In the next episode of Monthly Meets, Dan Parker sits down with English journeyman tour pro Robert Rock who is arguably known for having one of the best golf swings on tour as well as overcoming Tiger Woods in his prime to win the 2012 HSBC Abu Dhabi Golf Championship. He talks about qualifying for the US Open at Pinehurst No.2, his golf swing philosophy, how he plans to spend his retirement from playing professionally and, of course, that famous week in the desert.
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00:00I thought I was good. I got my first handicap at 27 so I wasn't because golf is difficult
00:04and changing your swing is even harder. Actually I'm hitting it better than this guy. Then I panicked
00:09because I knew what I'd sign myself up for. Thomas Bjorn sent me a message saying don't
00:13make a fool of yourself and I wanted hopefully at the end of it for him to maybe go he's alright
00:19player. Right Robert thanks for joining us on monthly meets. Appreciate it. You've been
00:31back in the news this year with your US Open qualification. You've had a couple of months
00:35to sort of reflect on that now, that period. What are your reflections on it and that sort
00:41of couple of weeks of golf? Well it was a brilliant experience. It was something I obviously hadn't
00:46planned on doing at all this year. I retired in 22 and I would have liked to have retired
00:56but still play the odd event but that wasn't possible. So I played a qualifier and I got
01:03in which I didn't think I'd get in that at all but the point of the qualifier was just
01:09getting me to play amongst a great field which is it's always a great field at Walton Heath
01:14and at the Open qualifiers. So it was a chance to see where my game was at after a couple
01:18of years out. Played with a good pal James Morrison and we just had a good day. Both played well.
01:24I played better than I thought I was going to. Well actually putted better than I thought
01:28I was going to. I was hitting the ball pretty similar to how I do if I put a little bit of
01:34practicing. And then that took me to Pinehurst which of all US Open venues now that'sā¦
01:40Was that right up there for you if you could pick one? It's the best tournament I've ever
01:43been to. Really?
01:44Yeah I was really surprised. I'd not been a massive fan of American golf events up to
01:49that point. Played two US Opens before that and they were just hard but Pinehurst was different.
01:56Pinehurst is I can see how vast that area is and how many golf courses there are and how it's just a
02:06golfing area with great weather. So it's difficult to not like it. And it was a really really tough
02:12test which I wish I'd been able to try when I was playing my best. I mean I played really well
02:18the first day but I wasn't tournament practiced for playing 72 holes is hard. And I sort of forgot
02:26a little bit of how demanding a full week's major tournament is and I was exhausted. So after the first
02:33round I just had very little left in the tank for the second day. Second day was even hotter. Course was
02:38a little bit firmer but the golf I played between the two days was so similar. One was level par which
02:45felt like six or seven under par. And the second day ended up being nine over which felt like only two
02:52or three shots worse right. But obviously a lot worse but still a great experience to have played
02:59another major. Yeah and obviously that wasn't part of the plan initially it was sound like the
03:03qualification. I don't recommend trying a major after two years out. It's not the smartest thing in
03:09the world to do. That's why I'm always so surprised right because you did the qualification sort of
03:12on a whim I guess a little bit. Yeah absolutely yeah. And you happened to fall into it. Yeah then I
03:17panicked. Because I knew what I was I knew what I'd sign myself up for right. And you're two years
03:24out playing against the best players on a really hard course you can make yourself look a bit daft.
03:32And Thomas Bjorn sent me a message saying don't make a fool of yourself. That's what you want to hear
03:36isn't it? That was Thomas saying well done I think in a way but and then I thought yeah he's right.
03:42So I panicked practice for three weeks and managed to get one decent round in so I was quite happy with that.
03:47Well it was brilliant and it was great to watch and so it's come from the back of that retirement
03:50you spoke about. I've seen we've seen a lot of great athletes and other people retire from sport
03:55recently Andy Murray fairly recently and I just want to sort of get into your mind about the
04:00retirement process like where did the decision come from how quickly how long did it take you to decide
04:06that and and why and what's the transition like from professional sport to not doing that?
