Michael Block was disqualified Sunday from a Staysure Legends Tour event in Aberdeen, Scotland, after he walked off the course 12 holes into his final round of the PGA Seniors Championship.
According to the tour, which is the DP World Tour’s equivalent to the PGA Tour Champions, the 50-year-old Block “left the course before completing his round and without completing the necessary process of advising Tour officials of any injury or illness.”
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Block, who was competing on a sponsor exemption, was also penalized two strokes for arriving late to his final-round tee time, the tour confirmed.
Monday Q Info’s Ryan French first reported that Block, who went out in 7-over 43 at Trump International Golf Links, bogeyed the 12th hole and then “walked off the course.” French added, citing multiple unnamed sources, that Block “didn’t say anything to his playing partners” and that Block “was frustrated with the course conditions.”
Block, though refuted some specifics of that report, explaining to Golf Digest’s Evin Priest through text messages that he withdrew because of a left-wrist injury and did communicate his reasoning with his playing competitors, Paul Streeter and James Kingston.
“Thanked my playing partners, their caddies, the spectators and the walking scorer,” Block said. “Handed the scorecard I was keeping to the other player. Asked the scorekeeper to call an official for a ride in. A gentleman with a European Tour jacket arrives a couple of minutes later and I tell him that I’m withdrawing. Once I arrive to the clubhouse, I walked into the championship office to thank them for the week, but no one was there, but thought nothing of it, thinking that I had withdrawn correctly, but I guess the gentleman that gave me the ride was not an official so I was DQ’d, rather than a WD.
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“To hear these accusations that I just walked off the course and that I was upset about the course conditions is absurd.”
Block added that he was “a couple seconds late” to the first tee because he was taking pictures with volunteers.
A Legends Tour spokesperson sent the following statement to Golf Channel: “During the final round of the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship, Michael Block left the course before completing his round and without completing the necessary process of advising Tour officials of any injury or illness. As a result, the official listing has been recorded as ‘disqualified’ rather than ‘retired.'”
Before his DQ, Block had played his first 54 holes in 11 over. He aced the par-3 seventh on Thursday and later made the cut at 5 over before carding 78 on Saturday.
Block is in the field for this week’s Boeing Classic, the PGA Tour Champions stop in Snoqualmie, Washington.
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