Notebook: Mediate plans to skip British Open
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The final round of the U.S. Open at the Bethpage Black Course on Sunday was an eye-opening experience for Greensburg native Rocco Mediate. His 6-over-par 76, however, was not what provided the revelation for him.
Bethpage Black turned into a wind-swept monster on this sunny day and made the decision simple for Mediate.
"I'm not going to the British Open; I made up my mind this afternoon," Mediate said. "It's like this course. It's too long, too tough. I don't have enough firepower for courses like this. And if you can't win somewhere, why go?"
He finished the tournament with seven 3-putts, including three in the final round, when he hit 12 fairways in regulation but needed 35 putts to get around.
He took three bogeys in a row in the middle of his front nine and added three more on the back, as well as a double-bogey on the difficult 15th.
"The guys who hit it long are the ones on the leaderboard," he said.
GETTING A TOUGH ONE
Scott Hoch was having a Coney Island roller coaster kind of day when he came to No. 17.
He started the day at 6-over, had gotten as low as 3-over and had staggered to 7-over when he was on 17. His 3-iron shot on the 207-yard par 3 bounced once and rolled into the cup for an ace, the second of the day and third of the tournament.
It is the 37th known hole-in-one in Open history.
Hoch finished with a 69 and jumped into a tie for sixth, his sixth top-10 finish in the last 10 U.S. Opens.
ON A SPEEDING TRAIN
John Daly and Kevin Warrick, an amateur from Valrico, Fla., were the first players off the tee yesterday and played their final round of the U.S. Open in three hours.
Daly fired a 73 for a 24-over 304 .
"I'm wore out," Daly said as he left the clubhouse.
Warrick, a 22-year-old amateur born in Brooklyn, rebounded from Saturday's 84 to shoot 74 and finish with a 27-over 307.
"My first 'tour' event, I made the cut," Warrick said. "That was the ultimate goal first off. I played halfway decent today. One really bad round. Other than that, I didn't play too bad. It was a great time."
Warrick is 6-foot-2 and weighs 149 pounds. One of the helpful folks in the gallery yelled to Daly to teach Warrick how to eat.
"I definitely need to get a little bigger," Warrick said.
SOMETHING TO REMEMBER
Andy Miller recorded yesterday's other hole-in-one. His 5-iron on the 205-yard, par-3 third hole found the cup. Earlier in the week, Shigeki Maruyama aced No. 14.
Miller, incidentally, is the son of former U.S. Open champion Johnny Miller, who won his title with a blistering 63 at Oakmont Country Club in 1973.
The younger Miller didn't do quite as well in his first Open appearance, finishing at 20-over 300.
WE'LL BE BACK?
Tom Meeks of the USGA said this week in New York newspapers that the feeling in his organization was that Bethpage Black was definitely worthy of another U.S. Open, which gives validity to what Fred Ridley, a USGA vice president, said before the tournament started.
"The USGA would not have come to Bethpage had it not been a great test of golf," Ridley said. "We would like to think this won't be just a one-act play."
Meeks did say that some tweaking might have to be done to the course, like bringing the fairway a little closer to the tee on the 492-yard 10th hole. When the wind started to blow, some players had trouble reaching that fairway.
CAN'T MISS VIEWING
The 2002 Open was only the second for Australia's Peter Lonard, but he is used to playing in the wind, which was definitely a factor yesterday.
"I think wind like we had today definitely favors a wind player," said Lonard, who shot a 67, the day's low round. "Someone who can knock it down as well as hit it high. That favors Tiger, doesn't it⢠Garcia can hit it high and low, too.
"It will get fairly interesting. This is the only tournament where I'll come out and watch the last groups. Why⢠Because of the wind and because of the crowd."
