Chubb Classic Notebook: Rocco Mediate talks about recovering from alcoholism

Rocco Mediate is starting to hear different voices shouting encouragement from fans outside the gallery ropes watching a golf tournament.

Even a few words of encouragement are coming from inside the ropes from his fellow PGA Tour Champions players.

The reason stems from a revelation last week on Golf Channel that he is a recovering alcoholic, having giving up drinking Oct. 23, 2017.

Mediate confessed he couldn’t remember a day that didn’t include him having a drink, even on the golf course during a tournament using a clear plastic bottle that looked like water but was filled with vodka.

“Absolutely I have played while drinking, it was just normal for me, part of a ritual and most certainly more constant when I was suffering with severe back pain,” Mediate said.

“I knew at the time it was eventually going to get me and I described myself as a habitual alcoholic."

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The new voices – coming from fans, players and family – are reassuring.

“The fans have been great, saying ‘Great job, we know the difficulty,’” he said. “The players were the same and many said they were surprised I would say anything.”

Mediate said his three older boys, who live on the West Coast, knew of his drinking habit, but that Mediate was not drinking while around them.

“My wife Jessica has been full of warnings for years to stop drinking and then I realized I did not want our daughter Francesca, 3, growing up with an alcoholic dad,” he said.

Mediate, 56, lives with his family outside of Minneapolis but still retains a membership at Caloosa Pines Golf Club in Naples. He sold his residence at Tuscany Reserve in North Naples several years ago.

The former All-American golfer at Florida Southern has lost 40 pounds and dropped to a 34 waist size in the last 18 months while also giving up chewing tobacco.

“I still smoke a cigar, my one vice for sure,” he said.

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Mediate can still be competitive, having won three times on PGA Tour Champions while winning six times on the PGA Tour, the last the 2010 Frys.com Open in California.

Of course Mediate is probably most well-known for his historic dual with Tiger Woods at the 2008 U.S. Open where he lost in a Monday playoff.

While those are popular memories, Mediate doesn't see anything wrong with talking about a subject like alcoholism.

“I don’t care when it’s the truth, even if the discussion is about something out of a deep, dark hole,” he said. “But if I help others it’s all good.

“It’s important to remember that alcohol is undefeated, a substance that can tear your body apart. It’s evil and I just wanted it, I enjoyed it, simple as that but I have stopped cold turkey. I’m lucky I’m not chemically dependent."

McCarron's hemp endorsement: PGA Tour Champions player Scott McCarron announced an unusual endorsement contract last week with a hemp oil company and possibly surprising to folks, many players have been using the product.

McCarron’s partnership is with Functional Remedies, producers of the only hand-pressed, full-spectrum hemp oil, derived from hemp plants.

McCarron entered an agreement to be a brand ambassador for the company, promoting mind and body balance, restful sleep and supporting healthy levels of inflammation.

“We probably have 55 guys on the Champions Tour using hemp because at our age good sleep and controlling the inflammation is important,” said McCarron, an eight-time winner who finished the 2018 season second in Charles Schwab Cup points, a repeat of his success in 2017.

“Most people don’t realize the level of mental stress and anxiety that comes with pro golf and taking care of your body is the most important thing we do."

Langer is no Bryson DeChambeau: Bernard Langer has watched the rise of PGA Tour player Bryson DeChambeau and his caddie discussions about yardages and air density.

“Well, we all know who he is and he’s got three books in his pocket and he checks something constantly,” Langer said. “Then he walks off how far his putt is. I’ve never walked off a 12-yard putt to know how hard I have to hit it but it works for him.”

“He’s different. He plays different. Every club is a 6-iron length-wise except the driver and he putts different. But he does everything a little bit different but he wins."

Remembering 1996 at Lely Resort: No players who competed in the PGA Tour Champions event in 1996 at The Classics at Lely Resort have returned this year, although 2019 entrant Hale Irwin had already started his 45-win career on the 50-plus circuit. He did not play in 1996 when Al Geiberger won, but won the next year when the tournament moved to Bay Colony.

One of the caddies from 1996 has returned. Sandy Jones started her caddie career in 1995 and worked at The Classics at Lely in 1996, but is unable to remember her player.

“I worked for several players during my early years on tour and it could have been any one of three or four guys, I just don’t remember today,” said the Minnesota native who was having lunch Wednesday in the clubhouse with her longtime employer, Hall of Famer Tim Kite, whom she's worked for since 2001.

“I was trying to find my yardage book from 1996 at home in Austin last week, guess I threw it away.”

Chip shots: Langer is longer off the tee today at age 61 – 282.0 yards on Champions Tour in 2018 – as compared to age 28 in 1985 when he averaged 269.7. ... Wednesday's morning pro-am grouping was pulled off the course because of heavy rain about halfway through the round. The afternoon group that was supposed to tee off at 1 p.m. didn't until 2:30 p.m., and failed to finish because of darkness. They played through some rain as well.

Greg Hardwig contributed to this article.

Thursday's Tees

7:45 a.m. shotgun

No. 1A — Miguel Angel Jimenez; No. 1B — John Daly; No. 2A — Corey Pavin; No. 2B — Paul Broadhurst; No. 3 — Paul Goydos; No. 4A — Billy Andrade; No. 4B — Steve Flesch; No. 5 — John Huston; No. 6A — Olin Browne; No. 6A — Joey Sindelar; No. 7A — Loren Roberts; No. 7B — Tommy Armour III; No. 8 — Scott Verplank; No. 9A — Jose Maria Olazal; No. 9B — Sandy Lyle; No. 10A — Retief Goosen; No. 10B — Tom Lehman; No. 11 — Mark O'Meara; No. 12A — Dudley Hart; No. 12B — Brandt Jobe; No. 13 — John Harris; No. 14 — Brad Faxon; No. 15A — Steve Pate; No. 15B — Kevin Johnson; No. 16A — Jeff Sluman; No. 16B — Ken Duke; No. 17 — Joe Durant; No. 18A — Tom Kite; No. 18B — Tommy Tolles

1 p.m. shotgun

No. 1A — David Toms; No. 1B — Scott Parel; No. 2A — Michael Bradley; No. 2B — Russ Cochran; No. 3 — Stephen Ames; No. 4A — Kirk Triplett; No. 4B — Wayne Levi; No. 5 — Michael Allen; No. 6A — David Frost; No. 6B — Chris DiMarco; No. 7 — Jesper Parnevik; No. 8 — David McKenzie; No. 9A — Hale Irwin; No. 9B — Colin Montgomerie; No. 10A — Darren Clarke; No. 10B — Bernhard Langer; No. 11 — Ian Woosnam; No. 12A — Tim Petrovic; No. 12B — Wes Short Jr.; No. 13 — Gene Sauers; No. 14 — Woody Austin; No. 15A — Dan Olsen; No. 15B — Neal Lancaster; No. 16 — Tom Byrum; No. 17 — Fran Quinn; No. 18A — Scott Hoch; No. 18B — Scott McCarron