Rock finds feet on greens as short stick starts to fire
Beaten by Shane Lowry in that memorable play-off at County Louth in 2009, he was disqualified at Killarney after the first round the following year when he signed for an incorrect score and then finished second when Paul Casey eagled the 72nd hole last year.
He finally made his tour breakthrough in 2011, claiming the BMW Italian Open before going on to enjoy the finest moment of his career so far when he won the 2012 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, holding off a host of star names including Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods to triumph by one shot.
But more often than not it’s been a struggle and yesterday he took another small step towards putting the Irish Open trophy on his mantelpiece at last when he had just 22 putts in a five-under 66 that left him tied with Graeme McDowell on eight under par.
The Irish crowds were not exactly kind to Rock when he was trying to deny Lowry at Baltray five years ago. But he believes he’s almost a crowd favourite now and loving the boost he gets when the Irish Open comes around.
“It’s quite cool,” he said of the support he gets from Irish fans.
Then, reflecting on the Irish Open play-off, where his poor shots were cheered, he grinned and said: “Maybe not so much that particular day but I think maybe they feel a bit sorry for me that they gave me such a hard time and they are all quite nice now.”
Putting is key for the 37-year-old from Staffordshire and the AimPoint Express method of reading greens that’s been made popular by world No 1 Adam Scott has certainly worked for him so far this week.
Currently 298th in the world having risen as high as 55th following that win in Abu Dhabi, the man more famous for his decision not to wear a cap than his golf certainly hasn’t lost his sense of humour.
Asked about his tremendous putting round, he said: “Twenty-two putts for me is normally the front nine. It’s been a lot of hard work over the last few months. I putted okay at the start of the year but since then it’s got gradually worse. I tried various things, but that AimPoint Express has been a reliable way to read greens.
“I’ve been doing the AimPoint for probably over a year in different phases, but worked hard on my stroke at the start of this week, found something new to try, and that coupled with a bit more confidence has worked okay.”
The season has been a mixed bag so far with six missed cuts from 13 starts but he believes that his form traditionally turns around at Irish Open time and this year has proved to be no different.
“I played well at the start of the year and I struggled a little bit when we got to Asia and my confidence takes a bit of battering,” he said. “I was hoping to play well for US Open qualifying but didn’t quite manage that. But I’ve started to turn it around again.”
Rock got his round off to a lightning start when he birdied the second, third and fourth and while he bogeyed the seventh, he birdied the short 11th before a bogey at the 12th darkened his mood.
The turning point of his round arrived at the 14th where he holed a bunker shot for a birdie and then picked up shots at the 15th and 16th.
“It was a little unexpected,” he said of his holed bunker shot. “I was probably not in the best frame of mind when I played that. Pretty standard iron shot and managed to get the wind wrong and came up almost 20 yards short of the flag which is pretty poor for a nine-iron. That was a two-shot swing there.
“I’s nice to be in the tournament after two days. It’s been a spell and it feels better to be making some putts and moving under par.”
Still, Rock knows there is still a long way to go and he expects it to be a major challenge.
“You have to play well and hit the ball well,” he said. “You have to manage your game and the course, and then you’ve got to hole putts.
“For the last probably two months, tee-to-green I’ve been pretty sharp.
“Putting has been letting me down quite considerably, so that’s a bit of work and that’s in good order. Short game still needs a bit more work but everything else is good.
“For the last few seasons, I’ve started my year okay, but as I start to travel a bit further afield, it’s a different course with different greens and I don’t putt well.
“I still go but I don’t play well and it kind of batters your confidence a little bit, and then you have to put in a lot of work to rebuild that and that takes time.”
His annual return to Ireland appears to work wonders for his confidence with the short stick.
“It seems to be around this time of year when it starts to come back together again,” he said.
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