PGA Tour star who made misconstrued Rory McIlroy comment is making career switch

PGA Championship fan favourite Michael Block has set his sights on turning to senior golf, and earning a spot on the PGA Tour Champions.

Block rose to fame at last year’s PGA Championship, when the club professional finished in a tie for 15th at Oak Hill Country Club. He infamously made an incredible slam-dunk hole-in-one at the par-three 15th during his final round where he was paired with four-time major champion Rory McIlroy.

Since then the teaching professional has competed in a whole host of PGA Tour events – including his return to the PGA Championship in May. At 48 however, the American is now keen to make the step into senior golf.

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Speaking with Bunkered, Block admitted he was finding it difficult to keep up with the current crop of stars, and was instead keen on turning the Champions Tour. “I’d consider the Champions Tour in about a year-and-a-half,” he commented. “The kids now are so good and the scores they’re shooting out there are unbelievable.

“These young kids are unreal, and I want nothing to do with them. I’m more than happy to play the occasional events and the majors, I love what I do, but I have my eyes set on the Champions Tour. At age 49 I can start to qualify and then the day I turn 50 I can play.

“My wife pretty much has an ultimatum that I have to do it. Eventually, I see myself retiring at 55 because I’d love to give the Champions Tour a go for five years.” It has not been all simple during his time in the limelight, after Block raised eyebrows with his comments on McIlroy.

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In the aftermath of his US PGA success last May, Block appeared to claim that he too could be one of the best players in the world if he had the distance off the tea that McIlroy possesses. “He’s a lot longer than I am, that’s what it is. What I would shoot from where Rory hits it would be stupid, I think I’d be one of the best players in the world, hands down,” Block told the RipperMagoo Podcast.

“If I had that stupid length, all day, my iron game, wedge game, around the greens and my putting is world class.” He did however go on to add context to his comments, telling Golf Monthly: “It was totally misconstrued, misconceived, the whole thing. I really feel like if you’re a real golfer, you kind of understood what I had meant.

“If I gained 60 yards, if I had a gap wedge into every green rather than a four iron into every green, would I be better? I’d be a whole hell of a lot better. Would I be better than Roy McIlroy? Absolutely not. Rory is an absolute stud and at no point, in any shape or form, was I ever trying to say anything about Rory or the tour professionals.

“I was just one hundred per cent saying, if I had an extra 60 yards off of every tee, every day of my life, would I be on tour? Probably. Guaranteed? Absolutely not… It was taken completely out of context but is also my fault, I guess. I said it the wrong way. I did a couple of thousand interviews [after the tournament] but I guess I did say one thing wrong but it’s okay.”