Can Rocco step up in Tiger's absence?: Other notes

SAN FRANCISCO -- Rocco Mediate played in a charity event this week in Rhode Island and fans screamed his name and clamored for his autograph. Mediate played in a pro-am Wednesday in Michigan and elicited much the same response.

"I can't believe what I'm seeing," he said.

PGA Tour officials also might not believe it, but they sure like it. They need Mediate's sudden fame and popularity as the reality begins to sink in -- no Tiger Woods for the rest of the year, and probably not until February and maybe not until the Masters in April.

Mediate counts as an ideal substitute, for now. The images from the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego remain fresh -- the genial 45-year-old with the stiff swing improbably staring down Woods during a 19-hole playoff, smiling and chatting along the way. It was nearly impossible to watch the Open and not embrace Mediate.

Still, there's usually a shelf life for the charming underdog. Mediate cannot sustain interest in the tour for the next several months. Phil Mickelson probably can't do that, either, because even he hasn't carved out a long, Woods-like reel of memorable moments in the majors.

"Our tour is doing great, but it's not going to be the same without Tiger," Mediate said on a conference call Wednesday. "We have a million good players, so many entertaining players, but he's missed big time."

That's abundantly clear at this week's Buick Open outside Detroit, a tournament Woods regularly plays and has won twice. The field includes exactly one player (Jim Furyk) in the top 20 in the world rankings. Gee, think people will gather around TV sets the way they did 10 days earlier for the U.S. Open playoff?

It's fair to say the tour wouldn't mind Mediate maneuvering into contention this weekend. That would be a lot more intriguing than, say, Brian Bateman winning. Bateman won this tournament last year, in case you forgot; Woods didn't play in the wake of his daughter's birth.

At any rate, Mediate is savoring his unlikely rise to prominence. He sat down with Jay Leno, made the media rounds and began to realize why his Open performance resonated so widely.

"People wanted a match," Mediate said. "We know how good Tiger is, but they wanted to see somebody challenge him. ... A lot of people thought I was going to get killed, but I wasn't afraid for one second that I was going to lose. That's why it went nuts, because I stood up to him."

All true. But nobody can stand up to Woods if he's not there.

CHASING LORENA

The U.S. Women's Open, which began Thursday in suburban Minneapolis, bubbles with compelling story lines.

But somehow, all the questions come back to Lorena Ochoa, still the leader of the pack. Yani Tseng interrupted Ochoa's run of dominance at the LPGA Championship earlier this month (when Ochoa tied for third), but the numbers are still striking heading into the Open.

Ochoa has won 11 of her last 20 starts, dating to August. She has finished in the top five in four other tournaments. Only twice in those 20 events has Ochoa finished outside the top 10.

By comparison, Woods won 10 of his last 20 starts before Tuesday's knee surgery (dating to March, 2007). He finished in the top five in five other tournaments and finished outside the top 10 four times.

MAJOR WOES FOR LEFTY

It has been two years since Mickelson's meltdown in the 2006 U.S. Open. Mickelson stood on the brink of winning his third consecutive major and mounting a serious challenge to Woods' grip on the No. 1 ranking, until the disastrous double bogey on the 72nd hole at Winged Foot in New York.

Mickelson has failed to put himself in final-round contention in any of the eight majors since then, capped by his disappointing showing in the Open at Torrey Pines. Woods, meantime, has won four majors since Winged Foot and finished second three other times.

(E-mail Ron Kroichick at rkroichick(at)sfchronicle.com.)

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