The Hole-In-One Heard Beyond the World of Sports
How the Elias Sports Bureau made sense of the 2023 PGA Championship’s most surreal moment
“Surrounding ourselves with partners like Elias as the Official Statisticians of the PGA Championship is the security blanket we need to remain relevant and on the cutting edge. When drama unfolds at the PGA Championship, Elias will be there to make sense of it.”
Julius Mason
Senior Director of PR and External Relations, PGA of America
The Elias Sports Bureau was proud to provide statistical notes and research in support of the 2023 PGA Championship, one of men’s professional golf’s four prestigious majors. Designated as Official Statisticians of the championship, Elias prepared by collaborating with the PGA of America to build out an accurate, comprehensive, easy-access database of golf stats, spanning more than 100 years of the history of the PGA Championship — and indeed the sport itself. Throughout the week, Elias fielded hundreds of questions from the PGA of America and its media partners, and offered up proactive insights into the stories that unfolded on the course.
As the putts (and the rain) fell on Oak Hill Country Club’s fabled East Course, one story began to stand out above the rest: the improbable rise of PGA of America Golf Professional Michael Block. Block qualified for the PGA Championship as a member of the “Team of 20” — club professionals who, unlike touring pros, usually earn a living running the operations of a golf club and teaching others how to play. The PGA Championship is unique among golf’s majors in opening up 20 spots in the field for qualifying club pros to compete alongside the stars.
Elias captured Block’s incredible story with notes and research throughout the week:
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Round 1
Club pro Michael Block shot 70 in today's round and currently finds himself among the top 20 on the leaderboard. Only one club pro over the last 10 PGA Championships found himself among the top 20 at the end of Round 1. Ryan Vermeer was T-17 after shooting an even par 70 in the first round at Bethpage Black in 2019. He made the cut and finished T-80.
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Round 2
Michael Block finds himself among the top-10 on the leaderboard at the conclusion of Round 2. Over the last 40 years, only two club pros were among the top 10 on the leaderboard after 36 holes of a PGA Championship:
Jay Overton, 1988 at Oak Tree, (solo second place after 36 holes) and Buddy Whitten, 1983 at Riviera (tied for fourth place after 36 holes)
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Round 3
The last club professional to be among the top 10 on the leaderboard after 54 holes of a PGA Championship was Bob Boyd (from Woodmont CC in Rockville, Maryland) in 1990 at Shoal Creek. He was T-10 after three rounds and ended up T-19.
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Final Round
Michael Block's T-15 finish was the best for a club professional at the PGA Championship since Lonnie Nielsen in 1986 (T-11) at Inverness Club.
As Michael Block’s fairy tale weekend came to a close, the golf gods had one more surprise in store for him - and this would prove to be the biggest of all. With Rory looking on, thousands of “Blockheads” in the gallery and millions more watching at home, Block fired a 7-iron into Oak Hill’s 151-yard, par-3 15th hole and hit the bottom of the cup on a fly. It was, and would remain, the only hole-in-one carded by any member of the 2023 PGA Championship’s 156-player field, club pro or otherwise.
Block’s ace sent a tremendous roar of excitement through the air that could be heard both on and off the course. But celebration quickly turned to curiosity as people attempted to make sense of what they’d just seen. Has anything like this ever happened before? As all eyes in the PGA’s media tent quite literally turned to Elias, it was time to get to work quickly while the moment was fresh.
With the pressure on, Elias’s research team came up with the right perspective within minutes, one that measured Block’s achievement appropriately in the context of touring pros and club pros alike:
Club Professional Michael Block got an ace on #15 today. It was the first hole-in-one at a PGA Championship since Byeong Hun-An in 2020 at TPC Harding Park in the 4th round (11th hole).
The last club professional to hit a hole-in-one at a PGA Championship was George Bowman out of Oakhurst Country Club in Michigan. He got one in 1996 on the third hole in his first round at Valhalla Golf Club. And here’s the video
Prior to Elias taking on Official Statistician responsibilities, there was no single source of accurate information about the history of club pros at the PGA Championship, a tradition that began in 1968. Sensing a growing interest in the “Team of 20” in 2022 (including a high-profile sponsorship by Corebridge Financial services), Elias researchers pieced together the PGA of America’s records with their own, filling in the gaps with internet searches, newspaper archives and phone calls. After a long process of compiling and verification, the definitive PGA Championship club pro database was born – thorough, accurate, and fast enough to make sense of a Sunday miracle just one year later.
As Michael Block walked up the 15th to pick up his hole-in-one ball, the Elias team knew that Block’s club pro status and “everyman” appeal was the best way to cover his Cinderella story. Digging into the now-official database, Elias had the answer for the last club pro to make a hole-in-one in a blink, and had uncovered the video to boot.
Has anything like this ever happened before? This most-important question of the moment could have gone unanswered for hours, if not longer. But thanks to decades of experience in research and the prep that was done in the years leading up to Block’s ace, Elias gave the sports world the exact insight it needed with confidence, clarity, and speed.
Elias Sports Bureau in the media tent
While Michael Block's stunning performance dominated headlines, it wasn’t the only story of the week that Elias covered by far. Walking the East Course at Oak Hill during the practice rounds gave Elias researchers a three-dimensional feel for the atmosphere, competition and crowd. With 99 of the top 100 ranked professionals in the world in the field, golf excellence was everywhere to be found. The dramatic weather and difficulty of the course itself quickly also became a source of inspiration.
As the week unfolded, Elias told not just Michael Block’s story but the entire story of the PGA Championship, connecting the present with the past in insightful and interesting ways:
If Koepka were to win this championship, he would become the 20th member of the 5-majors club.
Some comparisons to other sports:
MLB 300+ Wins club 24 members
MLB 500+ HR club 28 members
NFL 100+ TD club 25 members
NHL 600+ goals club 20 members
NBA 25,000+ points club 23 members
“Content is king,” said Julius Mason, Senior Director of PR and External Relations at the PGA of America, “and no one else wears the crown quite like Elias Sports Bureau in our major championship world—especially in a day and age where our customers demand immediate and accurate information. Fortunately, the speed of play in which Elias delivers eye-opening statistics and storylines is not only refreshing but paramount to our success.”