Cult hero Michael Block goes full ‘Blockie’ in another PGA tournament

In sports legends, Southern California club pro Michael Block sits somewhere between Jeremy Lin and Sidd Finch, with a touch of Shivas Irons thrown in for good measure. He is real (we think) but he does things and says things that imbue him with a deep mythic quality.

You miss Blockie. He’s a philosopher and health coach turned golfer who, at age 46, burst onto the scene in the 2023 PGA Championship. Block’s first dose of the virus that week in Oak Hill came when ESPN put him on the mic in the first round, and the pundit, coolly projecting in front of a national TV audience, explained to Oak Hill what might result if Oakmont and Shinnecock “had a baby.” Three days later, he achieved cult hero status in the final round with Rory McIlroy, when Block made an ace on the 15th and then delivered a stunning up-and-down on the 72nd hole to complete the 15th.

The Blockie Express was off and on, and it hasn’t slowed down much since. Since his week off, he has played two more PGA tournaments (this week at Aronmink marks his third) and eight more PGA Tour events; made more business appearances than Shaq; and inspired more memes than Charlie Sheen. His fame has led to partnerships with a number of companies including, but not limited to, TaylorMade, Malbon Golf, Cisco, Charles Schwab and Raising Cane’s. Not bad for a guy whose day job is guiding the pieces onto the range at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, Calif.

This year, Block had to earn his way into the PGA Championship the old-fashioned way: by winning the PGA Professional Championship, held at Bandon Dunes, Oregon, last month. The Block opened 71-70 before 30-mph winds left the players in survival mode for the final two rounds. His close of 78-69 was good enough for a tie for 10th place and the golden ticket to his eighth PGA Championship.

This week, in Philadelphia, Block arrived early. He played Aronmink’s spot on the back nine on Sunday followed by the front nine on Monday. “I learned a few ways to do practice rounds,” he said. “I’ve been playing nine holes every day since Sunday, so I’m starting to see the course twice.” Block’s son, Ethan, is in the bag and has worked closely with his father on strategy. On Thursday, they got up early and marked their logbook as a ship’s captain might a nautical chart. “This is a second-hand golf course, it’s crazy,” Block said.

Good for Block, because, with an average driving distance hanging at 290 yards, he’s not the first type of guy. In the opening round, Block was paired with Dustin Johnson and Rasmus Højgaard. “Two bombs are perfect,” Block said, and in fact on most fairways he was 50 yards or more behind his teammates. “I said, ‘Don’t try to hang out with them. We’re just going to play our game,'” Block said. “The main thing was to put it on the fairway, put it in a place, on the green or off the green, that would give us a chance to make a difference.”

Block made 10 of those and four birdies en route to a 70 that was better than Cameron Young’s total and four better than McIlroy’s. Even Block’s bad holes — he made bogeys on 4 and 8 and twice on 12 — weren’t that bad, he said. “Even on my bogeys today, I never hit a bad shot,” he said. “They didn’t end up with our calculations to be in the right place, and this is what happened after that.”

The block doesn’t turn lemons into lemons; Cristal replied. His blind positivity is one of his greatest strengths. “You can’t lose confidence with a bad shot, and that’s a really important key that I try to teach not only myself, but also my students,” he said. That confidence can be read as irony, which some observers have found to be wrong. But there’s also something else about Block, which has made him something of a perennial: a wide-eyed golly-gee-ism, as if he can’t wrap his head around the strange atmosphere he finds himself in.

Case in point: a bathroom break Block took at the start of his opening cycle. “There was no mirror, so I couldn’t look at myself,” he said. “But I said, ‘You’ve got this, I’m leaving. You’re really good, friend.’

“And I just kept going. I’m like, ‘I’ve got DJ, one of my idols, a guy I’ve looked up to my whole life, and Rasmus, who’s an incredible player, he’s like 63 in the world.’ I just go, ‘You’ve got this, honey. You’ve got it.’ It’s cool. It’s really cool. It’s fun, to be honest. I’m proud to just grind it out and have fun with the boys.”

The fun continued. On Friday, in the first round out, Block shot one over nine and, as of this writing, the tournament is over, safely under the two-over cut. He did what he set out to do. As he said on Thursday evening, “I feel like I can go out and shoot another level, something like that, and put myself in contention for the middle this weekend, which to be honest is unbelievable.”

Again.