"I was flabbergasted by it": Michael Block reminisces on being paired with Rory McIlroy at the 2023 PGA Championship 

Michael Block was the protagonist of one of the most followed storylines of the 2023 PGA Championship. Among the many highlights Block experienced at Oak Hill Golf Club in Rochester, playing the fourth round with Rory McIlroy holds a special place in his memory.

Block went into the fourth round of the championship tied for eighth, while Rory McIlroy was seventh. This led to them being paired to play the final 18 holes together.

"I was flabbergasted by it," Michael Block said in an interview for Golfweek. "I was giving an interview and I thought the cameras were off and thought the interview was done, and at the last second, the interviewer goes, 'Hey Blockie, just so you know, you’re paired with Rory tomorrow.'"

"I thought I was off camera," Block added. "And that’s why I’m like, 'You gotta be kidding me?' And I just walk away. If you lined up everybody and said, ‘Hey, Blockie, you’re gonna be in eighth place going into the final round, you get to pick who you play with,' I would have picked Rory McIlroy out of the whole list. That’s how cool a week that was."

Michael Block achieved the best result of his career at the 2023 PGA Championship. With three consecutive rounds of 70 and the final of 71, Block finished T15, earning the trophy for the lowest PGA pro. In the process, he qualified directly for the 2024 edition at Valhalla Golf Club.

Michael Block: "There were four or five miracles"

The week of the 2023 PGA Championship was filled with unforgettable moments for Michael Block. At Oak Hill, Block went from making his first cut in a major to scoring a hole-in-one to playing in the final round with his idol, Rory McIlroy.

On the "miracles" of the fourth round, Block had this to say:

"I think there were four or five miracles that happened in the matter of an hour-and-a-half. Right before I made that hole-in-one, I was in this absolutely atrocious lie on 14 ... I tried to chop it out and it comes out low and left and I’m thinking I missed the green ... I was hoping I had a decent lie in the rough and then I have a six-footer for birdie. A complete miracle.

“I stand up on the next tee box," he added. "I hit a 7-iron, it goes directly in the hole – miracle ... And then on 17 I get up and down from 120 yards after I hit it in the rough ... The putt is breaking on the low side, hits the inside of the lip and somehow goes in the hole for par.

"On 18 I thought it was a miracle I didn’t kill anybody," Block joked. "When I hit that 3-wood from the right rough ... it comes out dead straight and it’s just humming at this huge crowd... I get up there and I was thrilled that there was nobody lying on the ground, a complete miracle."

The 2023 PGA Championship was Michael Block's seventh major appearance. In the previous six, the PGA pro from Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, California had missed the cut. He also played in 25 PGA Tour tournaments, making four cuts.