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Have you heard of Tommy Aycock and Lonnie Nielsen? props if you have it. Aycock tied for 11th in the 1974 PGA Championship at Tanglewood Park, in Clemmons, NC, and 12 years later, Nielsen achieved the feat at the 1986 edition at the Inverness Club, in Toledo, Ohio. Their finishes mattered because both players were club professionals, and in the PGA Championship’s 105-year history, no other professional team has ranked higher.
Nope, not even Michael Block.
Have you heard of Michael Block? Of course you have! If you’ve been anywhere near a phone, TV, or grill room for the past four days, Block—also a club pro, from the Southern California division—has certainly crossed your radar as he unexpectedly climbed to the leaderboards at the 105th PGA Championship. With a remarkably steady three-par-70 capped by a one-over-71 lead, Block is tied for 15th in the second season major. Players he has defeated include: John Rahm, Justin Thomas, Xander Schavelli, Dustin Johnson and many other major winners and Ryder Coopers.
Aycock and Nelson didn’t touch on golf lore in large part because they came at the wrong time. They made history in an age of limited TV coverage, no broadcasts, no walks and talks, and no social media. Block, on the other hand? Oooh, boy, did he ever work his magic and charm at exactly the right time.
On Thursday, Block captured golf fans’ attention when he interviewed ESPN anchors Scott Van Pelt, Andy North and Curtis Strange live in the midst of an elegant five-bird opening round. On Friday, another round made him look easy in the chase by 36. On Saturday, another mid-round chat came live, this time with Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman. And on Sunday, well, Block all smashed Twitter (assuming you’re in the camp that thinks Twitter still works) when his tee shot holed the cup on the par-3 15th hole. no roll. No dramatic introduction. swallow alive “The fairy tale…” Nantz said on the call with CBS, “…It gets better! “
Block’s Feel Good Week has already felt like a work of fiction, which might make you wonder, what’s the next chapter?! As Block describes it, he did not play golf exceptionally well at Oak Hill. He simply played his game. He said, “Plump golf, hitting the fairways, hitting the little kid cuts. Hit how I usually do. The greens were perfect here. So the hole looks huge to me.”
So why not try to do this every week? Why not try taking his game to the Korn Ferry Tour with an eye on graduating to the PGA Tour, or, in three years or so — he turns 47 next month — take on the PGA Tour Champions? This week, Block proved he can stay with the best players in the world and perform on one of the biggest stages in golf. How about that?
“No, I don’t want to play any rounds,” Block told Rich Lerner’s Golf Channel Sunday night. “I just want to go out and compete when I’m around and then come back to my team and spend time with my family.”
It might surprise you – or even mildly upset you – to hear that a player of Block’s talent wouldn’t want to push his competitive limits and see just how far his ability can take him. But having this view means not understanding Block’s DNA.
It’s not just a file player. He’s a teacher, mentor, husband, father of two teenage boys, dog lover, talker, talker. Yes, he loves to compete and has done so sporadically at the highest level; Prior to this week, he had played in four PGA Championships, the US Open and 18 other PGA Tour events, making the cut in three of them. He’s a 10-time Southern California PGA Player of the Year (the smart money says he’s made 11 this year). He plays home money games against tour pros Patrick Cantlay and Beau Haussler. Next week, he’ll play in Fort Worth, Texas, at the Colonial, which Sunday night invite-wise he was invited to. The guy can pull the ball.
But true to his pro club roots, Block also loves several other elements of the game: giving away $125 lessons at Arroyo Trabuco, his workplace in Mission Viejo, California; BS-ing with the floor crew; Shaping young minds. “I love kids,” he said after his Sunday run. “When I see the kid over there reaching out to give me a five, I had a really big problem passing him or her, I really do. If you guys were going to watch me today, I would have had 80 hands, but this little thing was right here, right, and I’m like, I give That five’s there, you know, no matter what. Whether I’ve just made a double bogey or a bogey or an eagle, I’ll give that one a five. That’s how it is. I was born that way, and my parents raised me that way. I’m just having a good time.” .
This mindset proved invaluable to Block at Oak Hill. Since he stayed in the competition and infiltrated a leaderboard full of stars, he didn’t put blinders on and block the world – on the contrary, he let everyone in: fans on site, broadcasters, the viewing public, fellow gamers, who the weekend was seeking. for him Outside. “Inside the club here in Oak Hill, everyone who saw me was like, ‘Keep it up, do it,’” Block said. On Saturday morning, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zack Johnson tracked Block down on green drills and said, “Just keep going be it.” You.”
Which is exactly the advice Block received from his wife, Val, and caddy John Jackson last year: Be yourself—a competitor when you need to compete, a teacher when you need to teach, a parent when you need a parent—and good things will happen.
“So I’m relieved,” Block said Sunday night of the pressure cooker he encountered at Oak Hill. “I’m glad. I kind of built for this, to tell you the truth. … I think I proved this weekend that I got 15th in a major—I mean, it makes me choke up even thinking about it. I haven’t thought about it yet.” , but I finished 15th in a major championship.”
Four places behind Eacock and Nielsen, but, yeah, still one hell of a week.