Happy Father's Day Byron

I am so sorry this is late....what can I say - We are bums. Hey By - Aaron and I thought of you ALL weekend long and not just because it was Father's Day and you are such a great Father, but also because it was THE MOST EXCITING week of golf EVER!! The Us Open was at Torrey Pines and it was Tiger's first tourney after his knee surgery. OH the Drama of it all. Tiger was obviously still in pain. It was awful...he would totally wince after almost every shot. At times he even buckled almost to his knees in pain, but he kept plugging away. On Friday he shoots an amazing display of awesomeness - 30 on the back nine to get back into contention. THEN on Saturday he drops an eagle and several birdies (after a double bogey then bogey start to his round) to stay in the game. He is heading into the 18th needing a birdie to tie the leader (Lee Westwood). So what does he do? HE EAGLES the hole to take the lead! It was AWESOME. OK so why were we thinking of you? Cute old Rocco Mediate who has dropped off the face of the earth and struggled with his back and what not comes out of obscurity to be in contention. He even had to go back to Q school to be there and he was hangin' with all the younguns. He was in 2nd place when Tiger eagled that putt to put him in third place. Everyone was cheering for cute Rocco. He was the same ol same ol, too. He even wore his player badge on his shirt so... "They would know who I am". He was chatty and smiling and just plain happy to be there. Aaron must have said a zillion times..."Did you know Rocco is my Dads favorite player?". We SO wished you could have witnessed his awesome weekend. OK So what happens is Sunday was just a plain struggle for Tiger. He doubles the first hole and his knee is obviously killing him and Rocco is just cheerful chatty Kathy one hole ahead of the last group just rifling them in there. It was like he had a laser on his golf club. It was some awesome golf. However, Tiger just kept coming back. Heading into the 18th Rocco has been ahead by 1 stroke for a few holes now and Tiger has a 20 ft(ish) birdie putt to tie Rocco - He sinks it of course! It was so fun to see ol' Rocco just pacing away watching the feed on the television. So they had to play an 18 hole playoff on Monday. 45 yr old Q school qualifier Rocco against the Titan Tiger with an ailing knee injury! Mondays round was back and forth, but mostly with Tiger having the edge and then Tiger just runs away with it and on the 11th tee he has a 3 stroke lead. Well, that is when the Rocco show started. He fires three straight birdies to tie it up. Then a bogey from Tiger puts Rocco in the lead. However, coming in on the 18th tee Tiger needs a birdie putt to push it into a sudden death playoff and he OF COURSE makes it. You can probably guess how it finishes - Tiger won that hole and then the end, but man o man was it exciting to watch. I totally get why you are such a Rocco fan. What a great guy and so much fun to watch. Thus, our thoughts were with you all weekend long! We love and miss you! Thanks for teaching Aaron to love Golf, but more importantly to love his wife and kids.

Cheers, Mandy