The People's Choice

It's amazing how palpable the pro-Rocco element has been all day here at TPC River Highlands: from the caddies to the few fans lining the fairways for the pro-am, even to a few players.

After completing his pro-am round, one PGA Tour player checked his PDA for U.S. Open results. "Oh no," he said as he read the results. "Bad news ... looks like Tiger won."

One volunteer worker who was in the caddy shack for a couple of hours in the morning said the caddies were 100 percent behind Rocco.

I'm sure much of this has to do with what a genuinely nice guy Rocco Mediate seems to be. He's surely one of the most popular players on tour amongst his fellow Tour members. But there definitely seems to be some anti-Tiger sentiment, too. Or maybe people just naturally gravitate towards the underdog.

--- DAVID BORGES
dborges@nhregister.com