04:11That's a good question it was um it was more timing in life rather than me saying that my golf game
04:18wasn't up to it anymore it was basically my my son he's he's now 16 but he was 14 when when I
04:27chose to stop completely but in the in the previous years I was slowing down trying to play every other
04:34week so that I could be at home and take him to his his football because he's a really keen footballer
04:39and we've been playing we've been going to Chesterfield now which is part of their academy we've been going
04:43there for for four years so it was it was trying to slow down enough that I could do that but then
04:51the football training gets more and more intense and I needed to be there all the time yeah so I
04:58decided to put I thought when he got to the sort of 15 age group that'd be when it gets a bit more
05:04serious and can't afford to miss anything so so that's a good time to stop um and and the covid
05:11time gave me a little bit of a break that I needed because I mean I did nearly 20 years straight so
05:16that gave us the everyone gave everyone a little bit of time at home didn't we thinking about stuff
05:21and it also gave me a a rest because I actually really hurt my thumb um my left thumb and I was
05:28battling through that and then that period allowed it to heal so I started that back up quite fresh
05:35and then we I think we overplayed during covid we played nearly every week and that and that sort of
05:41made me want to tone it down a bit so yeah I decided 22 was time to stop I'm sure during that covid period
05:48golf wasn't that much fun it was the the perks weren't there that you were having when you're normally
05:53on tour and there's crowds and there's everything that comes with an event all the cool bits disappeared
05:57yeah so sort of like maybe maybe we'll take a rest there then um and and how are you finding it then
06:02how have you found that transition into not playing professionally yeah difficult every time I see
06:07people now that are retiring from sport early I fully understand what they're probably going to go
06:14through in the next year or two my first year I panicked and sort of threw myself into almost
06:20everything to try and fill the time and feel like I was busy um which I shouldn't have done
06:26um and now I think I've found a little bit better balance in what I'm doing but you but it's the it's
06:34what gets you out of bed every morning right yeah right and and I didn't want to I'm not very good
06:39at sitting around doing nothing so and I really enjoyed hitting balls I really enjoyed practicing
06:45and I'm glad I finished without actually really disliking golf yeah you're not fell out of love
06:53with the sport at all no so I'm really really grateful that I actually managed to call time
06:59on it a little bit early keep some of the interest there yeah and now still hit balls when I can and
07:06try and play the odd little one or two day event um but yeah still like playing so yeah well that's good
07:13and we'll come on to sort of what you're doing now and the future for you in a little bit but I want
07:16to take you right back right right back when did you first pick up a golf club and why and at what
07:22point in your youth did you realize that golfing some guys was going to be your career
07:26I think I just picked up some old clubs in that I found in our shed at home they were
07:34I didn't even know what they were actually I think one was probably a putter yeah it didn't look
07:39like much of a potter but it was a potter and I think the other one might have been a nine or a
07:43six iron and I don't I think I can remember not knowing which way around the number was supposed
07:47to be I think that's that's a good that's about right so start with those and then there was a few
07:54people in my area played um wasn't my family's game they didn't play okay but I had some friends
07:59that played we had a local course out the at the town played a bit that was just a nine hole par three
08:06course well actually no sorry it was a nine hole but it was a short course had threes and fours
08:11yeah played that for a year year or more joined a club at 13 thought I was good got my first handicap
08:19of 27 so I wasn't that comes down quickly though you know yeah and then yeah and then a few years
08:25later I was down to sort of five handicap and got on well with the assistant pros and they told me
08:32what the pga training was all about and what standard you needed to be to start that yes and
08:38then that's when it became clear well this is something I can actually do it might not mean that
08:42I make money out of actually playing golf and winning competition money but I could be a club pro I could
08:48be a teaching pro um so then that route was pretty obvious yeah and that and that was something that
08:54appeared to you then you know forgetting obviously the tour stuff that came later that probably wasn't
08:57part of the plan initially teaching and coaching the game something that appealed to you pretty
09:02I hadn't had a coach up to that point yeah give or take a few little maybe county lessons or the
