steady;as;a;Rock
in;abu;dhabi

on sunday at the robert rock golfing academy in the midlands of england, danny taylor ducked inside between lessons to check the progress of his mate, robert rock, on an ipad. ten years ago rock was doing the same thing, checking tiger woods’ scores on a computer as he won the masters and u.s. open. the range was then called the swingers golf center but a decade later its new namesake was beating woods in the abu dhabi hsbc golf championship. “it’s all true,” taylor said after rock’s second career victory. “he’s just a genuine nice guy who will come here tomorrow and talk to the punters who come in. it’s a cinderella story.” known more for his 1980s hair and frank nobilo beard than his golf, a disciple of the same mac o’grady principles that sean foley has taught woods, rock was as much “rocky” slaying apollo creed as he was cinderella. last summer, while awaiting a visa to travel to the u.s. open at congressional, rock killed time repainting the bathrooms at his range. “at that time he wasn’t actually in, but it was a phone call away,” taylor said. what followed was an odyssey that took rock from england to newark, n.J., and then on a $1,000 cab ride to suburban washington, d.c., where he arrived at 3:30 the morning of the opening round. he finished t-23 without practice, which seemed like a great achievement until yesterday, when he showed woods how that swing is supposed to work. —Tim Rosaforte (@TimRosaforte)