On a Blustery Day in Britain, Mediate Picks Up Where He Left Off
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SOUTHPORT, England — From sunny San Diego to bleak and blustery Royal Birkdale, the expression on Rocco Mediate’s face didn’t change.
He watched one final birdie tumble into the cup for a 1-under 69 and a three-way share of the lead in the British Open, straightened his 45-year-old back, then dropped his jaw into a smile that said, “How did that just happen?”
Others must have been wondering the same thing yesterday.
Ernie Els was playing some of his best golf in the worst weather until taking 45 shots on the back nine and posting an 80, his highest score in nearly two decades at his favorite major.
Phil Mickelson was up to his knees in grass right of the sixth green and never found his ball, taking a triple bogey that sent him to a 79.
Robert Allenby and Graeme McDowell, who watched on television as the early starters suffered through raging wind and stinging rain coming off an angry Irish Sea, must have wondered where all that nasty weather went as they made their way around Birkdale in tamer wind to join Mediate atop the leaderboard.
Stranger still was seeing 53-year-old newlywed Greg Norman in the hunt.
Indeed, how did all that happen?
“I have no explanation for that whatsoever. No idea why that happened,” said Mediate, still going strong after his epic playoff loss to Tiger Woods last month in the U.S. Open.
“It was just one of those rounds,” he said. “It was just up and down, up and down, and a couple of birdies, and here we are. I would have been ecstatic with 73 or 74 today.”
For those who thought his performance at Torrey Pines was merely a mirage, Mediate again found bright lines under leaden skies of the Lancashire Coast by bouncing back from three bogeys on the opening six holes by holing a 40-foot birdie putt on the 13th, chipping in from off the 17th green for birdie and ending his round with a 20-foot birdie.
“Crazy stuff,” he said.
Norman made enough par-saving putts to sustain some momentum, including a 6-footer on the final hole that put him at 70 along with Australian protege Adam Scott and Bart Bryant.
McDowell, the first-round leader down the coast at Royal Liverpool in 2006, won the Scottish Open four days ago at Loch Lomond. Allenby lost in a playoff at the Stanford St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn., last month, and tied for third two weeks ago at Congressional.