09:10assistant pros helping me out but physically didn't have a permanent coach because it just that just
09:16wasn't an option so I studied a lot of the game I read as much as I could at that point
09:21and I would always try and probably annoyingly so past that little bits that I thought I'd figured
09:27out onto my mates you were playing with right so I was that start of your teaching I was that fellow
09:32yeah that was doing that um but that that made me think that well I quite like figuring stuff out and
09:40trying seeing if it works for other people because that's different something works for me doesn't
09:44necessarily work for you uh and trying to find the link of all those things is is quite was quite
09:49interesting so I knew I could be a coach or I could try to be a coach that way um and I know I could be a
09:55club pro yeah so you know you're one of the few sort of people who went through that route and then
10:00made it onto the tour why do you think so few sort of actually have that breakthrough and and what
10:06would you what kind of advice would you give to people doing that course right now or yourself back
10:10in the day to to help that push through that extra little bit I was always desperately desperately
10:18searching ways to make my golf better I think I had written off a playing career because I wasn't as good
10:24as some of the key players at my age group so but I I was interested enough to just keep
10:30studying and practicing yeah um and when you're working in golf initially you don't get time
10:37so you're in the shop or you're teaching and you don't have time to practice so my game took a little
10:42bit of a back seat for a while even though I was still always reading and and trying to find out more
10:48info um I didn't have time to play or practice and then when I became qualified then and I became
10:55self-employed then the whole world's you your own isn't it it's how much you put into it and
11:00I was able to to coach at certain times in the day and then and then practice the rest of the day and
11:09I practiced from that point onwards where I was probably what I've been um I think I was around
11:1619 20 I practiced every hour I could find yeah I I it's constant I hit millions of balls yeah and I
11:26just got I just kept getting better and better and kept winning different things in the assistant
11:31pros game or in the in the Midlands pros which we're at now um and then there was some good players
11:38in the Midlands that that were ex-tour players and I just started to gauge my game off those and
11:43and then then I got my chance to play in tour events and it went well now that was the that was
11:49the key part is those went well yeah it's not your ideal route to the tour right and it's not one I
11:54don't think if you're serious about playing the tour you should really chase because it's too difficult
11:59um but I hadn't got real dreams of playing the tour at that point I just played well qualified for
12:07these events and then I played well in these events because I was really prepared for them and things
12:13went my way but having a serious mind on tournaments you've got to go through mini tours tour school
12:21challenge tour DP world tour play your way through right so just touching on that then you're sort of
12:28the way you learned the game and were taught the game I saw you say in another interview that you used
12:32to collect golf magazines and read them religiously golf monthly included yes so thank you for doing
12:37that back in the day you're welcome I bought a lot of those yeah yeah yeah I had a mountain of them
12:41and so you know would you call yourself a real student of the game did you always have that sort of thirst
12:48for knowledge on the swing of of how the game works the intricacies of it all was that always a little
12:53sort of bugging your mind yeah yeah it was um I think I was fascinated by the swing and golf magazines
13:03were really the only access point at that time right so you do your little pieces where you were
13:08chatting to people about their swings or you do the swing sequences in the magazines which the ones that
13:13I liked I sort of saved in particular um magazines and and I built a whole little
13:21my own sort of volumes of magazines that were the bits that I liked whether it had been whether it
13:28had been faldo sevey woosnam david led better um what else would there have been like greg norman
13:36just all your features on the players that I liked how they played and then you try and
13:43find some common ground which is a lot easier these days but doing it the magazine pictures was hard
13:50so I loved it oh that's it isn't it that's why I always thought you're a bit of a student of it
13:55you clearly enjoyed that um obviously nowadays we've got youtube the internet thousands of sources for
14:02golf swings it's too easy now yeah right too easy too easy would you have used youtube
14:06i've got two questions here would you have used youtube back in the day
14:09absolutely it would have saved me years so years of sort of you know archiving stuff and but do you
