Block’s Magical Performance A Double Eagle For PGA of America

The 2023 PGA Championship, held on Oak Hill Country Club’s famed East Course in Rochester NY, is in the history books with a healthy and unyielding Brooks Koepka capturing his third PGA Championship win and 5th major of his career. It came alongside PGA club professional Michael Block nearly stealing the moment with a stunning, shot heard round the Twitter world, hole-in-one on the par 3, 15th hole on Sunday, and a magical up and down out of the heavy rough approaching the 18th hole, to achieve a top-15 finish which qualified Block for next year’s PGA.

Michael Block, 46, was not a household name at the beginning of the week, as he entered the championship along with 20 of his fellow PGA club professionals who qualified. But what a difference a week makes as he catapulted from 3,580 to 577 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

The head PGA professional from Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, California, finished at 1-over 281 the best finish since 1986 when club pro Lonnie Nielson tied for 11th place. This would come as no surprise if you were an astute golfer, especially from the West Coast.

Block’s playing resume is long and impressive. Among the highlights, he has appeared in 25 PGA Tour events, he won the 2001 California State Open, three Southern California PGA Championships (2017, 2018, 2022), and the 2014 PGA Professional National Championship. He has been awarded the Southern California PGA Player of the Year nine out of ten years from 2012 to 2022 and was named the 2022 PGA Professional Player of the Year.

The guy’s got game.

His performance, competing against and beating the top touring pros including world #1 Jon Rahm, was captivating, riveting and was equally matched by his good guy, wearing it on his sleeves, “don’t make me cry” personality, that made him a media darling by the end of the championship. (Seriously, was he previous- ly profiled in Wikipedia?)

As a career public relations professional in the golf industry, this PGA Championship was a major league home run (pun intended) in terms of media exposure for the PGA of America. Block proceeded to do a post-championship media tour that typically is reserved and touted exclusively to promote the winners of major tournaments. My at-a-glance number crunching would say advantage Michael Block over Brooks Koepka, for better or worse, as Block’s dead last finish and missed cut at The Colonial the following week would reveal. Nevertheless, Block was the Cinderella story of the 2023 PGA Championship golfers won’t soon forget.

Back to the publicity windfall for the PGA of America. There has been some media attention recently, including a special report by Golf Digest entitled “The Club Pro Crisis,” that has raised some eyebrows within the PGA and its membership.

At the PGA of America annual meeting in November 2021, post Covid, Seth Waugh, the CEO summed it up this way, “We’ve gone from a demand problem in terms of players to a supply problem. The lack of supply is hours in the day, lack of balance in our members’ lives and a lack of a pipeline of talent to replace our aging population … virtually everyone has been asked to raise the bar, to do more with the same, to work insane hours. It’s absolutely unsustainable, and there’s a crisis brewing for facilities that don’t get in front of it.”

There are 29,000 PGA club professionals who’s daily job includes teaching, managing, retailing, operations and administration. And as we learned from Block, he rarely has time to work on his game.

“I’m one of them. 100 percent. I’m just your local club pro,” said Block after his second round at the PGA. “That’s what I do. I don’t hit balls. People think I’ve got the best job in the world. I do have a great job. I have a very supportive club that lets me go play, but the amount of times I hit a bucket of balls is not even once a week.”

The PGA of America seems to have a public relations problem both inside its ranks as well as outside the ropes with everyday golfers. Ask around, and many golfers and fans don’t know the difference between the PGA of America and the PGA TOUR. This brain fog seems to worsen every year when the PGA Championship, now the second major of the season, is in the spotlight.

So, here’s your quick golf history lesson. The PGA Organizing Committee was formed in January 1916 when American department store magnate and visionary, Rodman Wanamaker gathered a group of prominent industry people and notable golfers including legendary club professional, Walter Hagen, for a luncheon in New York City. The PGA of America charter of America is made up of club and teaching professionals whose mission is to inspire golfers to learn and enjoy the game and grow participation in the game.

What became loud and clear during and after the 2023 PGA Championship, thanks to Michael Block, is the role of the PGA of America and a better understanding of the who, what, why, where and how each of the 29,000 PGA professionals contribute their passion and dedication to make the game better and more accessible for the rest of us.

No doubt those club pros raised their heads a little higher and their shoulders felt a little broader as they arrived for work at their home club on Monday morning after the PGA. Perhaps even their competitive juices were reconstituted, after observing the way 46-year-old Block kept his was officially signed in April, and 78 members elected. Wanamaker funded the $2,500 for the first PGA Championship held that October, including the 27-pound trophy that bears his name today. In 1968, the PGA TOUR was born and spun off as a separate organization for tour players only. The PGA TOUR is the sole organizer of all professional golf tours and tournaments in North America. The PGA perspective and held his own against the best tour pros in the world.

“I live it, breathe it,” explained Block. “I’m going to go to the golf course no matter what, whether I’m working outside service cleaning clubs on the weekend or cleaning shoes or running the club. I don’t care what it is. I’m going to drive over that hill, and I’m going to go to the golf course in a polo and live my dream.”