing just awful. I can't even believe I'm in a playoff event. Called Ricky Smith up because he's out at Doral and I said, I need to come down and I need to get on Gears. Do you know what Gears is? The things you put little things in a suit and it takes the swing -- it's not a stick guy, not that crap. It actually looks like you're really strong and perfect. The guy is really muscular.
I said, I want you to look for one number that I want but I'm not going to tell you what it is. He said, what do you mean. I just get out of the car, 50 miles, 6-iron, put my stuff on, 6-iron, make one swing, not a practice swing, hit it whatever. So you're hitting the ball. All right, let's go.
So he puts on this stuff. I'm looking and I'm looking and I'm looking and I find the -- so I had my hand over it, and it's called rib cage rotation, which is shoulder turn. That's the crap name of the technical crap that everybody uses. So rib cage rotation is shoulder turn. Shoulder turn is glue. I said to myself, if that number is anywhere below 80, I'm done. Done. I'm not doing this anymore.
I pulled it over, the first number was a 9. Get out of the car, 50 miles, just drove. The next number was an 8, and then .6, and I went, we're going to try this. The only reason, if it was 70, finished. Anybody that knows anything about motion, if there's no shoulder motion, rib cage rotation, there's no glue. So that's the thing. It makes a lot of sense.
That's what I said to Rick. I went, I'm going to keep doing this for a little while longer and see what happens. So I went and redid all that stupid, crazy -- you can't believe the stuff I was trying to do.
I came up with something, so far, so good. Hopefully it won't ever change because I don't have time for this.
Q. You said the rib is glue --
ROCCO MEDIATE: Glue. Shoulder turn and rib rotation is the glue that keeps everything together. You get all the best players ever, they're turning -- like McIlroy at the same place because he put Rory up because he had to have him -- not that I'm trying to do that because who would try to do that because I couldn't. But his rib cage rotation with a 6-iron was 102 degrees. Yeah, that makes sense, 104 degrees. Total sense.
But the fact that I was in the high 90s, mid 90s was ridiculous for me. That's why I kept going. The only reason. Everyone thinks I'm full of crap, but I don't think I'd have kept doing this anymore because it was no fun. None.
Q. Remind us of your connection here, when you were staying here, playing here.
ROCCO MEDIATE: I lived here, good Lord, I don't know how many years I lived here. 2003 to 2008 or 2009, give or take. I'm at Calusa Pines, which is phenomenal. They've been great to us, been great to all of us. We hang out there and that's where I stay. I only come a couple times a year, though, maybe in the fall, winter for the pro-pro at Calusa and then here. It's great, though. I do like it here.
Q. What does it mean to you to get in the hunt in the thick of this thing?
ROCCO MEDIATE: I want to win in my 60s. It's as simple as that. That's what I want to do.
I think I've given myself -- not this round, but what I've done to this, maybe an opportunity sometime, whether it's this week, who cares. Everyone says, well, it's only the first round. Yeah, but it was nice to come out fast.
Pete said something to me at the end of last year, he goes, we just don't get off -- we haven't got off to any good starts. I go, well, I couldn't. I've been putting and pitching great for years. That just shows you how bad I've been hitting it. I've been driving it okay. Can't hit an iron on the green. Couldn't hit an iron on the green. So it was -- we started off good in Hualalai, and we started off good here. Whatever happens happens, but it was nice to know -- it's like I told Pete today, funny, I've been thinking about today the same thing I was thinking about at Hualalai the last two and a half weeks. I'm not doing it anymore. Pete wouldn't believe it, and I don't blame him, but I'm not doing it. I don't know. If it doesn't work now, it doesn't work now. I'll hit them crooked, too. It was often, though.
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