PGA Pro Gets Last Laugh After Embarrassing Shank at PGA Championship
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A shank is embarrassing. Even more so for a professional golfer. Worse when it’s on national television and in front of hundreds if not thousands of spectators.
Michael Block hit the unfortunate hosel rocket on the fifth hole at Oak Hill Country Club on Friday, his ball hitting a tree and coming to rest just 60 yards away.
But the club pro from California ended up getting the last laugh. Not only did he overcome the poor shot, he parred his last four holes to shoot even-par 70 and make the 36-hole cut at the PGA Championship, an impressive feat for a club pro.
"I had the same swing I've had all week," said Block, the head pro at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo. “I love hitting a baby draw with my 8-iron. I've done it well all week, and all of a sudden we've all been there, done that, and we look up, and I'm, like, oh, my goodness.
“The ball was just going off, somehow hit the tree, almost killed somebody, and then comes off and goes in the deep rough, and I was actually fortunate enough to make a double bogey after that, after just making a bogey on the hole before being in the middle of the fairway with a 60-degree wedge in my hand. I went bogey, double bogey."
Being a pro who gives 45-minute lessons for $125, Block knew what to do.
“I said, O.K., your hands are getting too far out in front of you and getting too far away from you," he said. "I played the last four holes feeling my hands a little tighter to the body through the impact zone, and I had 6-iron, 5-iron, and 4-iron into all those holes coming in, but I kind of flushed all those coming in. I was very happy with that. Thank you."
Block, 46, was stoked to make the cut, a dream at the start of the week. Then he explained the way to get out of a shank.
“What I like to do is set up to the golf ball and swing and hit the ground on the inside of the golf ball," he said. “Like not even hit the ball on practice swings. Just take it, hit inside the golf ball a couple of times to feel that space and to get the hands in tight.
“If you watch a lot of the best players in the world, their hands are extremely close to their body at the moment of impact. A lot of the worst players in the world, their hands are far away from their body at the moment of impact. That's the difference. I'm trying to feel a draw. I'm trying to get it more out to the right and work it to the left. I overdid it, but it is what it is. In my head I'm going, you have got to be kidding me right now. I've been flushing it all day."
At one point, Block got within one stroke of the lead at 3 under par when he birdied the first hole, his 10th. But he bogeyed the fourth and then made that double at the fifth to finish 36 holes at even par.
Block is playing in his fifth PGA Championship and recently tied for second at the PGA Professional Championship, which takes the top 20 players for the PGA Championship. This is the first time he’s made the cut at the PGA.