Michael Block, the golf instructor who had a wild weekend at the PGA Championship and greeted with a viral hole in one

Super-pro sports are occasionally met with a fairy tale that overshadows the millions of dollars and pressures involved. It happened this weekend in the field of Oak Hill, the home of PGA Championship, professional golf’s second major of the season. There, where Brooks Koepka added his third tournament title and stole the major titles, a fantastic story unfolded that has Michael Block as a stellar protagonist.

Who is Michael Block? He’s not the owner of a brand of chocolates or anything like that. He’s actually a 46-year-old golf instructor who earned the right to play this tournament through an invitation. And he not only surprised him by cutting qualifying, but he was going to make an even bigger story if he finished in the top 10.

goes the spoiler: didn’t make it: finished 15th. But, halfway through, on the fifteenth hole, he allowed himself the luxury of hitting one. Yes, you will never forget this tournamentin addition to its definitive headquarters, it will have the possibility of repeating its participation in 2024.

Block works as a private camp teacher in Mission Viejo, California. And it’s not off the cuff: It charges about $120 for a 45-minute class. He has to be good at what he does, clearly. “You’re not doing so badly, chubby,” Raúl Alfonsín would say to this portly teacher who moved like a fish in water on the Oak Hill greens. It became clear that he could get a lot more juice out of his game if he aimed higher.

“I needed a real job that paid me weekly. I never wanted to have the obligation to convert putts to pay my mortgage,” he explained this weekend as he began showcasing his talent among the best on the planet warning that his peers and students always told him he had a lot of golf to get into the bigger loop.

The blocking phenomenon

What he did is unusual. It is, without exaggeration, extraordinary. Below him were golfers the height of xander schauffele, Colin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and the latest winner of the Augusta Masters, Jon Rahmwho finished 50th and will hand over the world number one on the PGA Tour to Scottie Scheffler, second in Oak Hill.

Of course, 15th place, when completing the round with 281 strokes (one over par), was not enough to surpass the record shared between Tommy Aycock, at the 1974 US Senior Open, and Lonnie Nielsen, at Dick’s Sporting. of 1986, when they finished eleventh as club professionals. You shouldn’t worry too much.

This Sunday he formed a duo with Rory McIlroy, the Northern Irishman who was a four-time senior champion. “Really?” Block pinched himself loudly when he found out about his fellow rider on that last lap. “It’s going to be fun. We’ll have fun,” he continued, knowing that he had become everyone’s talking point. So much so that between shots he was interviewed by Jim Nantz AND Scott Van Pelt, the NBC commentators who covered the official broadcast. Social media exploded when he hit the 138m hole-in-one that made him even more famous. It’s viral.

“I’m going to sit with my friends and family as much as possible in the house we rent and watch videos tonight and see all my new Instagram followers. It’s been crazy,” he said at the end of the tour as Koepka left gone, he stole attention in the final holes.

“I’m going to sit with my friends and family as much as possible in the house we rent and watch videos tonight and see all my new Instagram followers. It’s been crazy,” she gushed.

Not a small fact: if he had finished in the top ten, he would have earned about 465 thousand dollars. Now you have to settle as soon as 288.333 green. The blue dollar flying to Argentina is not worth the bill. That’s also far more than the 75,000 he earned in 2014, when he had a great weekend at the National Professional Club Championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The only difference is that he played with peers there: the club’s teachers.

Koepka, the dissident victor

American Brooks Koepka won his third PGA Championship title on Sunday and gave the Saudi Arabian-funded LIV Golf circuit its first Grand Slam victory.

The American finished with 271 accumulated strokes (nine under par) and a two-under lead over Norway’s Viktor Hovland and American Scottie Scheffler, who split second place in Rochester, New York.

Koepka, who has a total of five Major trophies, was one of the leading figures to leave the PGA last year to join LIV Golf and the first to win a Grand Slam as a member of the criticized Saudi circuit. I’m not even sure I dreamed of winning so many as a kid,” Koepka congratulated.

The 33-year-old American has thus returned to the top after a four-year drought in Grand Slam trophies and a series of injuries.