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 B

money for the first time,” he said. “Plus, I was away a lot. Linda
     was there some of the time, but not all the time. It wasn’t as if I was out partying all night; if I had been I wouldn’t have
     been able to play. But I definitely liked to eat. After a while I got to be a pretty big boy.”
    At six-foot-one and 190 pounds in college, Rocco was in good shape. By the time his first son, Rocco Vincent Mediate, was
     born late in 1990, his weight had ballooned to close to 250 pounds and his waist size was a forty-two. The extra weight didn’t
     affect his stamina, but it did start to affect his back.
    He had played steadily in 1988 and 1989, still not winning but maintaining his playing privileges without any problem. In
     1990, he began to turn a corner and become a player people noticed.
    “I think at that point it was just experience kicking in,” he said. “I knew the golf courses, I knew which hotels to stay
     in, I knew how to get the best fares and upgrades on planes. [These days the tour has a travel office and a travel specialist
     who works out of the locker room, booking flights and hotels for players; back then they were on their own.] I was completely
     comfortable. Plus, my swing was really good. When I putted well, I could really score.”
    That has always been the book on Rocco: excellent ball-striker, streaky putter. “He always hit the ball very high and he always
     had that draw,” Carter said. “He never lacked confidence with a driver or an iron in his hands. It was the putter that kept
     him from winning those first few years.”
    In his fifth year on tour, he became a consistent contender. He finished second at the Greater Hartford Open and had a third
     and a seventh. By the time the year was over, he had made a career high $240,625 and was 62nd on the money list. He still
     hadn’t won, but he felt he was getting very close to that breakthrough.
    Late that year, back pain prompted Rocco to begin using a long putter. Only a handful of players — most of them on the Senior
     Tour — were using a long putter at that point, but Rocco decided to try it for two reasons: He thought it might help him putt
     better and he hoped it might take some pressure off his back.
    “My back wasn’t bad at that point, but I had put on some weight,” he said. “If I had been a great putter I never would have
     changed, but I wasn’t a great putter so I thought it was worth a try. As soon as I picked it up I felt comfortable with it,
     so I just kept on using it.”
    In the early 1990s, a long putter on the regular tour was usually a sign of trouble. “Old guys were supposed to use them,
     not young guys,” Strange said. “If you saw a guy with a long putter or putting cross-handed or doing anything that wasn’t
     conventional, the first thing you thought was, ‘This guy has issues.’ Rocco was probably the first guy on the regular tour
     to use the long putter and actually have serious success with it.”
    Rocco was using the long putter at Doral the following March when he made back-to-back birdie putts on the last two holes
     to get into a playoff with Strange. “I guess that was a pretty good clue that he was putting well,” Strange said, laughing,
     years later. “I remember I had finished ahead of him and had played well down the stretch. I thought I was in pretty good
     shape even when he made the birdie at 17, because birdieing the 18th at Doral to get into a playoff is a pretty tall order.
     But he hit a great second shot (to about 10 feet) and made the putt, and my thought was ‘Good for you.’ ”
    Because of a rain delay, the playoff was held the following morning, meaning Rocco had to sleep knowing he would need to come
     out firing the next morning, since the playoff was sudden death. On paper, the advantage had to belong to Strange, who had
     won 17 times on tour — including back-to-back U.S. Open victories in 1988 and 1989.
    “I felt pretty good about it, to tell the