“I would not put my arm down there,” the television announcer said with a nervous chuckle. But 13-year-old Dylan Block, caddying for his father Michael, had already reached the full length of his arm into an animal hole beneath a tree in desperate search of his father’s golf ball.
This weekend’s PGA Professional Championship was Dylan’s first time caddying for his father, who missed the cut at the U.S. Open before making a last-minute flight to tee it up at Bayonet in Seaside, Calif. But at the 15th hole on Saturday, Block’s ball disappeared in the area of a lone tree with a massive hole at its base. The younger Block wasted no time going searching; after a brief phone-flashlight shine to identify the ball and check for animals, he reached in and pull the ball out, earning a free drop in the process.
It got better from there when Michael hit a crisp approach shot following the drop, leaving some 15 feet for birdie. You already know what happened next. “All of a sudden I felt like I was playing with house money on that, and I finally got a putt to roll in this week,” he told PGA.com after the birdie.
The birdie was part of a strong second-round 72 which, coupled with his first-round 76, left him just a shot inside the cut line. Block gave all credit to his son on that one. “I’ll tell you what, there’s no way that I would have seen it and no way I could have gotten it,” he said. “I would not be making the cut right now if that didn’t happen.” You can watch the entire scene play out below.
What just happened? Free relief for a burrowing animal hole, a courageous son and a miraculous birdie is what just happened. #PGAProChamp pic.twitter.com/rm5yWXOStj
— PGA of America (@PGA) June 19, 2018
