By ron green jr.
Even now, eight months since Michael Block’s fever dream week at the PGA Championship – surely you remember his name near the top of the leaderboard, the Sunday afternoon ace with Rory McIlroy and the warm-blooded embrace of thousands of fans at Oak Hill – it still seems a bit surreal.
One week – most weeks, in fact – Block is the head professional at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, California, but during PGA Championship week last May in Rochester, New York, Block blossomed into a star whose shine has endured into 2024.
“It’s been [eight] months of out-of-body experiences,” said Block, who is playing in The American Express this week by virtue of winning the Southern California PGA Section championship for the fourth time last year.
Because of his continuing commitment to his club duties in southern California, coupled with his regional and now national success as a player, Block has been chosen Global Golf Post’s Pro’s Pro for 2024.
One of the truisms in the game is how big a difference there is between being a golf pro and being a professional golfer. Block is a golf pro at heart, having devoted years to cultivating golf and golfers around Mission Viejo, while still being able to step into the competitive ring and belong there.
“I’m definitely the club pro guy,” he said. “I’m just lucky to have these opportunities to play that allows me to live the dream of being a tour pro without being one.”
Block’s credentials as a player speak for themselves. He recently was named Southern California PGA player of the year for the 10th time, and he is good enough to have played in 28 PGA Tour events through the years.
But Block remains anchored to Arroyo Trabuco, where O’Neill’s Bar and Grill served as the de facto headquarters of the Michael Block fan club during his PGA Championship run last year.
Even as Block was dealing with his overnight celebrity, which earned him unexpected spots in the Charles Schwab Challenge and the RBC Canadian Open, he had to keep tabs on what was happening at the club, which is a public course with private memberships.
“I was doing payroll on quite a few driving ranges [last] year,” Block said. “I can do it on my phone, and I do it on Mondays.
“I was literally FaceTiming with my wife into my office while at tour events, showing them how to input inventory. Then I would roll out into a practice round with someone like Tommy Fleetwood or Cameron Young.”
Some things have changed. He still goes to work at least five days a week, often from sunup to sundown. But Block made the decision last year to back off his teaching schedule to spend time in the afternoons with teenage sons Dylan and Ethan. Dylan Block made it into the final 60 in the World Long Drive Championship last year, topping out with a 417-yard drive.
Block said his hourly teaching rate hasn’t changed – he’s open to teaching any level of player if they share his fondness for golf – because he hasn’t been teaching since Oak Hill.
“It’s a hit on the money side [from not teaching as much], but the reality is it’s worth it,” Block said. “My boys aren’t going to be teenagers forever. I wound up practicing more with them, and that ended up paying off in the end.”
The big payoff came at the PGA Championship, where Block captured the attention with both his play and his personality. He looked and acted as if he belonged in the major championship, and the longer the week went, the more comfortable Block seemed.
“It felt like a home game for me. I was just giving them high-fives and giving them a reason to cheer. I kind of got lost in making them have fun and me having fun. ...”
MICHAEL BLOCK
Block played his way into the story at Oak Hill on Friday when he posted a second consecutive 70 to sit tied for 10th after 36 holes, the first club pro in the top 10 at the midway point since 1988.
Another 70 on Saturday pushed him to T8 and earned a pairing with McIlroy in the final round. Block had slipped back until he aced the par-3 15th hole and a clutch par save at the 18th hole gave Block a T15 finish – the best result by a club pro since 1986 – and a spot in the PGA Championship this year at Valhalla.
While Brooks Koepka won his fifth major championship that week, Block became a sudden star with fans adopting him.
“It wouldn’t have happened like that if the crowd had not been that way. There’s no way it would have happened like it did,” Block said.
“It felt like a home game for me. I was just giving them high-fives and giving them a reason to cheer. I kind of got lost in making them have fun and me having fun. It was like a big party. Coming down at the end, I was just trying to make them go crazy.”
It wasn’t lost on the PGA Tour’s best.
“[We could] all be a little more like Michael Block week to week. It would be a good thing,” Jordan Spieth said.
McIlroy experienced it first-hand on Sunday, including the slam-dunk ace.
“The atmosphere out there, playing with Michael, was unbelievable. We both got amazing support … he got unbelievable support, understandably so, being in this position as a club pro and playing so well and competing into the latter stages of a major championship. It was really impressive,” McIlroy said at the time.
Since the PGA Championship, Block has been around the world more than once, playing in Scotland, Australia, Qatar, Cabo San Lucas and Toronto among other spots.
“I’m living the golfer’s dream,” Block said. “Meeting Tiger Woods … Jack Nicklaus made a 30-footer to win a playoff in Cabo using my putter … playing with Freddie [Couples].
“These things are so surreal. I’d never met Tiger or Freddie or Jack, and they knew who I was. All of this is possible because of what happened at the PGA Championship.”
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Andrew Redington, Getty Images