ROCHESTER, NY — PGA club pro Michael Block’s dream week at the PGA 105 Championship at Oak Hill Country Club just got even better Sunday.
Block, who started the final round tied for eighth, edged the par 3, 151-yard, 15-hole par on Sunday. His ball barely touched the green – and somehow never hit the flag – before hitting the hole and sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“This one went to the hole,” said Rory McIlroy, who plays Block on Sunday.
Block said, “No.” “Impossible. Impossible. Rory, did you come in?”
When Blok was finally convinced of this, he raised his black hat and waved it at the crowd. McIlroy lived. Block walked on the 15th green and caught the ball from the cup, which was damaged by the putt.
It was his first hole of the week, and first at the PGA Championship since Byung Hun An’s bout on the 11th hole in the final round in 2020 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Block, of Mission Viejo, Calif., got off to a rocky start Sunday, posting a bogey of first-two and No. 7. He made the round at 2 on 37. The ace put him back in a championship tie and in a tie for 13th with three holes left to play.
Finishing in the top 10 will earn Block a place at the RBC Canadian Open next month, and a 15th-place finish will bring him back to the PGA Championship next year.
The best score by a PGA professional in a PGA Championship that progressed through the PGA Professional Championship was a tie for 11 by Lonnie Nielsen in 1986 and Tommy Aycock in 1974.