After brilliantly keeping 14-time Major winner Tiger Woods at bay to win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Robert Rock will be seeking to cut Rory McIlroy down to size in this week’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

Organisers have grouped Rock and McIloy along with defending champion, Alvaro Quiros for the first two rounds of the $US 2.5m event being played on the Emirates course.

Rock did not contest last week’s Qatar Masters and instead spent much of his time responding to countless hundreds of text messages and emails.

And the bearded Englishman revealed he was brought back to earth on Saturday when stuck for hours on London’s M25 motorway due to heavy snow.

“I got stuck going back home on the M25 Saturday night, so that brought me back down to earth pretty quick,” he said.

“I had to sleep in my car for a few hours.

“In fact, sitting there in the car I realised that nothing much has changed for me.

“So whether I am the Abu Dhabi champion or not – the snow was certainly not making way for me and the car was stuck, like everybody else’s.”