How Michael Block became golf’s ultimate everyman
He’s an inspiration story for late-40-somethings and after-50 dreamers hoping to play the sport for a living.
For 22 years, Block was a club professional, first as an assistant and eventually as the head pro at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, Calif. He wasn’t a highly recruited junior, a decorated college player or a young phenom groomed for the professional ranks.
He played one year of high-school golf. One year of college golf. Then he went to work at golf clubs. And he waited.
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And, perhaps fittingly, he’s doing it in a way that feels very much like Michael Block: travelling from tournament to tournament, learning new courses and new conditions on the fly, while still making time for the people who helped turn him into one of golf’s most beloved figures.
His latest stop is Calgary, where Block is playing the Rogers Charity Classic, Canada’s only PGA TOUR Champions event, at Canyon Meadows Golf & Country Club. The tournament began Friday, with a 78-player field competing for a US$2.5-million purse.
For Block, though, the money and the names around him are only part of the story.
The bigger deal is that he gets to play against the golfers he grew up watching.
“I’m now playing against guys that I always idolize myself because these are the guys that I watched as a fan, watching on TV, going to tournaments, getting their autographs, Block said.
That list includes Tiger Woods, who is the same age as Block, along with Fred Couples and the late Payne Stewart.
Couples, once a television idol, is now someone Block considers a friend.
And at the DICK’S Open in Endicott, N.Y., Block got another one of those surreal moments when he was paired with Darren Clarke, a player he’d admired from afar. Block finished tied for ninth in that Champions debut, shooting 66-70-67.
Before that round, Block says, he would walk past Clarke without knowing him.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on calgaryherald.com — the content belongs to Calgary Herald.
