At the recent Dunhill Links the DP World Tour said goodbye to one of its most unlikely, and certainly one of its most unique stars, as Robert Rock signed off with a closing birdie.
It would be at his favourite course on the planet, the Old Course at St Andrews, but unlike Jack and Arnie and the Swilken Bridge, it would be on the other side of the course at the 9th. There would be grand statements and no fanfare, just the way he’d probably like it.
Rock’s like might never be seen again; a PGA Midlands pro who had managed to get a start at The Belfry through the regional order of merit in 2002. He had previously played in one Challenge Tour event in 1999, which had gone ‘horrendously’, and now he had a seven-month wait to tee it up on the European Tour for the first time.
He came to his 36th hole, the 9th on the Brabazon, needing a par to make the cut with a wedge in his hand.
“All I had to do was carry the front bunker and avoid the water and two-putt it. Instead I mishit it, a bit squeezy and thin, and it buried in the face of the bunker. I wasn’t very good at bunkers so I got it out to 35 feet and three-putt it. After months and months of preparation, and 35 holes of hard graft, I thinned a wedge and that was that,” Rock says of his closing double-bogey.
The following year he was back at The Belfry but this time he would make the cut and, three starts later, he tied for 4th at the Forest of Arden.
“I just wanted to get a couple of tour starts. I couldn’t see myself doing it through the school and it never even entered my head to do it through the Challenge Tour so my main option was to do well at regional level, get a couple of starts and see where that took me.
“Going into 2003 my biggest cheque was about £5,000, within two months I had won over £120k. That was unheard of. After the Forest of Arden I remember paying my mortgage off at the time. In 2002 I didn’t pay my affiliate entry fee, the following year I qualified for Wentworth as well and I was told that I might get into some other events. I didn’t have the £2,500 entry fee…
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