Unlike most immensely talented golfers, Michael Block didn't grow up dreaming of a life on tour. His goals were much more humble in fact, and revolved around a plan that he devised very early in his life.
“I learned very quickly in my life at a very young age, thank goodness, that I didn’t want to have to make six-footers to pay for my bills and raise a family. It didn’t take long, thank God, right? I didn’t spend 15 wasted years,” says Michael.
“I found out early that I wanted to go and have a job. I knew I wanted to be in golf and I knew I wanted to go to the golf course every day. I wanted to play as well, I love the game.
“I remember when I first went to a golf course, I saw the head pro had a sign that said, ‘Golf Pro Parking Only’ in his own parking spot. And I thought immediately, ‘That’s my goal.’ I’m not sure why I wanted that as my goal, but it became my goal as a four- or five-year-old.
“And so at the age of about eight I got one of those signs, my parents gave me a sign and I had it above my bed my whole life growing up. I kept it and my kid now has it above his bed, which is a cool thing, and somehow both boys of mine love golf as much as I do.”
In 1998, and fresh out of college, Michael's pursuit took him to The Lakes Country Club in Palm Desert, California. He finally achieved his life-long ambition by taking the head pro job at Arroyo Trabuco, where he has worked for the last 20 years.
Arriving at Oak Hill, Michael had missed the cut in his six previous Major appearances. That run extended back to the 2007 US Open at Oakmont, and there was little to indicate that this experience would be any different. Still, with a goal set at the start of the week, Michael entered with a strong sense of optimism.
“It was a no-brainer for me. I’d never made the cut in my six Majors, I’d made it in tour starts but never in a Major. I’d never really even come that close in a Major, to be honest. I think four shots from a cut maybe, at best, at a PGA Championship. Never close in the US Open, maybe five or six shots. So my goal was to make the cut and be low club professional.
“Now I was fortunate enough – not fortunate enough, because it would have been nice if they did too – that when I made the cut, no other club professionals made the cut. So as soon as Friday was done, I knew that I had already got both goals. So then it was like free-wheeling it on the weekend. So a lot of pressure was off, which undoubtedly helped me.”
Blockie not only achieved this target, but with consecutive level–par 70 rounds, he was poised in a tie for tenth spot and just five shots off the leader. A third 70 on Saturday, this time alongside 2013 US Open champion Justin Rose, set him on the path towards a moment that truly captured the incredulity of what was happening.
At the PGA Championship, Michael sported a cap emblazoned with the word 'RAW', which perfectly summarised his reaction to the huge news that awaited him after the third round. After learning that he would be playing with Rory McIlroy in the final round on a Major Championship Sunday, Michael could barely believe what was happening.
“I was flabbergasted by it. I was giving an interview and I thought the cameras were off and thought the interview was done, and at the last second the interviewer goes, ‘Hey Blockie, just so you know, you’re paired with Rory tomorrow.’ He got me from sideways, right?
“I thought I was off camera and that’s why I’m like, ‘You gotta be kidding me?’ And I just walk away. If you lined up everybody and said, ‘Hey, Blockie, you’re gonna be in eighth place going into the final round, you get to pick who you play with,’ I would have picked Rory McIlroy out of the whole list. That’s how cool a week that was. It was like everything was aligned.”
That set up one of the most iconic 1st tee scenes in the tournament’s history, alongside a true great of the game in front of thousands of impassioned fans and with the eyes of the golfing world watching. For the majority, the thought alone would be enough to make the palms sweat and knees shake.
“Oh, yeah, that 1st tee was crazy,” Michael admits. “I had just met Rory previously in the locker room for three seconds. And outside of that I hadn’t been around him at all. He hit balls back behind me while I was warming up, but that’s the only interaction I had with Rory.
“And now all of a sudden, this huge crowd is assembled on hole 1. And that moment was intense. He goes first and as soon as he hits, the starter says, ‘Now on the tee.’ The crowd erupts and I’m just like, ‘Oh. My. Gosh.’
“I hit a horrible drive, I pulled it left, and got a bad lie. I missed about an eight-footer for par. But it was an okay bogey for me honestly in that circumstance. That was probably the most nervous I was.
“There was literally one time walking down the fairway and Rory is 20 yards ahead of me. I’d hit a good shot and I pinched John, my caddie, and I go, ‘Dude, is this a dream?’ And he pinched me back – can you imagine the fans are looking at us walking down the fairway and we’re pinching each other. It had to have been a funny sight.
But that is literally how surreal the whole circumstances were, playing with Rosey, playing with Rory on the Sunday and having the fans 20 deep going all the way down the fairways chanting ‘Block’. Incredible.”
Amazingly, we are 20 minutes into our chat and perhaps the most unfathomable part of Michael’s week has yet to come up in conversation. At two-over for the day and tournament, he arrived on the par-3 15th tee in need of a strong finish to secure his spot in next year’s championship.
What happened next will undoubtedly go down in PGA Championship folklore as the Californian slam-dunked a 7-iron from around 150 yards to send the crowd into a frenzy. In his own words, it was just one of a number of “miracles” that occurred on what was a day like no other in his golfing life.
“I think there were four or five miracles that happened in the matter of an hour-and-a-half. Right before I made that hole-in-one, I was in this absolutely atrocious lie on 14. I pulled a drive and I actually got a rules official because I thought I was in a hole,” he says.
“I tried to chop it out and it comes out low and left and I’m thinking I missed the green. It lands on the green, goes up the fringe, takes the break and goes back behind the pin on a top-tier back-left flag. I was hoping I had a decent lie in the rough and then I have a six-footer for birdie. A complete miracle.
“I stand up on the next tee box, I hit a 7-iron, it goes directly in the hole – miracle. I mean that was nuts. I had no idea it went in because the crowd was going crazy right after I made contact.
“And then on 17 I get up and down from 120 yards after I hit it in the rough. I said, ‘Hey, take the medicine, hit it to 120 yards’ and I hit a gap wedge to about eight feet. The putt is breaking on the low side, hits the inside of the lip and somehow goes in the hole for par.”
That left Michael needing a four or better on the 500-yard par-4 closer to finish inside the top 15 and book his place at Valhalla next year, not that he knew that at the time. A poor drive and second put the fairytale ending in jeopardy and left him in a horrid spot short-sided and well below the green.
“On 18 I thought it was a miracle I didn’t kill anybody. When I hit that 3-wood from the right rough, I was trying to hit this cut around the tree anywhere near the green. It comes out dead straight and it’s just humming at this huge crowd and I’m like, ‘Do not kill anybody.’ I get up there and I was thrilled that there was nobody lying on the ground, a complete miracle.
“I had a decent lie. It wasn’t thick, but it was lying into me and I was on a downhill slope. I was trying to land it halfway between the fringe and the pin and roll it out to ten feet back left, because there was a tier to the right of the pin you couldn’t see.
“I watched that video. It goes up, it comes up short and lands about six inches in the rough, bounces out and goes about ten feet short of the pin, which I wasn’t trying to do. And then another miracle happens on that last putt where I didn’t hit it hard enough. It goes up to that right edge and somebody literally kicked it in for me.
“All that happened in a very short amount of time under the most intense pressure – moments of golf I’ve never had in my life. So for that to happen, it was meant to happen, obviously.
“It was a dream come true. To be able to do it four days in a row is what I was blown away by personally. I kept on going after the first two. I’m like, ‘Okay, cool, I got my goal, but I’m going to blow it up on Saturday with Rosey’ and I didn’t do it. And then I’m like, ‘Oh boy, here it comes with Rory on Sunday, I’m going to shoot an 81’ and I shot 71. It was the best golf experience of my life.”
