With his son on the bag and his putter warming up on the back nine, Michael Block gained enough momentum to secure a two-shot lead over the Ally Challenge field after 36 holes at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club in Grand Blanc, Michigan.
The crowd-favorite Block enters Sunday’s final round eying the winner’s circle in just fifth PGA Tour Champions event.
He eagled his opening hole, setting the tone for a bogey-free 65 second round. He leads over Steven Alker and Padraig Harrington, both of whom each have a career 12 wins on the PGA Tour’s senior branch.
“It’s a Godsend that he’s on my bag because I’m the least level-headed human being in the world,” said Block of his son, Ethan. “He got me through it.”
Block, who made his PGA Tour Champions debut back at the Dick’s Open in late June, has a pair of T-10 finishes since joining the circuit.
He went on to finish T-9 at the Dick’s Open playing on a sponsor’s exemption, while going 65-65 to open last week’s Rogers Charity Classic before posting a final round 67 to place T-5. Alker went on to win the tournament, his second of the year.
“Top-10 is huge for me. If I get a top-10, it gets me into the Sanford International in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which has been a huge goal of mine,” Block explained to reporters after his second round. ‘That would officially put me into the official Charles Schwab Cup money list, which would get me into the Playoffs, which would get me then into Norwood Hills and St. Louis, which is where I’m from, so there’s a lot going on.”
He has bogeyed just twice over his last five rounds — once during that final round on Sunday and then at the par-4 fifth hole at Warwick on Friday.
“The fact that now I would have to do really some stupid stuff to not do it is a really cool thing. If I can just make it there to Norwood and put everything in my hands and not exemptions and begging,” Block said. “I hate — I really dislike — the whole begging for spots. I don’t like it but I have been, I’ve been begging for spots. And thank God I’ve gotten two top-10s which got me into two events and I’m begging for other events and it’s not what I like to do. I like to earn my way and I think I did.”
