Michael Block’s name at the top of the Southern California PGA Championship is certainly not surprising, especially since it’s the record-tying fifth time Block has won the title.
But Block, who has played in nine major championships including a famous run in the 2023 PGA Championship, said winning isn’t getting any easier.
“I think there were 186 players or some insane amount of PGA professionals who came out and played,” Block said Wednesday after a four-shot victory overe Mark Geddes of Coronado Golf Course. “There has been a huge insurgence of really good players into the section who can really compete on the PGA Tour level. They have been pushing me hard. Like I said, the last two years I haven’t won the player of the year. Mark Geddes has.”
The fields may be pushing Block, 49 and the head golf professional at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, but this week the field could only chase Block in the three-day event. From an opening-day 9-under 63 on the Arnold Palmer Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage to rounds of 66 and 71 at the South Course at Ironwood Country Club in Palm Desert, Block led from wire to wire.
Block’s tie for 14th in the 2023 PGA, including a final-round hole in one on television while playing with Rory McIlroy, made Block a national golf figure. Regionally, he has been one of the top PGA players in Soutern California for the last decade.
With the win, Block receives an exemption into the PGA Tour’s American Express tournament in La Quinta in January, a tournament he has played five times. By clinching section player of the year honors for the second straight year. Geddes earns a berth in the PGA Tour’s Farmers insurance Open in San Diego the week after the American Express.
Since Block is already exempt into the national PGA Professional Championship for club pros next year in Bandon Dunes, the next 13 players from the SCPGA Championship make that national field. That will include Nate Williams, who will become director of golf at The Plantation Club in Indio next month, and Blake Schmitt, the head pro at Ironwood.
Block began the final round with a five-shot lead at 15-under, and the only questions seemed to be could he tie Olin Dutra’s record of five SCPGA championship and could he break the tournament’s scoring record of 18-under for 54 holes. Block previously won the section championship if 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2023. Dutra, a touring pro in the 1920s and 1930s who was third in the 1935 Masters and won the 1932 PGA Championship and the 1934 U.S. Open, won four of his SCPGA events in the 1930s, ending with a win in 1940.
On a tough South Course that was lengthened for the final round and with warm and humid conditions with a constant breeze on the back nine, Block played steady golf with three birdies and two bogeys for a 71 and a 16-under 200 total. His chance for a scoring record ended with a bogey on the par-4 13th followed by five pars, but his lead was never truly threatened. Geddes moved into second with a strong 68 in the tough conditions.
For Williams and Schmitt, the title might not have been in reach Wednesday, but with ties for sixth for both players at 5-under 211 , the PGA Professional Champions is strong consolation. The top 20 players in that event, for pros from across the country, earn a berth in the PGA Championship.
“To be able to play in a section tournament like this and then also to get into the top 13 that gets you to the national PGA, that’s our Super Bowl,” said Williams, who will make his three consecutive trips to the national event. “So now the goal is to get into that top 20 at the national championship so you can get in the PGA Championship.”
“It’s a privilege having the ability to play at a high level,” Schmitt said. “But having the ability, it’s kind of a bonus to the industry, getting playing opportunities. I just look at it as a blessing.”