14:14think it's a good yeah useful resource as good as it was back in the day if not better
14:17um it's better because everything everything's on there it's on your phone
14:21you can you can go through it slowly and you can see the missing gaps that
14:28in your original swing sequences we would there'd be big chunks missing because of
14:33what from the swing teams in the magazines yeah because the cameras wouldn't pick them out or you
14:37you wouldn't be able to publish a yeah I don't know like a 30 frame sequence would you take up
14:42too many pages exactly so but the youtube and slow-mo video that everyone's got on their phones now
14:48makes it makes it so easy and all the bits that I figured out for myself
14:54are now pretty much on youtube or on your phones for free you did the hard work I feel like I did
15:03I probably would have liked to have no I'm just probably probably wrong so I wouldn't have liked
15:08to have done that because that's what that's what really got my interest every day it's part of it
15:11and I think it's with anything any hobby or interest you have it's I wouldn't be in this
15:14point now if I hadn't done that yeah put it that way so where does your philosophy on the golf swing
15:20come from who are the sort of coaches and the sort of people in the swing thoughts that you
15:25latched onto early doors and kept throughout your career it was probably a combination of all these
15:31those people that I mentioned and more um some random swings I think well that's interesting that
15:38looks good why does that look good to me right and I think simplicity is the best thing um trying to
15:46remove I wanted a what I was searching for I think when I was younger was a standard golf swing right
15:53and there wasn't one a blueprint yeah like because everyone had their own little bits they put in that
15:59make their swing look like them um and I wanted to compare mine to something and I didn't know what
16:07that was and I felt like there was something or there ought to be something there a bit more basic
16:13than um or a bit more human than just a golf robot right I thought there must be someone somewhere that is
16:21close to what we might eventually say is the the easiest way to swing the club so that's all I was looking
16:29for and trying to strip out the little bits from each pro player that I think didn't maybe didn't add too much
16:37but there was just unique to them and they try and just want to find a lot of common ground really
16:42that's all I was trying to do I mean you're quite regarded as having one of the better swings in the
16:46game you know do you think that yourself are you always trying to work on bits and where have you
16:51pieced your swing together from over the years it's it's it's from that yeah and if you'd say that
16:56that you like my swing and my swing was just my swing and that was just how I hit balls and how
17:01I'd always hit balls I'd take that as a compliment and that but I wouldn't actually say that that was
17:06a particular great swing swing as such but I feel that my swing I've put together
17:12purposely so it has to be what I want right it would make no sense would it to build something
17:19that I didn't like right so I like mine because I put each bit together and I know how long it's
17:24took me and how hard it's been um and and it's not been easy and I don't find hardly any of it easy
17:30because golf is difficult and changing your swing is even harder so it's a mixture of all great
17:38players all bits that I think just make golf shots look simpler isn't it isn't perfect and if I could
17:46keep it in balls as much as I had done in the past I think I'd probably add just a couple more bits to
17:53it but I can't do my swing as fast as I used to I would like to put my swing up now with the speed I
17:59might have had in my early 20s and then I think that would be something that I'd really really like
18:03and I would I would be more content with but it's just took a long time and and then your body starts
18:09to give way a little it says no body body's certainly saying no at the moment yeah uh so
18:14obviously you enjoy uh the teaching side of it you know is that you know the actual act of teaching
18:21yourself taking golf out of it passing on knowledge helping others out is that something you've always
18:24sort of enjoyed and sought to do or is it the golf that brings you there first yes it's the golf yeah
18:29it's a golf I'd like I'd like to be able to help people that are as keen as I am or was
18:37um at any stage so whether they're just starting but I can tell they're really keen and they want
18:44to to learn stuff fast or whether it's a pro that really is frustrated by something that
18:51that they can't seem to change those are the bits that I find interesting um and hopefully some of the
18:58bits that I've got that that I've learned and the movements that I've managed to practice and
19:03understand can just help somebody quickly right that's what I want I don't want to give lessons
19:09to say I'll go away and practice for a month and it should work I want I want to see some pretty
19:14instantaneous changes if I can get them right yeah that's the test for me yeah I kind of get it right
