Are You Kidding Me?: The Story of Rocco Mediate's Extraordinary Battle With Tiger Woods at the US Open by John Feinstein, Rocco Mediate Page A

learning experience on the golf course, on the practice tee,
     in the locker room, away from the golf course. I was just a kid trying to figure things out. For me, the PGA Tour those first
     few years was like going to golf college. A lot of guys went out of their way to help me, which I’ve tried never to forget.
     Now when I see young guys out here with that wide-eyed look I’m sure I had twenty years ago, I try to help them whenever I
     can.”
    And it wasn’t just his golf swing that needed refining. One morning Rocco walked into the locker room at Muirfield Village
     Golf Club, the site of Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament. It was pro-am day, and he was wearing a pullover sweater and comfortable
     pants. “They were kind of puffy,” he said. “Not all that sloppy, not like painter’s pants or anything, but not exactly dressy.”
    “Hey, kid, come over here,” he heard a voice say, and looked up to see 1973 British Open champion Tom Weiskopf waving at him.
    Dutifully, Rocco made his way over to Weiskopf’s locker.
    “Do you think the people who paid money to play with you today want to see you looking like that?” Weiskopf said. “You want
     to be a pro, you have to look like one. You need new pants — real pants.”
    He handed Rocco a card. “Call this guy. Tell him I told you to call. Get him to make some good pants for you.”
    Rocco did what he was told. Since then he has worn nothing but tailor-made pants on days when he goes to the golf course on
     tour. In fact, he’s become a serious clotheshorse. He has a huge collection of belt buckles and gets his belts made too.
    Other more experienced players also took him under their wing. Curtis Strange was the number one player in the world when
     Rocco arrived on tour and didn’t play with him much, since they were in different categories when pairings were made, but
     Strange remembers frequently running into Rocco early on.
    “You may not play with a guy, but you do run into people on the practice tee and in the locker room,” Strange said. “Rocco
     was quieter then, but you could just tell he was a good kid. A lot of young guys show up on tour and act like the world is
     supposed to be at their feet. Rocco was never that way. You could tell he thought he was lucky to be doing what he was doing,
     and he loved a good story — whether he was listening to one or telling one. The Rocco people see now was always there; it
     was just a matter of him getting the confidence to show it.”
    Arnold Palmer was seeing a lot of Rocco too. He wasn’t playing very much in those days, but whenever Rocco went home, he would
     go over to Latrobe and play with him.
    “I probably lectured him too much,” Palmer said, smiling, years later. “I saw so much potential in him. By the time he had
     been on tour for a couple of years, he had a very good golf swing and had become one of the best ball-strikers I’d seen in
     a long time. Plus, I knew he had the kind of personality that would make him a star and someone who would be very good for
     golf if he started to win with some consistency.”
    But Palmer had concerns too. “I worried about him. I saw his weight going up at a young age and didn’t think that was a good
     thing. I thought he needed to spend more time on the putting green because at times he putted very well but at other times
     not as well. With the way he hit the ball, I thought he should be scoring better.”
    Weight was starting to become an issue as Rocco became established on tour. “People look at him now and they forget there
     was a time when his shoulders were wider than his hips,” Janzen joked.
    Of course Rocco knew that putting on weight wasn’t a good idea for any golfer. He had been in good shape at Florida Southern
     because of Matlock’s boot camps, but living on the road, especially after he started to make some money, he found it tough
     to keep weight off.
    “I was probably like any guy in his twenties who was making