After Counting to 10, Mediate Is Knocked Out

AUGUSTA, Ga.

Rocco Mediate walked out of the scoring hut behind the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club late Sunday afternoon and shook hands with CBS's Peter Kostis.

"Was it a record?" he asked, referring to the 10 he had made nearly two hours earlier at the tiny but always treacherous par-3 12th hole.

Kostis shook his head. "Sorry," he said. "The record's 13."

Mediate smiled. "I was hoping," he said, "to at least become part of Masters lore."

For a long time Sunday, Mediate looked like he might become just that for a much different reason.

As he walked off the ninth green, his back, which has hampered his golf career for more than a decade, was giving him fits yet again, but he was tied for the lead at 4 under with playing partner Miguel Angel Jimenez and Phil Mickelson and Fred Couples, both playing the seventh hole at that moment.

"On the one hand, I could barely make it to the 10th tee," Mediate said. "On the other hand, I really thought I was going to win the Masters. In my heart, at that moment, I thought I could suck it up for nine more holes and get it done."

Mediate's back troubles date from 1994, when he had surgery for a ruptured disk. He has lost about 50 pounds since the surgery, but still struggles with back pain frequently. Sunday morning, finishing the third round, he felt his back go again when his foot slipped on his second shot to the 15th hole. He finished the round two shots behind Mickelson and went immediately to get some chiropractic treatment in the fitness trailer. He appeared to be limping early in the final round and, after starting with a bogey on the first hole, grabbed at his hip after his second shot to the par-5 second.

"Double whammy," he said. "I felt something go in my hip right there. At that moment, I wasn't certain I could finish. But then things loosened up for a while."

They loosened up enough that he was able to birdie Nos. 6, 7, and 8 to put himself back at the top of what was a very jumbled leader board at that point. Then came the ninth, one of Augusta's sneakier holes. The drive is straight down a hill, and the second shot straight up a hill to a green that slopes devilishly from back to front. The Sunday pin is always near the front, meaning a player who lands above the hole faces a brutal downhill putt and one who lands hole high or lower will often spin off the green.

Mediate's drive split the middle, and he decided to hit a hard 8-iron rather than an easy 7. The shot made him nervous, not because of its difficulty but because of the lie.