Michael Block battles through the Charles Schwab Challenge, but the fanfare remains for ‘legend’ among the club’s pros

FORT WORTH, Texas — Michael Block fought through tears as best he could Thursday as he walked off the 18th green at Colonial Country Club and headed to the clubhouse to sign his scorecard.

For the 46-year-old PGA professional from Southern California, a 15-plus performance, including a Thursday 81, to end his 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge run on Friday was not the encore of his magical PGA Championship run. 2023 you envisioned. . It was there that Block, among the handful of PGA professionals selected annually to play the event, made it all possible for golfers of all levels. The top-15 finish also earned him instant adoration from the golf world and a sponsor’s exemption to play at Hogan’s Alley this week.

On Thursday, the phrase “one of us!” was shouted by one of the many enthusiastic onlookers following Block, playing alongside Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody. And while most avid golfers have never experienced the pressure of playing in a PGA Tour event, nearly everyone who has picked up a golf club has, at some point, endured a round that elicited the feelings the new club endured. America’s Favorite Professional.

“If you play golf, you know exactly what just happened,” Block said. “So I don’t really need to explain [my round] too much because, if you’re a golfer, you’ve had the day that I’ve had. You get the facts of where lies are no good and trees get in your way all the time.”

There were moments from Block on Thursday that recaptured the magic of Oak Hill Country Club, including a near ace at the par-3 fourth. a bunker and even a drive that came to rest on a carriageway bridge before Block opted to play his shot off the concrete.

None of it, even when Block ended the day sitting alone in last place and 19 strokes off the lead, changed the fact that, for another week, he beat the odds by living what most teaching professionals can only dream of. while becoming golf’s biggest sensation virtually overnight.

For a non-elevated event that took place on the heels of a major championship, having 23 of the top 50 players in the world field was a huge win for the tournament organizers at Colonial. Yet for all the star power on the field, including World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, no contestant had a finish to match the fanfare that accompanied Block, who sat well outside the field. top 3,000 last week in the Official World Golf Rankings before rocketing to No. 577.

The enthusiasm shown for golf’s new folk hero remained constant from start to finish on Thursday’s roller coaster as Block trudged across the course. The sea of ​​smartphones raised to capture images of Block off the first tee was a scene often reserved for the game’s heavy hitters. The custom-made “Block Party” T-shirts and signs were not to be missed, and Block wasn’t afraid to engage in banter back and forth with some of his more vocal supporters mid-round – something he rarely, if ever, is that sometimes, you see. of full-time touring professionals.

For those closest to Block, including a traveling contingent on hand from his home club of Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, Calif., the continued embrace of the general public came as no surprise given the way Block is cherished at home.

“It’s just wonderful to hear all the comments as you walk through the crowd,” Matthew Donovan, the club’s general manager, told CBS Sports during Thursday’s round. “And they have all portrayed exactly the man who [Michael] is. That’s the Michael we know. He’s just fantastic.”

They’ll also be quick to tell you that Block’s performance on the PGA to simply afford this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity wasn’t a surprise either. Not based on the clip Block was playing in the previous months, at least, stemming from a methodical change in his approach to the game based on the limitations of a player his age.

“[Michael] he’s always had that something special about his game,” Geoff Cram, Arroyo Trabuco’s director of operations and an employee of the club since its opening, told CBS Sports. “I think he was really trying to play a different game. He was trying to keep up with the other guys, guys who are much younger than him and hit the ball much further than him. Then he decided: ‘I have to play the game that I have.’ I think he really fell into a groove and was able to piece it all together.”

Fellow instructor Bob Lasken, who has taught alongside Block since Arroyo Trabuco’s boyhood days in 2004, can attest to those efforts to change his approach within the competitive field of golf.

“Me, [slowing his game down] it’s tremendous growth for him,” Lasken told CBS Sports in a phone interview. “It was not like this in the past. When you have a player like that that he has opportunities to play, and he’s improving and growing, it’s over with. [opportunity].”

It’s been several years since Block set the course record at Arroyo Trabuco when he shot a 59 in 2019. But he turned heads less than two months ago when Block hit a 58 during a members event on the nearby north course at Coto De Caza. . Golf and Racquet Club, a jarring feat on one of the most challenging courses Orange County, California has to offer.

