What other PGA Tour players are saying about Michael Block at Charles Schwab Challenge: ‘He’s a legend’

It’s awesome. I’ve known Michael for a little bit. He’s a legend in Southern California. I played a professional golf tournament with him back in the day, I think it was the So Cal Open or the California Open.

It’s always amazing to see someone who, if you go to the U.S. Amateur or the U.S. Mid-Am and you see those players, how great they are, and they have a job. I spend all my days here practicing golf. That’s all I have to do, and he can still whup me real good.

It was amazing to see. Obviously, that event has that attraction that 20 PGA professionals play, and to see him not only play great, but enjoy it so much and get appreciated by the fans and appreciated back, it was just — it was refreshing.

Man, that hole-in-one — I saw him today. I said that hole-in-one on 15, I was kind of side-eyeing the TV, and it looked fake. I don’t think you could have written that one. Even “Tin Cup” didn’t go quite that far. They made him hit seven more balls before one went in. So that was pretty amazing.

I just think that any time you have the teaching pros, the PGA professionals in your area, there’s some that are — you know, play some golf. Some don’t really play much at all anymore. And then you have some people like Michael that are still tremendous at golf.

I think that’s what kind of brings the legend of them around. You hear about these people. You see them. You play events with them. So I think that’s where that comes from.

And just to go out last week and be — it’s a major. Everyone is as prepared as you could possibly be, and to go and beat basically everybody, all but 14 people, I mean, that’s awesome. It shows you how much game he’s got. It shows you his mental fortitude.

Again, as much as all that was impressive, just the joy he had while playing and all of that was — I think that’s what stuck out the most.

That pro event I played was the first time we’d been around each other. I think the first round was at Arroyo Trabuco, which is where he teaches at. I’d seen his name. There’s a lot of guys out there that their name will pop up, and you know they’re not young because you don’t see them at college or whatever.

So you try to … you learn about what they do, figure it out, whatever. So we played, and I thought he was a really good player, and he kind of met like expectation. But that was the first time.

Obviously, I don’t live there anymore. I don’t see him a ton. I’ll see him at the Tour events. I know he played San Diego this year, so I saw him there. And just keep up, you like to keep up with the people from kind of around where you’re from. So I always root for those guys to do well.

I never really thought that that would happen, getting 15th at the PGA and all that. But as far as a human being, like he deserves that praise. He’s always been super, super nice. Every time you’re kind of around him … even if we’re not playing together in an event, he’s a nice guy to go up to and say hi. He’s just usually in a great mood and kind of just a joy to be around.

It’s always tricky, the grow the game thing, but he ruined it for the next PGA pro to get warm for two days at the PGA. You’re going to see a guy in 20th next year, if it’s not him, and there’s a lot of expectation. If they don’t dunk a hole-in-one … I think it’s what Tiger did to the rest of us.

But, yeah, I just think at its core is what golf’s about. Kind of that any given Sunday thing. You go out there, you play your game, no one can play any defense, and you go show the world how great you are at golf. I think it got people excited to play. I think it got people excited to watch golf, especially him, and that’s always going to be a good thing.