19:20straight away yeah and change this guy's swing so that he changes what he doesn't like and starts
19:27hitting better shots yeah yeah and that doesn't always mean lower scores does it but if I can change
19:31a bit how somebody hits the ball straight away then I feel like that they've probably gained
19:37something from coming to see me and who in the modern game right now do you think has one of
19:42the best swings either aesthetically or just sort of mechanically everyone yeah yeah everyone's got
19:46a good everyone's they're at that level so it doesn't matter to you that's the beauty of how things
19:50have changed right everyone's got the access to everything and if you haven't got a good swing
19:53you ain't got much shape I don't think these days right because there's there's thousands of
19:58people that got great swings right so you all coaches have got all coaches are getting more
20:04towards a standardized ideal looking swing I think um it's it's easy to to find the the errors or the
20:16faults and it's and it's it's easier now to put them put them together so very very rarely see a pro
20:23with a bad looking swing these days especially on the tours yeah right yeah and even people watching
20:28amateur golfers at home if they're getting around and they're enjoying the game yeah and they're
20:32scoring how they want to score that's a good swing to you in a way you know yeah yeah swing
20:36your swing yeah if well if you're subscribe to most people nowadays can hit drivers pretty well yeah
20:42right our young juniors can all hit drive as well quite often now the starters that are kind
20:48enough to start all the kids off so watched all day and didn't didn't see any bad drives and you
20:52don't like because the drive is easy right his drive is easy everyone can whack a driver basically
20:58yeah because you've only got to get it airborne hit it somewhere on the face it goes a reasonable
21:03way doesn't it so that part isn't isn't really the skill anymore um but yeah so uh before we start
21:12wrapping up and talk about the future and why we're here today um back to the sort of uh the heyday of your
21:18career i guess at 2010 to 2012 period tied 7th at the 2010 open won the italian open beat tiger at the
21:25championship in 2012 um what about your game in that couple of years was firing so well to allow
21:32you to be so successful could you was there something in particular my eye on play was really
21:37really good yeah yeah that was the bit i tried to build and in from from 2005 to 2008 was where i really
21:44sort of rejigged my swing a little bit and that took that's where i hit the most balls and that's
21:51the period in 2008 i started to feel like i'm hitting some really nice shots here and i understand
21:57what i'm doing and my eye on play is getting really good and my my short game and putting wasn't really
22:02as as good as it probably is now actually it's probably better now but uh my eye on play was good
22:06i said it close like almost to inside three feet a couple of times around yeah whether that be with a
22:14medium to short iron but i used to count on that and that that was how i put my rounds together
22:20and from 2008 onwards my confidence just got better and better with how i was playing and i started to
22:29like how i was playing right which i didn't before and that was important i started to feel like i was a
22:33pro so was that like a mindset thing like you didn't feel like you're quite a bit of imposter
22:38syndrome sort of thing didn't feel like i belong there or do you feel like i could go and get over
22:42the line getting up trying to win tournaments right i felt like i was on the tour and i could probably
22:46stay on the tour but i was in that lower part of it where you're really looking at the order
22:54merit at the end of the year to see if you kept your card that was difficult yeah i didn't want to stay
22:59there um because it was taking a lot of work a lot of traveling not earning loads of money doing okay
23:06but not nothing that was probably i couldn't earn actually just staying put so but from 2008 i started
23:13to feel some signs where actually i'm hitting it better than this guy he's winning tournaments right
23:18right um my time might come um and then that progressed into actually having chances to to win
23:26messing up in the final round or final two rounds but continuing to play good really good golf
23:33so that 2012 event hb championship you played with tiger i saw an interview you said sort of going into
23:40that at the time you were like if anything i'm gonna have a front row seat here to a tiger woods
23:44yeah absolutely round of golf and potentially a win right was that always we just sort of touched
23:48it there though was that your mindset of being the underdog slightly in those situations and was that
23:53something that you sort of reveled in in other tournaments even the tournament before that i
23:58played really well and felt like i had a chance to win and and and was pushing myself i'd won a
24:04tournament in italy a few months before yeah um albeit that didn't have the same sort of marquee players
