It’s known for having the strongest field in golf but the PGA Championship also gives opportunities to club pros – with Michael Block last year showing just how that fairytale can emerge.
It’s a fairytale because your average club pro, no matter how talented, shouldn’t really be able to mix it with the best of the best, but Block certainly did that with his epic T15 finish at Oak Hill last year.
Also nailing a dream hole-in-one, Block was the first club professional to finish in the top 20 of the PGA Championship since 1990 – and the highest finishers since Lonnie Nielsen’s T11 in 1986.
He’s not the highest ever finisher by a club pro in the PGA Championship though.
Best PGA Championship results by club pros
To answer the question of has a club pro ever won the PGA Championship, sadly the answer is no – it’d be some story though wouldn’t it!
Since the PGA Professional Championship was introduced in 1968 to allow club pros to qualify, the best finish in the PGA Championship is third place by Tommy Bolt in 1971.
Bolt was a former Tour pro who had retired – and another more famous name that graces the top of the list is Sam Snead, who finished T4 in 1972 and T9 a year later as a club professional.
Jimmy Wright’s fourth-placed finish at the 1969 event is the highest finish by what you’d call a “true club pro” and he rounds out the short list of just four club professionals to earn a top 10 finish at the PGA Championship.
Bob Boyd is the most prolific club pro on the list, with four appearances in the top 32 PGA Championship finishes including two T30s in 1983 and 1994 and his best of a T19 at Shoal Creek in 1990.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Block’s T15 from Oak Hill last year puts him in ninth on the all-time list of club professional finishes in the PGA Championship.
Block is one of just seven players this century to have grabbed a notable finish in the PGA Championship and by far the best – eclipsing Chip Sullivan’s T30 finish at Whistling Straits in 2004.
They are the only two club pros to finish inside the top 40 at the PGA Championship in the 2000s, which puts into perspective just what an incredible achievement it was for Block to be out there playing with Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy over the weekend.
And who knows, maybe he’ll do something similar at Valhalla this week….
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