Has A Club Pro Ever Won The PGA Championship?
We look at the best finishes that club professionals have enjoyed over the years at the PGA Championship, with Michael Block among them
It's known for having the strongest field in golf but the PGA Championship also gives opportunities to club pros - with Michael Block last year showing just how that fairytale can emerge.
It's a fairytale because your average club pro, no matter how talented, shouldn't really be able to mix it with the best of the best, but Block certainly did that with his epic T15 finish at Oak Hill last year.
Also nailing a dream hole-in-one, Block was the first club professional to finish in the top 20 of the PGA Championship since 1990 - and the highest finishers since Lonnie Nielsen's T11 in 1986.
He's not the highest ever finisher by a club pro in the PGA Championship though.
Best PGA Championship results by club pros
To answer the question of has a club pro ever won the PGA Championship, sadly the answer is no - it'd be some story though wouldn't it!
Since the PGA Professional Championship was introduced in 1968 to allow club pros to qualify, the best finish in the PGA Championship is third place by Tommy Bolt in 1971.
Bolt was a former Tour pro who had retired - and another more famous name that graces the top of the list is Sam Snead, who finished T4 in 1972 and T9 a year later as a club professional.
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Jimmy Wright's fourth-placed finish at the 1969 event is the highest finish by what you'd call a "true club pro" and he rounds out the short list of just four club professionals to earn a top 10 finish at the PGA Championship.
Bob Boyd is the most prolific club pro on the list, with four appearances in the top 32 PGA Championship finishes including two T30s in 1983 and 1994 and his best of a T19 at Shoal Creek in 1990.
Block's T15 from Oak Hill last year puts him in ninth on the all-time list of club professional finishes in the PGA Championship.
Block is one of just seven players this century to have grabbed a notable finish in the PGA Championship and by far the best - eclipsing Chip Sullivan's T30 finish at Whistling Straits in 2004.
They are the only two club pros to finish inside the top 40 at the PGA Championship in the 2000s, which puts into perspective just what an incredible achievement it was for Block to be out there playing with Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy over the weekend.
And who knows, maybe he'll do something similar at Valhalla this week....
The top club pro finishes at the PGA Championship
Position | Year | Players |
---|---|---|
Third | 1971 | Tommy Bolt |
Fourth | 1969 | Jimmy Wright |
T4 | 1972 | Sam Snead |
T9 | 1973 | Sam Snead |
T11 | 1969 | Don Bies |
T11 | 1974 | Tommy Aycock |
T11 | 1986 | Lonnie Nielsen |
T12 | 1973 | Denny Lyons |
T15 | 2023 | Michael Block |
T17 | 1988 | Jay Overton |
T19 | 1990 | Bob Boyd |
T20 | 1972 | Larry Wise |
T22 | 1974 | Stan Brion |
T22 | 1975 | Ed Dougherty |
T22 | 1976 | Don Messengale |
T24 | 1974 | Don Messengale |
T27 | 1983 | Buddy Whitten |
T28 | 1992 | Tom Wargo |
T30 | 1970 | Bob Menne |
T30 | 1971 | Gene Borek |
T30 | 1983 | Bob Boyd |
T30 | 1984 | Bob Boyd |
T31 | 2004 | Chip Sullivan |
T31 | 1993 | Tom Wargo |
T31 | 1993 | Stu Ingraham |
T40 | 2005 | Steve Schneiter |
T42 | 2018 | Ben Kern |
T44 | 2021 | Ben Cook |
T44 | 2001 | Rick Schuller |
T47 | 1997 | Bob Betley |
T51 | 1996 | Bob Boyd |
T60 | 2019 | Rob Labritz |
T61 | 1981 | Don Pdgett |
Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.
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