“I still feel like I’m dreaming.”
Michael Block (46, USA), who tied for 15th place (1 over par, 281 strokes) at the 105th PGA Championship, which ended with the victory of Brooks Koepka (USA), could not control his emotions for a long time after the match. His eyes were bloodshot with tears of emotion, and he still couldn’t believe that a fairy tale story that would change his life forever had happened to him.
Block is a club pro instructing guests at a small golf course in Mission Viejo, Orange County, California. Block, who participated in the PGA Championship hosted by the American Professional Golfers Association (PGA America) as a top 20 club leader, competed for the championship beyond passing the cut in a major tournament in which the world’s best professional players participated.
Block hit an even par 70 in rounds 1 and 2 in a row and advanced to the finals, drawing attention, and in the 3rd round, he tied for 8th with the same score and played the final round with Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), who is ranked 3rd in the world. The fact that the club pro competed with the world’s top stars on the last day of the major tournament was a hot topic, but Block hit another big accident with a hole-in-one on the 15th hole (par 3).
The moment a tee shot with a 7-iron from 151 yards led to a hole-in-one, a dunk directly into the hole, he asked McIlroy to confirm, “Rory, are you in the hole?” McIlroy, who was with the companion who sowed the best topic of the competition, congratulated him with a warm hug while confirming it one after another.
Block lost one stroke on the last day, but tied for 15th, the highest club pro in PGA Championship history since Jay Overton (tied for 17th) in 1988. In an interview, Block said, “I want to share the joy with 29,000 club pros. This is yours,” he glorified his colleagues.스포츠토토
Block, who won 288,333 dollars (approximately 380 million won) in prize money, secured the right to participate in the PGA Championship next year and was invited to the Charles Schwab Challenge and the Canadian Open next week.