Greensburg native Rocco Mediate's dream of playing for the U.S. Ryder Cup team may become a reality Tuesday.
That's when Paul Azinger will announce his four captain's picks to supplement the eight golfers who automatically qualified to face Europe on Sept. 16-21 in Louisville, Ky.
Mediate and Steve Stricker were the top two picks of national golf writers, who were polled last week. On the PGA of America 's official Web site, Mediate and Stricker also wereo the most popular picks among fans responding to its poll.
The eight golfers who qualified automatically on the points system are Phil Mickelson, Stewart Cink, Kenny Perry, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Ben Curtis, Boo Weekley and Justin Leonard. After that, there's a list of about 10 players for Azinger to choose from.
"Nobody is jumping off the page," Azinger told Tim Rosaforte of Golf World magazine.
According to Rosaforte, Azinger said he has two players he's "dead-solid on" and that the "list for the next two picks extends well down the points standings."
The selections are crucial because the U.S. has lost the past three Ryder Cups and five of the past six in the biennial competition. Azinger reacted to those failures by altering the course setup at Louisville's Valhalla and flip-flopping the order of play to give whatever advantage he could to his team.
But perhaps the most important thing he did was to expand the number of captain's picks from two to four and move the selection date back three weeks.
"I hope it gets hotter Americans there," Azinger said earlier this year.
Mediate was on the top of the list of hot golfers through much of this summer, matching Tiger Woods swing-for-swing in the U.S. Open before losing in a playoff. Mediate rushed up the Ryder Cup points list, climbing as high as 10th.
A top-15 performance in either the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational or the PGA Championship could have earned him a spot on the team outright. That didn't happen, and last week, he missed the cut at the Barclay's, the first round of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Mediate's last chance to impress before Azinger makes his picks is this weekend in the Deutsche Bank Championship near Boston.
Mediate has made it clear that playing in the Ryder Cup is a priority in his career.
"I told 'Zinger' two years ago that I would love to play for him," Mediate said. "He told me to go for it. This is the best shot I've ever had at it. I very much want to be on this team. Who knows if there will be another shot in two years?"
Mediate, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, has impressed more than one observer with his love for Ryder Cup.
"You look at what the those next 10 guys on the list have done, and then, you start looking at other things," Sports Illustrated senior golf writer Gary Van Sickle said. "Rocco has always had an intense interest in the Ryder Cup. In 1999, he came to the guys at Golf World and volunteered to shoot photos for us at Kiawah Island if we could just get him inside the ropes. We got him a camera and actually used some of the stuff he shot.
"But that's the kind of enthusiasm you get with Rocco, and you don't get with guys like Tiger and Phil."
Added Van Sickle: "Any excuse to pick him, and I think Azinger will. He likes Rocco, and I think he'd be a good team guy. Why not pick a guy who's happy to be there and can contribute on and off the course?"
Legendary golfer Arnold Palmer, who twice served as a Ryder Cup captain, offers a unique perspective from a simpler time.
In 1963, he was a playing captain that led the U.S. to a 23-9 victory over Great Britain. In 1975, at Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, his team blasted Great Britain & Ireland, 21-11.
"As I remember, we were picking only two guys then," Palmer said. "The PGA gave me four recommendations, and I could pick which two I wanted. Without getting into a spitting contest, I took the guys that were next in line. My two teams were tremendous."
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