Perhaps even more indicative of what was in store for Block was a short drive north at Shady Canyon Country Club in Irvine, California. According to Lasken, Block played a match with world No. 4 Patrick Cantlay, who hails from the same region, in which the eight-time PGA Tour winner gave Block one stroke out of nine. Block never came close to needing those extra punches, throwing a 65 while Cantlay settled for a 70.

“That was very helpful,” Lasken said. “When you have that confidence against the No. 4 player in the world, and then you’re at the PGA Championship, you’re like, ‘I’ve smoked these guys. I can do this.'”

And lo and behold, Block’s challenges at the Charles Schwab Challenge were a reminder of how wide the gap is even between certified teaching professionals, still far more equipped to play in this arena than most, and those who earn the life competing in this circuit. Block entered Colonial with 25 previous starts on the PGA Tour, leading among Southern California stops, though only four of those saw him make the cut. Souring the hopes of many, a fifth will not be on the cards this weekend.

But much like the praise from his fans this week at Colonial, the reception Block received from the Tour’s top pros didn’t depend on how his scorecard looked. And befitting a trade instructor, the lesson Block taught some of the biggest names in the game was far greater than anything he had to do with the mechanics of a swing.

“You’ll look back and think about a couple of weeks in your life, and this may be one of the best I’ve ever had,” Jordan Spieth said of Block’s career. “It’s like, man, we [as touring pros] get to do that every week. I think if you can help keep that perspective and be a little bit more like Michael Block week by week, that would be a good thing for all of us.”

World No. 7 Max Homa went so far as to give Block, whom he already knew from his Southern California upbringing, the label of “legend” given Block’s ability to reach a point where few instructors have arrived.

“There are some [PGA professionals] which are, you know, playing golf,” Homa said. “Some don’t really play [competitively] much more. And then you have some people like Michael who are still tremendous at golf. I think that’s what brings the legend of them. You hear about these people. You see them. You play events with them. So I think that’s where that comes from.”

If there were any doubt about the impact Block has had on the golf community, the scene at home in Arroyo Trabuco should speak for itself. Between an influx of out-of-state callers looking to book tee times and lessons at the club and virtually all of the Arroyo Trabuco-brand gear being sold out in the wake of Block’s promotion, no one anticipated something of this magnitude.

Meanwhile, other new Block fans have contacted the club simply to pass on a message of thanks.

“It’s just been crazy,” Cram said. “There is a tremendous amount of support. We have people calling all the time wanting [Michael] luck and saying they saw it on TV and were inspired by it.

“We had one person respond via the website that they were quitting golf. Then they looked at Michael and decided against it.” [quit]. They decided to give it one more chance. If it’s inspiring people to stay in golf, that’s great.”

As Lasken describes it, what has long been a local “block party” has now been taken national.

“He’s always had support in Arroyo,” Lasken said. “He’s a great guy. Now everyone else understands why we’ve been so supportive of him.”

Through it all, Block’s only request is that his co-workers, including Lasken, Donovan and Cram, get their fair share of credit for fostering the culture at a club that has allowed Block to make this dream come true.

“Our club has done very well before this,” Block said. “He’s always going to be doing great one way or another, whether this happens or not, with me or without me.”

Quite often, real mania surrounds such a golfer. For years golf enjoyed “tiger mania” as Tiger Woods dominated golf at a rate that may never be touched again; An injury-plagued Woods still moves the needle like no one else 26 years after the first of his 15 career wins at the 1997 Masters.

“Blockmania,” if that term is appropriate, may just be a footnote compared to what Woods did for the sport. Of course, there’s still another chance to block-play alongside the game’s best next month after earning a further waiver at the RBC Canadian Open outside Toronto. The 2023 US Open Championship at the Los Angeles Country Club also remains on the line for both Block and his eldest son, Dylan, after both clinched their final qualifying spots in the coming weeks.

But that doesn’t change the fact that this fairy tale journey, like all good things, will eventually end one way or another.

If the “Block party” came to a halt once and for all on Friday in the Lone Star State, Block knows that the flight back to Southern California will end with a welcome home from family, friends and students that he won’t have. parallel. And despite all the ups and downs of this journey, that makes every second worth it.

“I’m going to live with that,” Block said. “I thought [a bad round] That third or fourth round was going to happen last week in Oak Hill, and it never happened. Occurred [Thursday], and I was not surprised, to tell you the truth. The experience I had last week was next level. … It is what it is.

“At the same time, I sat there, and I thought about it, and I said, ‘I’m going to see my children [Friday] evening.'”