“The Most Famous Club Pro in America,” an unofficial designation stemming from his slam-dunk hole-in-one that went viral during the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill while playing with Rory McIlroy, will gain a new title this weekend.
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Michael Block, head professional at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, will become an official member of PGA Tour Champions, the 50-and-over professional tour, after he completes play as a sponsor’s exemption at the Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic at Lehigh Country Club in Allentown, Pa.
Block tees it up in the last group on Friday off the first tee (8:21 a.m. PT) along with Robert Karlsson and Harrison Frazar in the 54-hole event.
What makes this tournament especially significant for Block, who has three top-10 finishes in Champions events this summer since turning 50 in June, is that it is his seventh Champions event – the number of events required for member status, meaning the $326,486 he has won as a non-member thus far will become official earnings and make him eligible for the tour’s Schwab Cup playoffs.
“After that start, he will populate on the money/points list and [that] will make him eligible for the postseason,” said tour spokesman Stewart Moore, Vice President of Communications for PGA Tour Champions.
Depending on his finish this weekend, Block will rank around 50th on the Schwab Cup points list (based on his current earnings), well inside the top 72 players who qualify for the first PGA Tour Champions playoff event, the Stifel Charity Classic at Norwood Country Club in St. Louis (Oct. 23-25). The top 54 qualify for the second playoff event, the Simmons Bank Championship in Arkansas (Oct. 30-Nov. 1), and the top 36 qualify for the Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix (Nov. 12-15).
St. Louis just happens to be where Block grew up and went to high school and college.
“My hometown – it’s crazy!” Block said in an interview in his Arroyo Trabuco office before he flew to Philadelphia for this weekend’s tournament. “I actually put it on my office calendar last winter: ‘Stifel Championship, St. Louis’ and put ‘HUGE GOAL’ in parentheses. I really didn’t think it was a possibility with such a short season left [after turning 50 on June 15] that I could make the playoffs, but that was my goal – and now it’s going to happen. It’s unbelievable.”
What helped make that longshot become reality, in addition to his recent tournament play, was a series of events, including a chain reaction from his famous ace and tie for 15th place at the 2023 PGA Championship, the highest finish by a club professional since 1986. One of the many who watched that tournament was John Karedes, the longtime tournament director for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in Endicott, N.Y.
“I hate begging [for sponsor’s exemptions], but I begged John … I bugged him a lot,” Block said. “It was a bummer for me that the tour ended [PGA Tour Champions] Q-School, so I had to find a different avenue to get into Champions events. Fortunately, the Dick’s gave me a spot because that was the first event after I turned 50. It happened to be in New York, not far from Oak Hill, where a lot of good things happened in 2023.
“I just wanted to go up there and not embarrass myself in my first event, just wanted to prove that I deserved that exemption.”
Mission accomplished. Block actually contended that weekend at En-Joie Golf Course, catching fire in the final round to rocket up the leaderboard. He was 8-under through 17 holes, in second place at 16-under, going into the final hole.
“The leaders were a couple holes behind me, so I was just trying to make a birdie on [No.] 18 to get in a tie for [the] lead,” Block recalled. But after a perfect drive, his second-shot gap wedge hit a tree guarding the right side of the green.
“Dropped down, plugged in a bunker – and I made a triple-bogey,” Block said. “Dropped me from second to (a tie for ninth), but the top 10 was huge because it got me into the next event.” It also earned him a $59,400 paycheck – a kick-start on his path to the Schwab Cup playoffs – and a berth in the Boeing Classic outside Seattle in mid-August.
The following week, Block competed in the U.S. Senior Open Championship in Columbus, Ohio, a Champions major that he qualified for, fittingly, on his 50th birthday, surviving a 3-for-2 playoff at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana.
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“That was, honestly, my biggest goal of turning 50, just to play in the U.S. Senior Open,” said Block, who has competed in eight PGA Championships and two U.S. Opens on the regular tour. His 31st-place finish in Ohio was worth $21,662. More money for his longshot goal.
Block didn’t play particularly well at the Boeing Classic – a T41 good for $9,000 – so he was prepared to fly home to Orange County.
“I’m having lunch after not playing that great that Sunday in Seattle, and I get a call – the Rogers Charity Classic asked me to play in their event in Calgary the next week. I was lucky enough that somebody dropped out of that event. So instead of flying home, I’m flying to Calgary the next day.”
Once again, Block made the most of an unexpected opportunity. He shot 65-65-67, was tied for the lead at one point, and finished tied for fifth – good for $97,500 and another top-10 finish that earned him a spot in the next event, The Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Mich.
His hot streak continued at Warwick Hills Country Club, where he opened 66-65 for a tournament-record 36-hole total of 13-under and a two-shot lead going into the final round, where he was paired with two-time Schwab Cup champion Steven Alker.
With nine holes to play, Block was still in the lead, before fading on the back nine – “Alker made four birdies in a row and I made a couple bogeys, so it was a quick flip-flop,” he said – on the way to a 74 and a third-place finish with a $132,000 payday, to top the $300,000 mark in season earnings.
Suddenly, the Schwab Cup playoffs were within his grasp. All he needed were two more events. That top-10 got him into the Sanford Invitational (T49) in Sioux Falls, S.D., in mid-September, and this weekend is his membership-validating seventh Champions event.
“The three top-10s got me in three different tournaments and sponsor’s exemptions helped, too,” said Block, who also picked up a sponsor’s exemption at the Constellation Furyk & Friends event in Florida next weekend (Oct. 9-11).
All of his recent success and sometimes outplaying World Golf Hall of Famers on tour make Block dream even bigger. He realizes it’s another long shot, but outstanding play could put him in contention to crack the final 36 and get in the Schwab Cup Championship, which would guarantee tour privileges in 2027.
“The playoffs are double points, so anything can happen,” Block said. “You can jump a lot (in the standings) by playing well in the playoffs. The ball’s in my court. But to get to Phoenix would be amazing.”
Ultimately, the Most Famous Club Pro in America would like to be known as just another pro on the PGA Tour Champions.
“I’ve had an absolute blast playing out there,” Block said. “The guys have been unbelievably inviting and welcoming to me. Bernhard Langer invited me to play a practice round. Zach Johnson and Freddie Couples have been amazing. Retief Goosen calls me ‘Blockie.’ Ernie Els was in the buffet line one day and he stops me and says, “Welcome. Great playing. Glad to have you here.’”
After this weekend, they will be Michael Block’s tour colleagues. Membership, as they say, has its privileges.
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