FIELDREPORT
Rock has come a long way, but his was not a privileged rise to the top via the elite amateur circuit or US college network. “I became an assistant at 18 aſter leaving school having done ‘A’ levels,” he recalls. “I’d just about sneaked my handicap down to scratch and I’d played a bit of county golf. Even then I was coaching myself – I’ve never really had a teacher – so when I’m out on the course I can put things right if they’re going wrong.
“I went to work at a local club, now known as Lichfield Golf & Country Club, and spent four years there fitting grips and selling Mars bars before completing my PGA qualifications. I intended aſter that to put my efforts into coaching, but they took most of the income I earned at the club so I was virtually making nothing for all that time spent giving lessons. And I oſten didn’t feel like practicing my own game at the end of a busy day.
“I had to change job to give myself more time to play, so I joined a local public driving range just off the A38 called Swingers and worked there as a sole trader, teaching, for about four years. Today I’ve got the Robert Rock Golf Academy there [the club is now known as Darnford Moors].
“In what free time I had, I played in local PGA regional events and pro-ams, and I soon realised that if I won the Midland order of merit I’d get invitations to play in a few big tournaments. At the time, there were European Tour events in my region at The Belfry and Forest of Arden. The first year I played in them [2002], I double-bogeyed the 18th at The Belfry to miss the cut by two and did something similar at Forest of Arden. I was heartbroken but it did make me think I wasn’t that far away. “I’d got it into my head that I should do it [play on Tour] but I didn’t really know whether it would suit me till I got out there. I used to see good players at qualifying for the Open, but I knew they weren’t the best players because those were already exempt. I’d no idea how my game would stand up out on Tour. I was quite a solid driver of the ball, so that part of my game was OK, but my irons weren’t sharp and my short game was non-existent.
“The following year I won half the events I entered in the Midlands and finished 23rd when the Tour came back to The Belfry. I went to the PGA Championship at Wentworth and was leading during the third round when I realised the first prize was about £500,000. From then on I played horrendously. “At that point, I didn’t have the money to pay for my affiliate membership of the Tour. It cost £2,000 and I put it on a credit card – I honestly didn’t know whether the transaction would go through or not, but somehow it did. Then Chubby Chandler gave me an invite to play in the British Masters at Forest of Arden. I finished fourth, won £100,000 and had my card. I was off and running, and able to pay off the credit card.”
There have been three pinnacles in his Tour SGBGOLF 27
career, starting with his breakthrough season, 2009, when he was runner-up three times. Despite finishing second in the Irish Open at Co Louth GC – he lost to (then) amateur Shane Lowry in a playoff – he scooped the €500,000 top prize, still his biggest cheque.
His maiden Tour title was the Italian Open in June 2011 which he followed with a nail-biting few days chasing a visa to take up his place in the US Open at Congressional. That event is now famous as Rory McIlroy’s first Major victory, but it was also a triumph for Rock who only landed in America at 3.30am on the morning of his first round which he completed in 70, en route to a creditable tie for 23rd on three under par.
Rock’s spotlight moment came in 2012 when he won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, closing with a two-under-par 70 while paired in the final group with Tiger Woods, who only managed a 72 to tie third.
“Beating Woods and McIlroy [who came second] was the highlight of my playing career to date. I was just happy to be in the last group with Tiger, but I didn’t want to be the guy who shot 80 while playing with him. To be fair, he didn’t try to intimidate me at all – in fact he was quite friendly and appeared to know quite a bit
about me. If he’d actually said nothing, he would probably have had me beat.” After seven events, Rock’s on-course earnings for 2015 already total nearly €153,000. And with The Open Championship returning in July to St Andrews, where he tied seventh in 2010, his hopes of a lucrative summer are understandably high. When not playing, he is busy teaching other golfers, especially fellow professionals. In addition to fellow Midlander Oliver Wilson, he currently works with three Ladies’ Europe Tour starlets – Amy Boulden of Wales, Scotland’s Kelsey MacDonald and England’s Charlotte Thompson.
“I’ve never lost my interest in coaching despite being on Tour and now, with these academies, I’ve got the opportunity to do more of it. It’s good for me to spend time here. It’s a reminder of how hard I worked to get on Tour and stops me getting complacent. “I definitely won’t be going on the senior Tours when my days on the regular Tour are over. I shall be concentrating on teaching and coaching. That’s what I really want to do.” Rock may once have been in a hard place, but there’s been nothing rocky about how he got to where he is now.
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