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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 21, 2006

Robert Rock

HOYLAKE, ENGLAND

Q. You're right in contention after two rounds. How good does that feel?

ROBERT ROCK: I wasn't expecting that after the start today. I had some not too bad shots but I bogeyed three of the first four holes. I had to try and start all over again, so that was a bit disappointing. I played really well after that. I missed quite a few putts that could have gone in. So it was a good round for me.

Q. The back nine at the Open, you see the leaderboards, is it a good feeling?

ROBERT ROCK: Yes, it's not very often I get to play in front of this many people. There seem to be a lot of people walking around and supporting me.

Q. It's a long time since you were at the Swinger's Golf Club in the Midlands. You spent much of your early days teaching. Could you believe then or have thought then that you might be doing something like this now?

ROBERT ROCK: I've tried for 10, maybe 11 years, since I turned pro, to try to get into The Open. I got through regional qualifying quite a few times. Then when I had a chance to play at Sunnydale last year in the qualifying I thought there was a possibility that I might get to play in some of them.

Last year was great, St. Andrews, made the cut there, played all four rounds, great experience, great tournament. Hopefully I'll do a bit better this time.

Q. How many people have come up from the Midlands to watch you?

ROBERT ROCK: Quite a few. I'm quite impressed because it was an early start. 7:00 is not the best time to come and watch me.

Q. You seem to be taking it pretty much in stride. You seem to be an unflappable chap.

ROBERT ROCK: I think it's because I know that you could pretty comfortably shoot some pretty high scores over the weekend. The first two days won't have made any difference. So I'm not going to get too fussed about it, until I start hitting the ball really solid as well, because I'm not really hitting it very solid at the moment. I've got away with quite a lot so far.

Q. So you're hitting the ball you're not hitting the ball terribly solidly, but you're only a few shots off the lead?

ROBERT ROCK: It's just turned out all right. I hit some really good drives on the back nine, which is a bit better, but for the first 27 holes I missed a lot of drives. Fortunately I found most of them because the rough is not too bad. I managed to get the ball somewhere in play but I wasn't in much control over what I was doing yesterday or this morning, really.

Q. Your strategy for the weekend? You've got something else to think about besides trying to win this great championship, because you're playing privileges are in doubt for next year. You need to will you need to keep your eye on the scoreboard and know that if you finish top 6 or 7 or top 10 or top 12, that's going to do you a lot of good?

ROBERT ROCK: Anything around that mark would be comfortably good enough. But I'm not too bothered about that now. I'm just more interested in actually finding some decent shots. I managed to hit some decent drives and some decent irons, but I think with the amount of tournaments we've got for the rest of the year I should be all right.

Q. I hope you manage to find your A game over the weekend.

ROBERT ROCK: It could be embarrassing otherwise.

After I bogeyed three holes I was back to level par. Level par felt like it was going to be the cut. So you start to get a little bit concerned. I got back under par and I was quite comfortable after that. I made an eagle at the 10th with a drive and three wood to about four feet, the 3 wood from about 234 yards 237 into the wind. Then I made a decent birdie on the 11th. So I'd gone from struggling to picking three shots up pretty quickly. I was all right then.

Q. Did you see the leaderboard, DiMarco, Woods, Rock?

ROBERT ROCK: I didn't see that until the 17th. I only had to find somewhere in bounds on the last hole to finish okay.

Q. How were you feeling after three bogeys?

ROBERT ROCK: Pretty fed up. I didn't really hit shots that were that bad at that point. I got into the front bunker at the 4th and did well to make a 5. I took two to get it out of the bunker because it was plugged, scrambled to 5 and was back at level par then.

So it was a bit of a struggle, but a birdie at the 5th right afterwards helped a lot. When you're back to level, a birdie at the par 5 got me back under par, helped a lot.

Q. Any expectations coming in?

ROBERT ROCK: No, not really, no. I haven't played very good this year. I had a 5th in Ireland which was great in difficult conditions, and an 11th at Gleneagles, but nothing spectacular. I was in a playoff to get into the tournament with seven players for four places. On the 7th hole I managed to get a birdie and that got me through, about a 15 foot putt.

End of FastScripts.

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