Over the top by Meraj Shah: Michael Block learns to rock

Heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary things. And by overcoming the ordinary, they allow the rest of us to live vicariously through them. Because we all, somewhere deep inside, believe that we’re capable of it too. And to see it done is a stirring reaffirmation of everything we want to believe. Michael Block is not a weekend golfer. He’s a pro, to start with, but not a playing pro: a club pro. He doesn’t ply his trade on professional tours to make a living, he runs a pro shop and gives lessons at a small golf club in California. If you don’t follow pro golf then it’s difficult to comprehend the magnitude of this 46-year-old’s accomplishment to finish tied-15th — a fabulous spectacular result at any regular PGA Tour event — and that too at the PGA Championship. It boggles the mind.

It’s clear that this was more than talent and hard work. The golfing gods were clearly pleased with Block. That would explain the ace he hit on the par-3 15th hole on the final day. I mean, what are the odds? The roar of the crowds when Block stuffed that ball straight into the hole could be heard, according to press reports, 600 yards away. Even Rory McIlroy, Block’s playing partner, got into the act, giving him a hug and revelling in the momentousness of the occasion. Block’s heroics lit up the PGA Championship, but the 2023 edition will go down in record books as the comeback win by a man who is, unarguably, the Major specialist of the millennium, second only to Tiger Woods.

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Brooks Koepka, the stoic, inscrutable, muscled four-time Major champion, whose length of the tee was matched only by his swagger, was undone by injuries in 2021. Over a lacklustre season, he didn’t contend at any of the majors and finished in the top 10 just twice in 13 starts on the PGA Tour. And then came Koepka’s appearance in an episode on the Netflix Series Full Swing, where he opened up about dealing with failure. “I’ll be honest with you, I can’t compete with these guys, week in, week out,” Koepka says during a sequence at the dinner of the 2022 Masters (he missed the cut). The episode ends with another bombshell. “Being at the low point, you can either just give up and lay there, or you can figure it out, and I think that’s where… I don’t know.” Just months after this aired, Koepka quit the PGA Tour and signed up for the LIV Golf Tour.

Just when it seemed like Koepka’s reign was over, he came back to lead at the 2023 Masters, but for the first time in his career, didn’t win after being in the lead going into the final round. Koepka says he spent a sleepless night after that forgettable final round at the Masters Tournament. “I knew what I did, and I knew I was never going to come out and think that way again.” And he didn’t. At the PGA Championship, Koepka fought off a determined Viktor Hovland and world number one Scottie Scheffler for a two-stroke win. This is Koepka’s third Wanamaker Trophy — only Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen, with five, and Tiger Woods with four have won the PGA Championship more times.

It’s great news for the LIV Golf Tour. It’s the first time a member has won a Major tournament giving credence to that Tour’s level of competition and calibre of play. Eddie Pepperell, the English golfer who’s been vocal about his opposition to that tour tweeted that Koepka was “…too good,” to be playing on the LIV Golf Tour. I’m not so sure of that. Koepka has never made a secret of focusing primarily on the Major Tournaments — given that LIV is perfect for him to make money and still be able to come and play the Majors. Besides Koepka, two more LIV golfers finished in the Top 10 at the PGA Championship.

Coming back to the PGA Championship, Block soon realised that the favour of the press is as fickle as the game of golf. Appearing on a podcast in which he compared his game to Rory McIlroy’s, the club pro got a lot of flak. Block implied that the only difference between their game was the Irishman’s length off the tee. A reality check came soon after for Block when he finished dead last at the Charles Schwab Challenge last week.

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But you’ve got to cut the guy some slack. To play the way he did and to get that kind of media attention is unprecedented for someone not used to it. And he’s still got a few sponsor exemptions to make the most of his time in the sun. And when that’s done, he can return to his previous life. Will that be enough for him now, I wonder. One thing is for sure though that he’ll never be allowed to forget the 2023 PGA Championship; that’ll always be the punctuation mark on his career — the everyman, who in one magical week, played with the world’s best golfers and came out better than most.

For non-golfer readers, it might seem like I’m gushing, and if you’ve never been taken with golf, then that’s a perfectly valid conclusion. To understand what I’m talking about you must pass through the fire. And this game, make no mistake, makes heroes of all of us. Not because we triumph. But because we fail. Again and again. Just when we get back on our feet, this game comes and knocks our teeth out. But we learn to pick ourselves up and get back on the path, knowing well that it’ll happen again. They say a man is defined not by his successes but by how he deals with failure. And golfers are forged in that crucible.