The last time Robert Rock visited Pinehurst he was kicked out for being on the wrong golf course.
Thirty years later, the 47-year-old will arrive in a sponsored car to take on the grueling test of the 124th US Open, a challenge he admits “sounds intense when you say it out loud”.
A two-time winner on the DP World Tour, including Tiger Woods’ famous victory in Abu Dhabi, Rock announced he would retire from professional golf in October 2022, but he couldn’t resist his last chance to reach the US Open final.
That meant 36 holes in one day at Walton Heath, with no practice and a bad back, but Rock deservedly claimed his first place since the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
“This will be my first four-round tournament since the Italian Open in 2022,” Rock told PA news. “I missed the ax at Dunhill Links two weeks later so I only played three rounds.
“So my first four-round event in (almost) two years will be my toughest competition. What nonsense does it do? It sounds intense when you say it out loud.
“I know I’m going to enjoy it and I really didn’t expect anything. I won’t be too surprised if I get hit hard, I’m not that sharp at playing tournaments.
“But if I can hit some good shots and get a good first round and hopefully get a feel for the terrain.
“Golf is amazing. If you had told me that I would have to play with Tiger Woods one day, I would have said that was stupid.”
And beating him when they were paired together in the final round in Abu Dhabi?
“Even an idiot,” Rock admitted. “Golf has been good to me so I’m not expecting anything. It can be embarrassing or it can be amazing. Who knows?”
THOUGHTS ON PINEHURST
Rock admits he would have thought twice about trying to qualify if the US Open had been at a regular location, but Pinehurst underwent renovations before the event ended in 2014 that returned the course to its original design.
“I’m happy about that,” said Rock. “I played Congressional (in 2011) which I saw as ordinary but at that time I played well.
“After a year I was released to play for the Olympic Club and I was not playing well. It was very difficult and it’s not a tournament to play if you don’t play hard and you don’t play well.
“Pinehurst is a different kind of strategy, there’s shooting in abandoned places and with a little luck here and there you might get away with a bad shot.
“On the green side it’s a skill and that’s what I’m going to do a little homework on. I don’t expect to be able to hit as many greens with a six-iron when the tall guys hit a nine-iron, but there’s not much I can do about that these days.”
As for that aborted trip to Pinehurst three decades ago, Rock said it was a case of the right time, the wrong place on the way to the tournament for America’s top college recruits.
“We were looking for Pine Needles, which is 5 miles away, but we pulled up on the curve in front of Pinehurst with a little statue (of 1999 winner Payne Stewart) on it,” Rock said.
“I thought ‘This is not the right place’ so they kicked us all out.”
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