Are You Kidding Me? By: Rocco Mediate and John Feinstein

Are You Kidding Me? was a really good book. When I bought it I thought it was just going to talk about the 2008 U.S. Open. Instead it talks about Rocco's life through high school, college, going through Q-School, and being on the PGA Tour. As a kid Rocco didn't fall in love with the game of golf. He was interested in skateboarding and baseball. His dad would take him out to the golf course only to ride in the golf cart every now and then. As he grew older, Rocco started playing a few holes with his father, Tony Mediate, but would go home after nine holes. It hit him when he was in high school. He had fallen in love with the game. Rocco wasn't that good of player through high school but he was the hardest worker. A good day for him was shooting in the mid-80s. As a high school student, Rocco wasn't really anything special. He wasn't being looked at by college scouts for his golf game and his grades were mediocre. Rocco ended up going to California University, a small college in California, Pennsylvania. As Rocco kept up with his game, he wanted to have a trainer. Bob Toski recommended a man named Jim Ferree to Tony Mediate. Rocco immediately started going to him. A bad incident occurred in the first year of college. During the winter of his first year at college, four of his teammates burst into Rocco's room at two in the morning. One of the teammates was Rocco's childhood friend, Todd Silvis. They tied Rocco up, blind folded him, and put him in a car. They drove for thirty minutes and dropped Rocco off in the middle of nowhere in twenty degree weather. He didn't even know the direction of the school. Rocco started walking in the directions of some lights he had seen. As he was walking, he came to a farmhouse with a light on. As he approached it a huge dog came running and chased him. Rocco had to hop a fence, cutting his hand and losing the necklace his mom had given him when he graduated from high school. He made it back to campus at around seven thirty and went straight to Coach Schuler's office. Rocco was so angry and told Coach if he didn't do something about those boys he would call his Uncle Joe and his dad and bad things would go down. All the boys did was apologize and that wasn't good enough for Rocco. He was done with those boys and definitely done with that school. His new start was at the NCAA Division 2 national championships. Rocco was very impressed with Florida Southern's golf team and wanted to play for them. After he finished his first year of college at California University, Rocco applied at Florida Southern and got in. Coach Matlock, the golf coach at Florida Southern, wasn't just going to let Rocco walk onto the golf team. He had to work for it. Rocco worked and worked, barely keeping his grades at the expectations by Coach Matlock. That summer he gave PGA Tour Qualifying School a shot and played alright the first day shooting 75. He was thinking about going home after that but Tom Gleaton convinced him to stay for the second day. He played great. On the last hole he chipped in and got his PGA Tour Card. Rocco Mediate was on the PGA Tour. His first year on tour, he made $20,174, not making the top 125 on the money list. He had to go back to Q-School. Rocco stayed on the tour for a while until he started experiencing some major back problems. At one time he collapsed in the parking lot when getting out of his car for a tournament. Rocco had surgery on his back on July 12, 1994, lasting four hours. Later in his career his back still hurt until he met a woman named Cindi, who knew the problem. It wasn't his back, it was his pelvis. She massaged him before every tournament in the fitness trailer. Rocco had a few good years and a few bad years on tour. In 2008, he went head to head with Tiger Woods, the number one player in the world. Rocco and Tiger had tied after four days of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and went into a eighteen hole playoff on monday. After that they were still tied and went into a sudden death playoff. It started on the seventh hole at Torrey Pines, a tough par four. Tiger made a par beating Rocco who made a bogey. This tournament will be remembered in golf history forever. If you are a golf fan, Are You Kidding Me? is a great book for you to read.






- Are You Kidding Me? By: Rocco Mediate and John Feinstein
-http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1902502,00.html- This book review helped me expand my detail in this summary.