Rocking Rocky ‘Robert Rock’ Wins In Abu Dhabi

Englishman Robert Rock tames the Tiger to wins in Abu Dhabi.

Coming into Sunday, Robert Rock was tied for the lead with the 14-time major winner Tiger Woods and was most pundits underdog to win. Previously Rock had only achieved one other victory compared to the 83 Tiger has collected.

Rock wobbled on the 18th when his drive landed in a pile of rocks near the water, forcing him to take a drop, but he recovered beautifully, reaching the green in four and two-putting for the win.

“I was just focusing on trying to hit fairways and then hit my iron shots as good as I have been and give myself chances at birdies,” Rock said. “Both Tiger and Peter struggled on occasions on a few holes and I managed to keep my ball in the right position and didn’t put myself under too much stress until the last, which was a relief.”

It was a storybook ending for Rock, who rose from a club pro to join the European Tour in 2003 and only got his first tour win last year at the Italian Open. The victory will elevate him into the top 60.

“It’s pretty hard to believe that I managed to win today. Very surprised,” the Englishman said. “I played good. So I guess I had a chance from early on, a couple of birdies made the day feel a little bit easier.”

“But it’s difficult playing with Tiger. You expect almost every shot to threaten to go in. It felt a lot of pressure and couldn’t afford any lapses in concentration at all.”

“It doesn’t get an awful lot harder than playing with Tiger Woods,” Rock said. “So I guess barring a major championship, I know I can handle that again. So that’s pretty nice to know.”

The 117th-ranked Rock shot 70 for an overall 275 to beat McIlroy (69) by a shot. Woods was a further shot back with Thomas Bjorn (68) and Graeme McDowell (68). The 18-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero (69) and George Coetzee (70) of South Africa were another shot back.

“Today I just didn’t give myself enough looks at it,” Woods said. “Most of my putts were lag putts. I didn’t drive the ball in as many fairways as I should have … It was a day I was just a touch off the tee and consequently I couldn’t get the ball close enough.”

Tiger started strongly and it looked as though he might pull away from Rock, after sinking a 40-footer on No. 2 for birdie and chipping to within a foot of the cup for a second birdie on the 3rd. But Rock held fast, making birdie on two of the first three holes to keep pace.

Tiger managed to save par by sinking a 12-footer and Rock just missed a birdie putt. Woods pumped his fist and appeared to be regaining momentum as he pulled within one shot of Rock on No. 13 when the Englishman had one of his three bogeys. But the 34-year-old Rock birdied two of the next three holes to regain control.

While most of the crowds and TV coverage was on Rock and Woods, a few other players were trying their best to make things harder for Rock on the back 9 on Sunday.

Rory McIlroy, playing in the group in front birdied 18 to shoot 12 under and post a score in the clubhouse and maybe give himself an outside chance. But he came up just one shot short and is no doubt thinking about the two shots penalty for brushing away sand in front of his ball in the rough of the 9th a couple of days ago

“You know, you’ve got to take the positives,” Rory said. “It was the first week of the year, and you know, it looks like it’s going to be the second year in a row here that I’ll finish second. But still a very good start to the season and something I’ll build on.”

G-Mac had the most exciting back 9 on Sunday, with a hole in one on 12, then he chipped in on 13 and to finish things off he played a shot against the grandstand on 18 which bounced back and rolled nicely toward the flag., which was rightly sunk for birdie and a tie for third.

Robert Rock – A Quick History

Robert Rock

Robert Rock (born 6 April 1977) is an English professional golfer. He was born in Armitage, near Lichfield in Staffordshire. He joined the European Tour as an affiliate member in 2003 and has remained a member ever since.

His breakthrough season was 2009, when he managed three second place finishes, including at the Irish Open, where he tied for first place but lost to Irish amateur Shane Lowry in a three-hole playoff. He finished the 2009 season ranked in the top thirty of the Race to Dubai.

Rock won his maiden European Tour title at the BMW Italian Open in Turin in June 2011. He won by one stroke over Gary Boyd and Thorbjørn Olesen despite a final round 62 from Olesen. He made his US Open debut the following week, having qualified via a European sectional qualifying event. Because of difficulties in obtaining a visa, he only arrived in the United States at 3:30am on the Thursday morning, less than 12 hours before the start of his round. Despite this, he managed an under-par opening round of 70 and finished in equal 23rd place on 3 under.

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Putting Training

Putting Training from Weekend Golfers

This article talks about the importance of regular Putting Training

Golf can be broken down into several areas of play that you will need to master if you are to become a good player.  There are a lot of parts you need to master, of course the tee shot, chipping and pitching, sand play, fairway woods, hitting your driver and our favourite ‘Putting’.

You need to practice all of these skills but we believe you need to practice putting the most.

In our opinion putting training is a must because we believe putting is the most important part of the game and you need to become the best putter you can. So we recommend practicing as much as you can.

Why do we think putting is so important?

Well ask yourself a question, in an average round of golf which club will you use the most? I’m sure after you’ve given it some thought you will agree with us and say your putter.

If you don’t quite believe us, imagine if you play 18 holes and you two putt every green.

There’s 36 shots already.

It makes sense to us to practice the most with the club you use the most. In the example above if you could one-putt half the greens, you would only take 27 putts and knock a MASSIVE 9-shots off your score.

What a great way to get your handicap lower.  Sure we know it’s not quite that straight forward. Somedays, you’ll hit the green in regulation a lot and sometimes you won’t.

But what we are talking about here is effectively a game within a game.

Irrespective of how many shots it takes you to get on the green. Once you pull the putter out of your bag and start to putt, you will always start on putt number one. Even if you have just three putted the last green, you will still start at putt number one.

You have a chance to get the ball in the hole on every putt you look at and while improbable it’s not impossible to think you can make every putt. The reality is you won’t make every putt but you can go a long way to making sure you make more than you miss.

Putting Training Ideas

Make it Harder

The best way to practice your putting is to make your practice the same, or harder where possible, than it would be while you are playing on the golf course.  The biggest mistake we see on putting greens is using more than one ball.

When you are playing in a round of golf you don’t get to putt a second or third ball just because you missed the putt. So why would you practice something that will never happen in a real game.

By using just one ball, it will help you to read the slope, the break and the pace of the green. If you use more than one ball there is a danger that you will just remember what you have seen and duplicate it.

Now in some instances this is a good thing, on the course as you will be paying attention to your playing partners putts to glean information from them for your own putt. But when you are going through your drills on the putting green we suggest using just one ball.

Making it harder for yourself is a good idea too, if you can achieve this then when you come to play a game, it will be easier for you to do this. A couple of putting drills we use are:

Putting to a Golf Tee, rather than aiming at a hole. The Tee is very much smaller and is a harder target to hit. We try to putt as close to it as we can without hitting it. When you then start to putt towards a hole again, the hole will seem much bigger.

Another drill we use is to put a Tee-Peg about 3″ directly behind the hole and try to gently roll the ball into it. This takes the focus away from the hole and puts it on the Tee-peg. You will be amazed at how many more putts you make while practicing this way. When you go out onto the course you are less likely to come up short when putting. Never up – Never in is something we always try to avoid.

By making your putting routines harder than the real thing, you will be making the games easier for yourself when you go out on to the course. Putting training is an essential part of the game of golf, you really do only get out of golf what you put in to it.

We have created a video coaching course that takes you through all aspects of putting and will teach you to become a better and more consistent putter.

Putting Training

We wish you luck for taking fewer putts and shooting lower scores.

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