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

said. “I knew who he was because
     he’d been playing with Tom. I thought he had a lot of potential — even then he was a very good ball-striker.”
    Even so, Matlock didn’t want to talk to Rocco. “He told me how impressed he was with our team and our approach,” Matlock remembered.
     “He said, ‘We’re just here to have fun. You guys are here to win.’ I told him to me fun was working hard to achieve a goal
     and then enjoying the satisfaction of achieving it. He told me he wanted to transfer and come play for us and could I send
     him some literature. I told him, ‘No, absolutely not. I don’t want to get in trouble with the NCAA, and in truth, I shouldn’t
     even be talking to you right now.’ ”
    The NCAA frowns on coaches recruiting players from other schools. Matlock didn’t want any appearance of impropriety, even
     if the player in question had approached him rather than the other way around. He wished Rocco luck and completely forgot
     about the conversation with the eager young kid from Pennsylvania.
    Rocco didn’t forget Matlock, though, or Florida Southern. When he got home at the end of the semester, he told his parents
     he wanted to transfer to Florida Southern. He wanted to leave California University and he wanted to go someplace warm where
     he could play golf all year round. It was too late to think about transferring for the fall semester, but Tony Mediate remembered
     a friend whose son was at Florida Southern. He contacted him to get some information about the school and to see if Rocco
     would have a chance of getting in.
    Rocco returned to Cal U in the fall and wasn’t any happier, even though he was convinced he would play number one on the team
     the following spring. He had filled out the application forms for Florida Southern and sent them in. Tony’s friend had made
     a call to the admissions department on his behalf, and Rocco was waiting to hear if he had been accepted. He was thinking
     that, best-case scenario, he might get in the following fall, and he was mentally preparing himself to finish the year at
     Cal U.
    Then came the epiphany.
    “It was late in the semester, sometime in December,” he said. “The golf course was closed, obviously, and so was the driving
     range. I would go down to the football field with my clubs and some balls, clear off some snow, and hit balls. It was a wide-open
     area, so I could do it. I drove down there with a couple of guys one afternoon. We weren’t out of the car five minutes when
     they said, ‘This is ridiculous; it’s way too cold,’ and took off. I stood there hitting balls by myself for a while and finally
     said, ‘They’re right; this is crazy. What the hell am I doing here? I have got to get out of this place.’ I called Coach Matlock
     the next day.”
    Matlock was in the office that morning by happenstance. The semester had just ended and he had gone in to pick up some paperwork
     he needed for a recruiting trip to Miami. He was about to walk out when the phone rang.
    “Coach Matlock? It’s Rocco Mediate calling.”
    “Do I know you?”
    “We met at the national championships last spring. I was asking you about Florida Southern, remember?”
    Matlock did remember. Rocco told him he had applied to the school for spring admission but would come the next fall if that
     didn’t work out. He wanted to know if he could be a part of his team. Matlock told him to come and see him if he got into
     the school and they would talk.
    “I thought he had potential,” Matlock said. “But I wasn’t going to make any promises.”
    Soon after, Rocco got word from Florida Southern that — apparently thanks in large part to Tony’s friend — he had been accepted
     for the spring semester. Overjoyed, he drove to Lakeland to register in mid-January and went directly to Matlock’s office.
    “He was waiting for me when I got in that morning,” Matlock said. “I said, ‘Rocco, what are you doing here?’ He told me, ‘I