Michael Block kicks off 2024 with award win

The Block party hasn’t finished yet.

After a storybook 2023, PGA Championship hero Michael Block has kicked off the new year where he left off.

A T15 finish at Oak Hill Country Club in May fired the 47-year-old into the spotlight, and he has been named the 2023 PGA Professional Player of the Year.

“It’s very surreal for this to happen at 46-47 years young,” said Block.

“I’m not really playing any differently than I always have. It just happened at the right moments this year. It’s not like I found some secret code or something.”

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Taking a humble approach to his dazzling success in the major, Block said: “It happened to be where the course set up well for me. I read the greens nicely. The fairways were firm and fast. Everything lined up at Oak Hill and I’m not expecting to do that ever again. At the same time if it happens again at any event at all, I’ll be very happy.”

Away from slam dunking a hole-in-one in the company of Rory McIlroy and scooping low PGA professional honours alongside Brooks Koepka, there was more to Block’s stellar year.

It began with a T2 finish in the PGA Professional Championship at Twin Warriors and Santa Ana Golf Clubs in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.

Block finished eight-under par to earn a place on the Corebridge Financial PGA Team and a berth in his fifth PGA Championship.

Up next was his fourth career and second consecutive Southern California PGA Section Championship in September.

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With the triumph at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, Block won the Southern California PGA Player of the Year Award for the tenth time in 11 years.

And with a total of 1,352.50 points, the Mission Viejo man claimed his second consecutive PGA Professional Player of the Year award.

“I was never in my life thinking ‘let’s try to do this twice,’” added Block.

“I had this as a goal in life to win it one time. I happened to play well in two important events, the national club pro and the PGA Championship. I’m lucky enough to get it twice in a row.”

Meanwhile, Stephanie Connelly-Eiswerth and Bob Sowards were named Women’s PGA Professional Player of the Year and Senior PGA Professional Player of the Year, respectively.