I’d fill my water bottle with vodka while playing on Tour – Mediate
There was no secret involved.
BOCA RATON: For years, Rocco Mediate’s golf bag held more than clubs and tees and balls.
Tucked inside was his deep, dark secret. The clear liquid in his water bottle was not water. In fact, it wasn’t even something Mediate could use to hydrate himself. Instead, it was vodka, something that became as much a part of his daily life as chipping and putting and reading greens.
“Did I get drunk every day? No,” Mediate said Saturday after shooting a two-under-par 70 at the Oasis Championship. “Every single day I had something. I couldn’t tell you when I didn’t over the years and years and years.
“I’d have a drink, maybe more than one. A lot more than one.”
But on October 23, 2017, Mediate, 56, decided to say when. He had had one drink the previous day, woke up that morning and quit cold turkey. He got through that day with a slight headache and has not had a drink since.
No rebab. No relapses.
Just a life altering last call. Mediate’s story was not known until Wednesday when he came out to the Golf Channel. He opened up more about his struggle to the Palm Beach Post on Saturday. He said the every-day drinking started in the mid-1990s because of debilitating back pain. But he emphasized, he blames himself and not the pain. He said even warnings from his wife, Jessica, that he would “lose everything” took years to convince him to stop.
“It last- ed that long knowing full well the consequences,” Medi- ate said. “That’s h o w powerful this is. It is the most brutal. ... It doesn’t give a s--- who you are, what you’ve done. It w i l l tear your lungs o u t and laugh when you’re dying. Alcohol is evil when you overdo it.”
Mediate considers himself lucky that he could quit drinking without having to go through rehab.
“The people who can’t or the people who are chemically dependent or it’s
“So, I didn’t want to come out and say ‘anybody (can do it).’ You can’t. Some can. Some people can’t. And if you can’t. ... get help.
“I enjoyed it so much so I kept doing it. Then bad things could happen and bad things didn’t happen but they were going to. It was going to effect everything like it does with everybody.”
Mediate, who lives in Naples, enters
Champions event tied for 18th, six strokes behind leader Bernard Langer. Included were two eagle hole-outs from 110 yards on Friday, something he said he’s never done in his life.
He listed three reasons for making the decision to stop drinking: Jessica, and their daughter, Francesca, who turns 4 in May; his health; and his golf game that
last year.”
In that order, he stressed. Jessica has been by Mediate’s side through the highs and lows, on and off the course. She has f o l l owed her husband around the 6,807-yard Old Course at Broken Sound this week- end pushing Francesca in a stroller. And
Rocco seems to genuinely enjoy seeing his wife and daughter in the gallery.
“How dare me make my daughter deal with my weakness in her life,” Mediate said. “How dare me do that. Her growing up with an alcoholic father (wouldn’t be) fair. If I have the power to stop it, which I do, then I need to stop.
“She’s almost 4, does she know? There’s nothing to really remember. But when she’s 6, 7, 8, 10 if I were still doing it, she’d know. It would be just terrible for that to happen.”
As for his health, Mediate is not sure how many pounds he has lost, but said
was a two-time All-American at Florida Southern College.
As for his game, Mediate had seven top
the previous three seasons combined. He
the 2015 Senior PGA Championship, which was his third victory of the Champions Tour following six titles on the PGA Tour. He joined the PGA tour in 1985. As the back pain became unbearable, Mediate started depending on a long putter, which helped his game; and the bottle, which nearly destroyed his life.
“You have a water bottle,” Mediate said. “It’s clear — I was a vodka guy — that’s what I did.
“Now, did I do it all the time? No. But it was there. If I needed it, I had it.” Me- diate’s phone has blown up since the Golf Channel interview. he is convinced is doing the right thing talking about his addiction. “I wanted to wait awhile. I don’t tell anybody,” Mediate said. “All of sudden I’m thinking, maybe it could make a difference and the (feedback) I’ve gotten, it could. It could help somebody.
“It seems like it may help a lot of people.” And h e