Rocco Mediate bravely opens up on history with alcohol

Rocco Mediate recently opened up on his history with alcohol, including using it to manage pain, and his use during competitive rounds on the PGA TOUR. It was a brave, honest look at an issue that likely affects more players than we know.

Rocco Mediate has enjoyed a wonderful career in golf. He spent more than two decades on the PGA TOUR, winning six times between 1991 and 2010. He’s since added three victories on the PGA TOUR Champions, including a major victory at the Senior PGA Championship in 2016.

Mediate, too, will likely be remembered more for the one he didn’t win than any of the twelve he has so far. Of course, that’s the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Three times in the 2000s, Mediate finished inside the top ten at the USGA’s flagship event, but this time it came down to a playoff between him and one of the greatest of all time, Tiger Woods. He took Woods – injured or not – 19 additional holes before finally getting beaten.

Mediate has proven over the years that he is not one to be easily beaten. However, he still struggles the same as any of us, and he enjoyed many of these successes while dealing with severe, chronic back pain. It’s an issue for a lot of high-level golfers, including Woods, but Mediate recently went on record with his use of alcohol to cope.

In an interview with Golf Channel, Mediate told Vince Cellini that he regularly drank on the course, including during competitive rounds.

"“Absolutely I have (played while drinking). Because it was just normal for me. It was just a daily ritual, let’s say,” Mediate said. “You can put it in a lot of places. A lot of places. Was it every time? No. But most of the time when the pain came in, it wasn’t not going to happen.”"

Mediate also referred to himself as a “functional alcoholic”, stating that up until October 23, 2017, he couldn’t remember a day that he hadn’t gone without a drink. He did say that he could sympathize with Woods’s plight, relating to his Memorial Day DUI arrest, even though Woods wasn’t abusing alcohol in that particular situation.

"“When that happened, I went, ‘Mm-hmm, yeah. I just didn’t get caught,'” Mediate said. “But when it comes to that type of pain, you’ll basically do whatever it takes to be able to go, ‘Oh, that feels better.'”"

On that October day, though, Mediate said that he had been discussing his drinking with his wife, and he made the decision to give up drinking at that moment. He said that he didn’t “need” alcohol, but that he did want it. Now, he’s been sober for 15 months, and he’s happily moving forward with his career, and his life.

It’s a brave step, and hopefully one that anyone else who is dealing with their own alcohol use can lean on. Five months before Mediate gave up alcohol, Billy Horschel and his wife, Brittany, went public with Brittany’s struggles with drinking. Different circumstances, to be sure, but the mission – improving one’s life without leaning on alcohol – is the same.

Golf and drinking do tend to go hand in hand, and it’s entirely likely that there are many more people in our sport that are dealing with a similar situation. No matter the root, the more that people are willing to share their experiences, hopefully, the better it gets for all. I’m happy that Rocco Mediate was able to address his own battle, and if his story helps even one person, he’ll have done more good than he likely even knows.