Too many club pros at the PGA Championship?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Michael Block is golf’s equivalent of the totems invited to (and pointed at) during State of the Union addresses, the relatable everymen whose experiences positively illustrate the benefits of policies favored by the administration. As emblems go, the PGA of America won’t find a better one this week at Oak Hill Country Club.

The 46-year-old club professional is the ultimate feel-good tale. He spent much of Friday on the upper reaches of the leaderboard before a couple of late stumbles had him signing for a second consecutive 70, a handful off the pace but well ahead of many of the world’s best golfers who play rather than teach for a living.

“I feel like I’ve got the game this week to compete, to tell you the truth,” he said. “I’ve made the cut, which is obviously, like I told you, a huge goal. I feel like I could shoot even par out here every day. I feel like at the end of the four days that that might be a pretty good result.”

Block is no neophyte in this environment. This is his fifth appearance in a PGA Championship and seventh in a major, in addition to 17 starts on the PGA Tour. He plays frequently at home in California with world No. 4 Patrick Cantlay, who he clipped by one stroke through 36 holes. “I don’t know who I beat, who I didn’t beat,” he said, modestly. “I’m going to go out there and do my best and put my head down and play as well as I can for the next two days.”

The PGA of America will carry Block aloft as testimony to what its members bring to the PGA Championship, and it should. The ranks of teaching professionals include many fine players, and his presence and performance have added a welcome dimension to the tournament. But it’s no less true that Block amounts to one ray of sunshine in an otherwise overcast sky for club pros this week.

As Friday wore on, only one of the other 19 club professionals was inside the cut line. Most languished well outside the top 100 in a 156-man field. How any professional — club or touring — performs this week has no bearing on his right to be here. The guys at opposite ends of the leaderboard, Chris Sanger and Scott Scheffler, both earned berths fairly. All 20 club pros competing here did. There should be no qualms about their presence, but it’s not unreasonable to wonder if 20 ought to remain the quota going forward.

The presence of club professionals at Oak Hill speaks to the history of the PGA of America but also to the internal politics…