Rocco Mediate has called for a change to the playoff format at Majors, saying “every Major should be an 18-hole playoff” just like his famous battle with Tiger Woods at the 2008 US Open.
Mediate has six PGA Tour wins in his career, along with five more on the PGA Tour Champions, but is best known for his epic duel with Woods at the 2008 US Open, where the duo went head-to-head in an 18-hole playoff at Torrey Pines before Woods eventually claimed his 14th of his 15 Major titles.
Speaking at the final event on the PGA Tour Champions calendar, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, where Mediate currently sits in 20th place in the season-long standings, the 61-year-old was once again quizzed on his narrow defeat to Woods in 2008.
Asked if that experience at Torrey Pines was as memorable as his 14 victories in his career to date, Mediate was clear-eyed in his response.
“Oh, gosh yeah. It is,” he said, according to Golfweek. “The most memorable win was the Fry’s two years after. If the Open was the last thing, OK, it was awesome.
“But I won again after that and that really made me happy, you know, that I won another tournament, which was cool. But no, the Open, I have no … you know if I had three-putted from three feet to lose, it probably wouldn’t be OK to talk about it but that didn’t happen, so.
“When you lose something and get beat, you get beat. There’s nothing else you can really say. It was awful fun trying. That was the most fun I’ve ever had playing golf. For sure. Bar none. I wish I could do it again.”
That 18-hole playoff in 2008 wasn’t enough to separate Mediate and Woods, with Woods eventually prevailing on the first extra hole of sudden death in a marathon Monday finish.
However, the USGA has since changed the 18-hole playoff format in 2018 to a two-hole aggregate playoff, followed by sudden death.
Mediate believes the US Open, and all Majors for that matter, should be decided in 18-hole playoffs, calling the move to get rid of it “ridiculous”.
“The 18 hole playoffs are over. Which is ridiculous,” Mediate said. “Every major should be an 18-hole playoff. And if you tie, it should be 18 more. It’s a major. It’s not a normal event.”
Asked if he was being serious, Mediate replied: “100 percent serious.”
“100 percent serious,” he reiterated. “‘Oh but TV.’ I don’t care about TV. I want the trophy. Sudden death at Augusta National? What? The Masters, we’re just going to have one hole? TV? Not concerned.”
Each playoff in the three other Majors have their own format, with the Masters being a sudden-death one-hole playoff starting at the 18th hole, while ties at the PGA Championship and Open Championship are decided in three-hole and four-hole aggregate playoffs respectively.
That 2008 US Open was the closest Mediate came to tasting victory at a Major, with his next best finish coming at the 2002 PGA Championship, where he claimed sixth.
