Robert Rock, a DP World Tour veteran with five professional victories, made headlines this year when he qualified for the US Open 18 months after announcing his retirement from professional golf.
WATCH: Robert Rock's exclusive interview with Golf Monthly
In the latest episode of Monthly Meets, a video interview series on the Golf Monthly YouTube channel where we speak to some of the biggest personalities in the sport, Rock reflected on his career, including his surprise US Open appearance at Pinehurst No.2, the decision behind his retirement, beating Tiger Woods and more.
Despite missing the cut at this year’s US Open, Rock said it was a “brilliant experience” after surprising himself by managing to qualify.
“It was a brilliant experience,” Rock told Golf Monthly’s Dan Parker. “It's something I obviously hadn't planned on doing at all this year. I retired in 2022 and I would've liked to have retired but still play the odd event but that wasn't possible.
“So I played in a qualifier and I got in, which I didn't think I'd get in that at all. But the point of the qualifier was just getting me to play amongst a great field. It is always a great field at Walton Heath and at the Open qualifiers. It was a chance to see where my game was at after a couple years out.
“It's the best tournament I've ever been to. I was surprised. I've never been a massive fan of American golf events up to that point. I played two US Opens before that and it was just hard. But Pinehurst is different.
"Pinehurst, I can see how vast that area is and how many great golf courses are around; it's just a golfing area with great weather. It's difficult to not like it … It was a really, really tough test, which I had been able to try when I was playing my best.”
Rock decided to hang up his clubs as a professional in 2022, choosing to support and spend more time with his teenage son, who is a serious youth footballer.
“It was more timing in life rather than me saying that my golf game wasn't up to it anymore.”
Rock’s biggest win of his career came at the 2012 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, where he beat Rory McIlroy by one stroke. What made the victory even sweeter was the chance to play alongside Woods in the final round.
“I actually played one of the best rounds on the Saturday before playing with Tiger,” Rock recalled. “I just wanted to play okay on Sunday so that I wasn't in the way or feel in the way. I wanted to watch him do his thing and I wanted hopefully at the end of it for him to maybe go, 'oh he was alright there'.
“Just not make a hash of it and could I – taking everything that I've learned up to that point, being on my own, hitting balls on my own and building the swing that I liked – could I actually get it to work under that sort of pressure, which is something I've never felt before.
“I wasn't interested in winning … I honestly didn’t care where I finished.”
Reflecting on his career – which spanned 465 events in 25 years – Rock said that Sunday when he beat some of the best players in the world in Abu Dhabi was the crowning achievement of his career.
“If you take that one day off, I would’ve been really disappointed,” Rock admitted when asked to judge his career as a whole. “I feel lucky that I grafted for that long and got [that]. The game gives you stuff at random times and you don't know what you're going to get. But I got that out of it.”
