From left to right: Jace Pearson, Gary Curtis, Tom Merrill, Danielle Rock, Mary Curtis, Denise Pearson do the famous Payne Stewart pose in front of the Payne Stewart Statue by the 18th green at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina. Stewart won the 1999 US Open at Pinehurst No. 2, defeating Phil Mickelson by one stroke after sinking a 15-foot par putt on the 18th hole. Stewart died in a plane crash on Oct. 25, 199, four months after winning the US Open. Submitted photo
Being a club champion has its perks, like having your own parking spot at the golf course.
For Danielle Rock, it meant receiving an invitation to compete in the inaugural PGA National Club Championship at the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina after she was the 2020 women’s club champion at Martindale Country Club in Auburn.
When she accepted the invitation — which included an entry fee — last fall for the tournament, which took place from March 13-15, she was wasn’t expecting it to take place with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. When the PGA of America decided not to cancel the tournament, she figured she would head down and compete.
“I definitely wanted to make that commitment to myself,” Rock said. “Committing back (in the fall), it was something to look forward to and work towards; just being able to show that young female golfers are getting really good at the game. Majority of the time, I play with the men at (Martindale) and I outdrive a good chunk of them. They hate it but love it at the same time.”
The Auburn native finished in a tie for 40th in the women’s division with a score of +89. Katie Kirk of North Carolina won the tournament with a score of +11.
The biggest thing for Rock that she will remember of the three-day tournament is the experience playing three of the nine courses on the Pinehurst property, including Pinehurst No. 2, the third-ranked golf course in Golfweek magazine’s annual Best Courses You Can Play in the U.S. in 2020.
Pinehurst No. 2 is also well-known for holding multiple major championships, including three men’s United States Golf Association’s US Opens (1999, 2005, 2014), the 1936 PGA Championship, and the USGA’s 2014 women’s US Open. It has also hosted the Ryder Cup in 1951 along with two of PGA Tour’s Tour Championships (1991, 1992).
The Course will be home for future men’s US Opens in 2024, 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047.
“I kept telling myself this is prime conditions. The chances of you playing a (USGA) affiliated course or a PGA (Tour) course in general where such large events occur, you can’t expect much out of your score,” Rock said. “It’s about having fun; it’s about just being on there, seeing how it feels like to be these men and women who play on TV.”
She shot 102 on No. 2.
While the course wasn’t set up for a US Open, Rock saw how difficult the course was, as balls would roll across the green after hitting a green-side bunker shot. She got tips from the course’s caddies, that other players used on where to hit the ball and the best places to layup.
Danielle Rock with her caddie Jace Pearson, a fellow Martindale member at the PGA National Club Championship at the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Submitted photo
Rock and her caddie Jace Pearson, a fellow Martindale member, saw some familiarities of No. 2 to a course back home in Poland Spring, as the courses were both designed by Donald Ross, the famed golf course designer.
“It definitely has some similar aspects and traits,” Rock said. “Even my caddie, who plays some (Maine State Golf Association) events and has been club champion here (at Martindale) a million times, he was like ‘Oh yeah, you can see the similarities.’ I totally agree with that. Poland Spring is pretty challenging,”
The other two courses she played on the property were No. 6 and No. 8.
Rock was one of the few New England players that made the trip down to North Carolina. She said a majority of the competitors across the four divisions — men’s, men’s seniors, women’s, women’s seniors — were from warm-weather states.
“Some people when I said I was from Maine was ‘Oh wow, it must be freezing up there, it must be all snow and ice,’” Rock said. “It was just funny to hear them and so shocked somebody from Maine willing to go out there, get their clubs out of their bag (for the first time) in months other than hitting into a 12-foot screen. These people were like ‘we have been doing practice rounds.’ Some people played courses twice to practice. Some people thought it was cool I came from Maine and was shocked no one else came from Maine.”
Rock used Martindale’s new golf simulators to get swings in this winter. She said it’s difficult to trust the simulators on distances, but got her swing in the rhythm.
The experience of playing in the tournament has made her wanting to play in more tournaments like what the MSGA puts on in the summer.
“I am going to be more involved this year,” Rock said. “I am actually a nurse (at Central Maine Medical Center) and with COVID there wasn’t much time to play as much as I would have liked last year. I did get to play in the Women’s Am, but I think that was the only event I was able to participate last year.”
She finished in a tie for 52nd in the Maine Women’s Amateur, which was won by Hartford’s Ruby Haylock in a playoff over Bailey Plourde.
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