24:11as the abadabi one did but i was getting closer i'd got to 20 under par which had which was a milestone
24:18for me right that's a big number that's a big number in it right and and lots of tournaments get
24:22to 20 under but you've got to get to 20 under you've got to be there you've got to get there you've
24:26got to be the one that gets it yeah and that and that means playing well four days hole in putts
24:31for four days keeping your scoring boots on not slowing down not 18 pars in your last round don't do
24:38it right so um but then that abadabi came along and i knew i was playing all right actually play one of
24:45the best rounds on the saturday before i played with tiger and yeah and uh i just wanted to play
24:50okay on sunday so that i wasn't in the way or didn't feel in the way i wanted to watch him do his
24:59thing and i wanted hopefully at the end of it for him to maybe go he was all right player that was
25:06your goal going into it yeah pretty much just not make a hash of it and could i take everything that
25:14i'd learn up to that point like being on my own hitting balls on my own building my swing that i
25:20i liked could i actually trust it and get it to work under that sort of pressure which was something
25:26i'd never felt before that's mad what what a sort of uh you know everything's led to this moment
25:31kind of feeling right all you've done all the balls you'd hit the swing you'd built wasn't interested in
25:35winning no not interested wanting to do and you shouldn't be right that's probably if you do you
25:41might not be not going to perform as well i guess the people that were much better ranked than me
25:46if you're a top 10 player in the world and you're playing with tiger woods you're trying to prove a
25:50point aren't you right yeah and you're trying to see how am i good enough i didn't think for a
25:57second that was that was my approach my approach was right just just just see if you can play your
26:03golf right yeah see where that puts you right it might put you hopefully i can still perform a
26:09decent round and i honestly didn't care where i finished and that worked though didn't it and so
26:13was that quite gratifying to go in with that mindset and just to go you know i just want to
26:16do what i've done go through the process i've done for all these years in this situation how
26:21gratifying was that to then actually get over the line at the end of it i basically just wanted to
26:24play the first few holes well you know i mean and not just ruin the day with all the people watching
26:30think uh and have people go oh he's just crumbled straight away right i didn't want to be that
26:34fella yeah and then but the first few holes i played i played brilliant i was three ahead after
26:39six and then i thought this is too good now not to finish this off so was it at that point you went
26:47okay let's forget the mindset from the first tee we've had a good start i've got three shots on him
26:53let's see if i can give him a good run to the end um i still expected to lose right but i thought right
27:00i'm going to be i'm going to be neck and neck with him on the back nine and that is just priceless
27:04yeah so i kept waiting and waiting for this big moment you know that he always did where he would
27:12chip in or hold a long pot or something and it just didn't happen might be one of the only occasions
27:17he played in the lead in the final round in the final group and didn't didn't actually do something
27:22like that so i felt very lucky right i hit some magic shots right at the end and there was two iron
27:29shots that so i started off the round trying to think can i actually just hit a normal drive
27:35get it on the fairway a bit but as basic as that and then i got can i hit a wedge off this tight line
27:42and not duff it and look like a whatever um and i got through that processing right i can actually hit
27:47balls now i'm all right i'm comfortable i can tick along today and be okay and then i'm three ahead
27:51after six and then we i think i lost i lost one one shot early on in the back nine maybe the 12th or
28:0113th but anyway on the 14th i just did one of my best fairway bunker shots ever to well the best
28:07fairway bunker i've ever hit to 15 foot yeah with a seven iron which i struck absolutely perfect i'll
28:13never forget the feeling i was i'm still over it thinking okay i haven't had one of those can i hit
28:17this properly and i struck it not just like clean or no i just hit it perfect that one where you
28:24does you feel like you've hit it kind of flush this is the moment where i'll just determine whether
28:29i've got a chance of winning this or not because it could i mean it's a nice shot but it could have
28:32come down a little short in the bunker it could have gone over the green and it come down 15 foot
28:37away and thought right i mean i've got all that yeah and now i've got a really good chance and then
28:41the 15th i hit an even better shot with a five iron which landed pretty much within a couple of yards
28:47where i was trying to land it um my standard sort of faded iron shot at the time but as soon as i
