Block, Michael (Golfer)

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    At the P.G.A. Championship, Club Pros Get a Chance to Play

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    They have the opportunity to play their way into the field. Michael Block did it last year and impressed the sport by finishing 15th.Michael Block, the club professional from Southern California, electrified the crowds at last year’s P.G.A. Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., holding his own against the best touring professionals in the world.But after making the cut, his first hole didn’t bode well for a successful weekend.“I had 25 feet — the easiest two-putt in the world — and I three-putt it,” Block recalled last week. “I started to think, ‘Oh no, this is how it’s going to go today.’ As we’re walking off the green, Justin Rose puts his arm around me and said, ‘Let’s settle in, Blockie, and have a good day.’ For him to say that?”Rose, a major champion and Ryder Cup stalwart, was like so many other people at last year’s P.G.A.: supportive of a magical, if improbable run.Block, 46 at the time, did settle in and eventually finished tied for 15th, which got him an automatic invitation into this week’s P.G.A. Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. But more than the highest finish for any country club pro in the modern era of the P.G.A. Championship, he captivated the audience, inspired other club pros and earned the respect of touring pros who saw how well Block, who had been running his pro shop a week earlier, could play.“Watching Michael Block do what Michael Block did gave all of us this inner sense that it’s doable,” said Matt Dobyns, the head golf professional at the Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, N.Y., who will be making his sixth start in the P.G.A. Championship this week. “That’s part of the challenge for us — believing you can do it. I’ve played with Michael. He’s a great player, but I can play with him.”“His play gives you this glimmer that it’s possible,” Dobyns added. “It’s tough when you have a full-time job and playing golf is just one part of it.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Michael Block Gets a Hole In One At PGA Championship

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      Block, a club pro from Arroyo Trabuco, shot par in each of the first three rounds and on Sunday was paired with Rory McIlroy. He thought it couldn’t get better. Then he got a hole in one.PITTSFORD, N.Y. — On Saturday evening, Michael Block, the 46-year-old Everyman golf pro from a public course in California, learned that he would continue his enchanting run at this year’s P.G.A. Championship by playing the final round with Rory McIlroy, the four-time major champion. Block rolled his eyes at the news and spun around.“Are you serious?” he asked.He began to backpedal, as if reeling.Eventually, he walked away, smiling but muttering: “Oh, boy.”Block added: “That should be fun.”And, oh, boy, was it ever.In retrospect, perhaps McIlroy, 34, one of his generation’s greatest golfers, should have been the one grinning and eagerly awaiting the chance to play with Block, who finished the tournament tied for 15th but was treated like a visiting rock star throughout the weekend. And he lived up to the billing.Block proved what’s possible in a game like golf, where the competition is more about the player against the course than it is golfer against golfer.For this one tournament, Block, who had never even made the cut at a major championship, was able to keep up with the best in the game for 72 tense, demanding holes. He proved what’s possible, which may be the central reason people watch sports. And he won $288,333.33.At the end of their pairing Sunday, McIlroy grabbed Block for a long bear hug on the final green. They may be 12 years apart in age and separated by hundreds of millions of dollars in golf earnings, but it was not evident in their heartfelt embrace.In more than four hours of golf on Sunday afternoon, it was just one of the highlights of their pairing — and there were many.It was good golf, and more important, it was good for golf.But no part will likely be more memorable than Block’s shot at the 151-yard, par-3 15th hole on Sunday.First, by way of background, the P.G.A. Championship is the rare major tournament that reserves 20 spots in the field for members of the P.G.A. of America, the organization that conducts the tournament and represents the 28,000 certified club pros in the United States.Block, whose full-time job is to teach golf lessons and serve the recreational players at the Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, Calif., southeast of Los Angeles, qualified for one of the 20 spots. It was a shock when he was even par through two rounds and in a tie for 10th, which made him only the second club pro to be in the top 10 after two rounds in the tournament in the last 40 years.Block had never made the cut at a major before the P.G.A.It turns out Block, who spent his time at this year’s P.G.A. Championship signing virtually every autograph request from fans and entertaining reporters with winsome, self-deprecating answers to countless questions, was just getting started.He shot a third even par 70 on Saturday to stay relatively close to the top of the leaderboard.Just before 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon at Oak Hill Country Club, a Block party erupted alongside the first tee. It was entirely unlike any other celebration at the event since fans began lining the holes of the nearly century-old course for practice rounds early last week.A packed grandstand and a crowd 15 deep that enveloped the arena-like first tee box erupted in rambunctious, clamorous cheering as Block appeared. The greeting for McIlroy was muted by comparison.Chants of “Let’s go, Block,” followed him as he walked up the first fairway, where, apparently free of any jitters, he rifled his opening shot.Block bogeyed the opening hole but he seemed unbothered by it, chatting amiably with McIlroy for two or three minutes as the two sauntered up the fairway. As Block reached the green, a fan shouted: “You’re one of us, Michael; we’re with you!”When he made the second of six steadying pars, Block walked through a narrow corridor of fans. One yelled: “Working man coming through!”Block continued to play with composure, even as some of the crowd’s enthusiasm had begun to wane. But at the 15th hole, Block again showed his sense of drama by knocking his tee shot into the hole on the fly.The ovation for Block’s hole in one could be heard roughly 600 yards away near the clubhouse.By the 18th hole, Block had hooked his second shot well left of the green and nearly 100 feet from the flagstick. His recovery was fitting: a pitch to 7 feet. His par putt slowly crept to the edge of the hole, paused, and then fell out of view.Making par on the closing hole also ensured that Block will be invited to the 2024 P.G.A. Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.Interviewed minutes later, Block said: “I’m living a dream. It’s not going to get any better than this.”Dedicating his performance to the club pros nationwide, he added, with tears in his eyes: “This is for you.”“I’m living a dream. It’s not going to get any better than this,” Block said after his round. More