UnderdogMindset

Best PGA Championship finish by a club professional since 1980s

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Michael Block talking about his performance at the 2023 PGA Championship
The Complete Story of Michael Block's Remarkable Final Round | 2023 PGA Championship
Posted: Oct 1, 2023
Golf Worst Odds

In golf, in contrast to the name, a club professional is not a pro golfer who plays in the PGA Tour; it is a golfer that a club hires to run things or teach the game. Club professionals usually can't contend with the actual professionals; before 2023, the last time a club pro got close to winning a major tournament was in 1986, when Lonnie Nielsen finished eleventh at that year's PGA Championship.

So, when the 46-year-old Michael Block made the cut after scoring 70s in the first two rounds of the 2023 PGA Championship, it surprised everyone. Block was a club professional who succeeded at the club level, having most recently won the 2022 Southern California PGA Player of the Year. Despite that, his odds of even finishing in the top 10 at the PGA Championship was +35000.

After shocking people by surviving the cut, Michael did it again by hitting a hole-in-one on the fifteenth hole in the final round. Ultimately, he finished fifteenth with a +1 and peaked at 8th after the third round. Michael Block did something no club professionals had done in decades, showing that perhaps anything is possible in golf.

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Quotes

This week's been absolutely a dream,...I didn't know it was going to happen, but I knew if I just played my darned game, right, that I could do this. I always knew it.

Michael Block

I’ve learned at this point to enjoy the moment, to sit back and relax and enjoy it because it goes by fast, and life goes by fast. Before you know it, you’re 60 years old and retired and look back at the videos on this and remember that was the best week of my life, and more than likely this is probably going to be the best week of my life.

Michael Block
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