28:53started my downswing i knew i did a good shot and that was that's the best feeling from hitting all
28:59the balls my whole life yeah i knew i knew this is good what so it sounds like then you did have
29:06my next question was did you have a chance during that back nine to enjoy it to take it in to realize
29:11i'm going to so with tiger woods here in a pretty big tournament i totally enjoyed that bit oh yeah and
29:15then that's great even but even hitting those shots i still have to hold the putts of course
29:21wasn't my area at all i felt like i was in control early on with how i was hitting it but i didn't
29:29know whether i was going to hold putts yeah so those two iron shots they still had 15 20 foot putts
29:33to hold which i could have easily missed i could have three putted them yeah the way i've putted in
29:38my life right but i hold both of them and that put me right in it um and i was still expecting
29:45an eagle on the last or whatever just didn't come just didn't come no but what a what a crowning
29:51achievement for your career then would you would you have said overall i think i've got my i've got
29:56your start down here but i can't see in the sun 465 events in 25 years would you've said what
30:01you've come out with the other end was a overachieving career an underachieving career
30:05or something about right if you take that one day out i'd have been really disappointed that they
30:12wow that's huge it's a nice way to reflect on it though isn't it yeah feel lucky that
30:19i grafted for that long and got you get the game gives you stuff in random times and that was your
30:25and you don't and you don't know what you're going to get do you but that i got that out of it
30:29brilliant and so like i said 465 starts on the tour european tour sort of journeyman i guess
30:35absolute warhorse for the tour were you sort of like a proud european tour member and what's your
30:40reflection on the way it's developed now into the dp world tour and how it now sits in the sort of
30:45hierarchy of professional golf yeah i always i always call myself a european tour player i'm not a
30:53massive fan of the name change but such is life in it um and not overly proud of what's going on
31:02with pro golf at the moment yeah so i'm sort of a little bit glad that i've been out of the
31:08the chats on the range must be tedious every week now so i'm i'm not involved in that and that's
31:14quite a good thing um where it all sits i have no idea and it's way above my way above my head to
31:22sort that out and you know if if i were to give you the war chest and i could i could put it all
31:29out in front of you yeah professional golf yeah have you had a thought on how you might like to see
31:34it work is is there something that you want to see happen either reversing what's happened recently
31:39or back to the way it was is there something you've seen that i i'd do that or are you just
31:44sort of trying to keep away i'm not bothered keep away yeah they can they can they're doing a good
31:50job messing it all up on their own i don't need to get involved in that it was cool when i started
31:55i loved the job when i started i loved it all the way through till probably i don't know 2015 16 ish
32:03um and i think when the european tour got its rolex series off the ground and um we missed we missed
32:11stars coming to play yeah and it was sad that we had to keep paying them to turn on um but that's
32:18i think that's just sport in it so yeah so lastly then robert we spoke about your retirement and and
32:24and and how that's all been what's the future for you now we're at the belfry today it's the final
32:28robert rock junior tour what's how's that come about what's it all about and how do you see it
32:34going forward and your kind of involvement in it so it's something i wanted to do um always really
32:41but trying to put good events on while i was playing the tour was pretty impossible yeah um so
32:48natalie haywood who's a pga golf pro from she was from derby at the time she she approached me and
32:55said could she run a few trial junior events which i've said absolutely let's let's see what we can
33:01do so seven years later we've now got last we've had we had 25 events yeah uh we started doing
33:08international ones we're doing world ranking ones we're doing mini tour events which is
33:13basically putting the t's halfway down the fairway and getting driving range kids to come and have a
33:18taste like i said what's the age range of people that play it's everything we've had like five
33:22upwards to oh wow we will be doing under 21s next year yeah um and then because of the places that
33:29i was going to whilst natalie was running this i managed to places like this and some other great
33:34courses that we go to and i wanted the juniors to have a taste of playing great courses with a load of
33:42other juniors of all different standards um and feel like they're part of a sort of a big big group
33:50yeah and it's gone really really well like people have really got on board with it the belfry been
