TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Mediate Part Of Team Moccasin

ADVERTISEMENT

By MICK ELLIOTT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 19, 2008

Over and over during the U.S. Open, while Rocco Mediate battled Tiger Woods through the final round of regulation then into Monday's playoff and finally to sudden death before falling short, television shots showed Lee Janzen cheering, supporting and advising the overachieving underdog.

Team Moccasin.

The fact Janzen is a two-time U.S. Open champ - 1993 at Baltusrol and 1998 at Olympic Club - and Mediate - in the process of pushing Woods to the limit - were once teammates at Division II Florida Southern in Lakeland was worthy of a news flash.

The Florida Southern campus, famous in some circles for being the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture on a single site, broadened its notoriety.

"Words absolutely cannot describe how proud I am," said former Florida Southern golf coach Charlie Matlock after watching his ex-players.

"Those boys - the love for each other. And to believe we could have had three U.S. Open champions from Florida Southern. It's unbelievable. To me Rocco won it. He was tied after 72 holes and tied after the 18-hole playoff."

Matlock, who coached Florida Southern golf for 23 seasons before retiring in 1995, also had another guy you might have heard of on the same team as Mediate and Janzen. Marco Dawson, who last year finished fifth in the Buick Open and has more than $3.5 million in career earnings, was also there.

Yes, the Mocs won the Division II national championship that year.

They won a total of eight under Matlock.

One year FSC did not win, finishing second by three shots after being penalized six strokes because the team left the golf course during a delay to go for cheeseburgers.

The next year Matlock used the memory as motivation, appearing before the team with a cold burger.

"I didn't teach them," Matlock said of his stars. "They accepted the challenge I gave them."

Mick Elliott

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT