Robert Rock: ‘Why Pinehurst is my new favourite test of golf'

20/06/2024

This year's US Open will be remembered as one of the greatest Major championships in the modern era. At the end of the week at Pinehurst No. 2 we had Bryson DeChambeau becoming a two-time US Open champion when, for much of Sunday's back nine, it seemed that Rory McIlroy would himself do just that.

Another element was the course itself, the Donald Ross classic which teased and tested the world's best players, and which saw only eight of them finish in red figures.

PGA Member Robert Rock hadn't played on the DP World Tour since October 2022 but, at the age of 47, he would come through the 36-hole qualifying at Walton Heath and take his place in a third US Open. Rock would open with a level-par 70, when only 15 players would break par, before coming up short of the halfway cut on day two. Here he shares some insights into what confirmed Pinehurst one of the great modern-day Major venues.

What were your initial thoughts on the course?

I didn’t think that it would bear any resemblance to Walton Heath but in a way, off the tee, it did. There you have quite generous fairways and then the heather and at Pinehurst you have the same and then you’re into the wasteland. It doesn't really give you a yard or two, it was just fairway and then the rubbish so you knew what you were getting. But the fairways were generous and softish and not US Open-type narrow fairways. It was wide enough that if you've hit a decent shot, you could be pretty sure that it would end on the fairway. The final leaderboard suggested that the further down the fairway you were, the easier the second shots were. I seemed to have 200 yards in on a lot of holes, I hit the driver well, generally around 290-300 yards, and thankfully the shots were going a lot further so, for 200 yards in England, that might be a 4 or a 5-iron, there you were hitting a 6 or 7.

How good was your opening 70?

I played really well and was really sharp but it took a lot out of me. I haven’t tried that hard in years. We don’t have anything that comes close to that in terms of difficulty. Even Valderrama is nowhere near to be honest and Pinehurst has replaced that as my favourite test of golf. Everything was just really hard but there was always a shot to play and a decision to make. So I drove it really well, hit some really good iron shots and chipped to the right distance when I could have de-greened it. I had a 15-footer to shoot under par, which was fantastic, but I was absolutely exhausted.

How good was the set-up?

Absolutely spot on and it was great to go back to playing hard courses again. I loved that. It doesn’t excite me to go somewhere where everyone’s making a lot of birdies and we just don’t have these types of courses in the UK where they’re only made hard by the weather. The greens were really firm, true and fast and, once you'd hit a short putt, you knew if it was going in. I holed quite a few 5-10 footers for par but I didn’t hole many longer ones. From 30 feet and out you had the grain change and that's when you could make a mess of things. The only thing I didn’t quite see the need for was so much wire grass in the waste areas but it was 50-50 whether you got involved with it and unfortunately the wider you went, the better shot you would have from under the canopy of the trees.

Which were your favourite holes?

I remembered them all straightaway from 2014 which is always a good sign as it normally takes me ages. The 3rd to 5th is a great stretch and then 11, 12 and 13 were also fantastic. The 18th probably isn’t the most dramatic final hole and isn’t that tough in terms of what’s gone before but look what happened there in the end. The 16th and 17th are brilliant holes and, if you could finish on 15 and 16, that would be very classy. On 16 I hit a driver and a 2-iron and I haven’t had to do that on a par 4 for a very long time.

What is one thing not spoken about the overall test?

You had to be able to read the lie which playing a lot in the States would have been very helpful. It wasn’t obvious whether it was into or down grain and it was just a bit of a mixture and could vary from spot to spot. I did some practice to the right of the 16th green and I tried to putt the first one across a hump before the green which was really awkward. Then I noticed it was down grain and I chipped it over the hump which turned it into a straight shot and I chipped it in. I then moved it just to the side, to a spot into the grain, and duffed it in front of me. Then I went back to the down grain spot and chipped it in again – and I couldn’t really tell the difference.

With two holes to play you needed to pick up one shot to play the weekend

I battled away nicely and holed some good par putts. I always needed a birdie to have a bit of a buffer and I and gave myself some chances. At the 5th we had a 20-minute wait on the tee and I stiffened up, pushed it right and I then fractionally thinned a wedge just over the back of the green and dropped a shot – and that sort of cost me the chance to play the weekend. I was probably trying to get the wedge close and I was then having to push things. I had been so patient to that point and three putts at my 17th meant that I needed to hole my tee shot on the last to make the cut, which Francesco Molinari somehow managed. I normally would have hit an 8 to the middle of the green but I hit the 7, found the bunker and I could have made any number from there. It was interesting to see how it's a course that can destroy you if you take on certain shots – I couldn't see a way to keep it on the green in any direction. It ran over the green and down the slope to where Tiger Woods had been. Then I realised I was in an even worse spot and I hadn’t hit any chip-and-runs in the tournament to that point and luckily it stayed on the top and I two-putted for a double-bogey five.

What surprised you about your golf?

I didn’t know where it would stack up in a real test of everything. I knew that I would play OK at Walton Heath but, once I got to Pinehurst, I had no real idea whether I had the tools sharp enough. I probably didn’t with the short-game but tee to green I was OK. You had to know that you were capable of hitting those spinny chips and I hadn’t played nearly enough on good enough turf and greens to know that I was doing that reliably. I really could have done with playing a couple of four-round tournaments to go through the motions of that and to concentrate and get back into the routine of it. I probably felt too comfortable on the Friday and I would have been better off being more on edge. I was up at 7am and not off until after 2pm so there was a lot of killing time for the day.

Aside from the qualifier it was a first caddying start for Carl Baker, how did that go?

He loved it. He could tell when it was getting a bit tough on both days and he was great at reminding me that this was hard for everyone which is all anyone could say. What he did say helped and he could tell when it was getting important and difficult. For a rookie caddy he did really well and to caddy in a US Open at Pinehurst is quite a learning curve - he was fantastic. He was a professional footballer, so he's been involved in sport but here he got to see how serious golf is in the decision-making part of it. The real finer details make a huge difference to what you do and it's not always about how well you hit the ball which you might not appreciate from outside the ropes.

Both Rory and Bryson were criticised for hitting driver on 18 on Sunday, what was your strategy?

I hit driver both times, down the right to leave a gap wedge in. I hit a 3-wood in a practice round and it just ended up in the same place as the driver or you could have hit an iron. It just depends on how you see the shot at the time. I was surprised that they both hit drivers but, for a longer player, you might get a drop from the grandstand if it does go left. Bryson was unlucky as he hit someone and it went into a worse spot under a tree.

You've probably played in one of the greatest Majors this century, looking back now how special a week was it?

It was such a great experience. I normally can’t wait to get away from a tournament but we stayed until the Monday. The practice area which is normally The Cradle was good fun to hit balls on and I think it was the best Major that I’ve played in. I've been to the Masters in a coaching role and Pinehurst captured my imagination far more. It was great to see some old faces again. I spoke to Bryson who was showing me his equipment and Tiger was putting with his son Charlie and I had a chat with both of them. Tiger said something nice about my swing to Charlie, which was pretty cool, and I really feel quite lucky to have played in it. I think I'm now exempt for Final Qualifying again next year, so I’ll definitely give it another go.