33:55awesome we've got calloway ping adidas tight list pga yeah dp world tour they're all all involved in
34:04supporting um i haven't forgot somebody there and i tend to when i'm doing these things we can add it
34:10in if you haven't well hopefully thank you to those people yeah thank you to everything and everyone
34:13that's doing it because it's it's hard because yeah obviously you can make a great event if you charge
34:18people loads of money because you buy everything yeah but for i wanted it to be the cheapest junior
34:25tour going around the best courses with good prizes yeah so we've asked a lot off all the manufacturers
34:31and they've all been just incredible that they give us yeah so much stuff to to make sure it's a nice
34:38prize table price table for the price point that doesn't look like we can afford it right so it's
34:44yeah um i've put quite a bit into it and now it now it sort of ticks over nicely so it's packed
34:50here today for the final this is this sorry i should have said this is the british junior british
34:55masters got you so i wanted that to be sort of a preceding event to the british masters which is in a
35:01couple of weeks which is a couple of weeks time all these kids will be coming to watch nice um last
35:06year i dragged a group of more up and down the range met a few of the players they're able to
35:11watch quite close um so they're going to get to play the course they're going to see the the big
35:18guys play on in a couple of weeks so i did i did that proper tee boards up like so like the as you
35:24would see at tour event but slightly sort of scaled for the tees um and then they're doing all the
35:30staging work already aren't they the yeah the grandstands are going up so the course is looking
35:34great um yes they get to see it in a real in tournament format so hopefully that i would have
35:40loved that when i was younger right right i came to play here in a in a four four ball event with a
35:47mate just in the winter and that felt like i was playing a a great course that had the rider cut
35:54right it was not even close to the right time but now they're playing it two weeks before so
35:58we go to yeah loads and loads of great courses so massive thank you to all the courses that
36:03don't charge us very much so let us have it for free right that's what you want to see though
36:08that kind of community building around it and is that what inspired you to do it it's like
36:11i'd love this as a kid yeah and here's a great opportunity it's it's better than a it's like a
36:16um it's like a collection of all the junior opens you might play around the best courses but you're
36:22playing them as part of a series and you can all it's it's all contextualized yeah and you can play
36:29at any stage so you don't have to handicap oh really yeah geez brilliant well and so we got
36:34that you got the tour still doing your teaching obviously yeah do bits of teaching here and there
36:39not not too much i'm doing one in a minute i've got you in 10 minutes you'll be warming up
36:44um and then what else am i doing my son's a keen footballer he's signed for chesterfield and you've
36:50had to learn football i've had to learn where are you at with that now it's still pretty poor i would
36:55say around there chesterfield i'm chesterfield yeah yeah i probably i reckon i'm like a 20 handicap
37:04oh 20 handicap football iq yeah okay maybe maybe worse do you like football it's a case of safe space
37:11i forgot it's a golf youtube channel yeah no i didn't used to i didn't used to get it but now i get
37:16starting to see the tactics behind it and i'm starting to see the some footballers i've met
37:23through golf yeah they use loads of golf in terminology when they're describing how they kick
37:28a ball so is that helping you i can do that yeah are you like picking out a footballer kicking a ball
37:32and getting your swing mechanic brain on and going did that the other day with david on his free
37:36kicks yeah yeah i did i was like what why is that what's that making that spin like that right
37:41because your foot isn't flat is it right so i was trying trying to work that out you can't switch off
37:45can you no no no but yeah i don't know yeah it's it's interesting but i'm enjoying it so with all
37:51of that then lastly what do you think and what would you want your legacy in the game to be is it a
37:56greater sum of your playing career is it the stuff that you're going to be doing these juniors the next
38:01you know however long what do you think your legacy robert rock will be in the game of golf
38:05not bothered not bothered just keep going people make their own minds up yeah i'll be dead
38:10nice true way to end uh we'll we've got the same style hopefully my swing will be on youtube for
38:17a while so people can take that so we use that as they please when we're all dead yeah even you
38:22watching we'll still watch my swing will be on youtube hopefully yeah we'll all be dressed the
38:26same don't delete it yeah we'll wear i did our stuff in the in the beautiful heat but uh robert
38:30thank you for joining us on monthly meets really appreciate it pleasure thank you