Rocco Mediate, 61, wins again on Champions; fifth decade with Tour-sanctioned win

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Rocco Mediate missed a 4-foot par putt for the win, and then made from about the same distance on the second playoff hole Sunday to beat Bob Estes and win the Constellation Furyk & Friends on the PGA Tour Champions.

Mediate, who closed with a 1-under 71 at Timuquana Country Club, won for the first time in five years and earned his fifth title on the 50-and-older circuit.

“It’s been forever,” Mediate said. “I struggled a lot. This week was good most of the time, today in spots it wasn’t good. But’s it very satisfying that I got another one. Amazing for me. A lot of good things happened.”

It was harder work than he wanted.

Mediate was three shots ahead with four holes to play, and two holes later he was tied. His wedge to the par-5 15th went left down a slope and led to bogey, while Estes boldly went for the green protected by water and made birdie.

“Hit the 3-wood perfectly, and when Rocco made bogey all of a sudden it was game on again,” Estes said.

Then, Estes hit a draw around the tall pines to 5 feet for birdie to tie for the lead. Mediate responded with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th and was at the front of the green on the par-4 closing hole. But his long putt up the slope was 4 feet away and he missed.

“Hit it exactly how I wanted,” Mediate said. “That’s the way it goes.”

Estes got up-and-down for a par and a 71, and they both finished at 12-under 204.

Mediate, having missed a short putt for the win, suddenly faced a 10-footer for par on the 18th in the playoff just to keep going after Estes poured in a par from 18 feet. Mediate made that one, and then made his 4-foot par on the second extra hole after Estes missed from 15 feet.

The 61-year-old Mediate now has won PGA Tour-sanctioned events in his 20s, 30s, 40, 50s and 60s. His first victory was the 1991 Doral-Ryder Open in a playoff over Curtis Strange.

“I set out this year and said, ‘I’d like to win in my 60s.’ And I’ll be darned,” Mediate said.

Estes was looking for his first PGA Tour Champions title.