The portion of the central rod of the bacterial-type flagellar basal body that is proximal to the cell membrane; the proximal rod connects the distal rod to the flagellar motor. [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12624192 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11133968 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10572114 ]