Every year at the PGA Championship, a group of 20 club professionals from around the nation are granted an exemption to the second major of the year. The club pros, whose day jobs include generally consist of running golf clubs or teaching golf at their local courses, are given the chance to compete in the PGA Professional National Championship to earn a spot in the major. They must qualify in a regional tournament to reach the national tournament, where over 300 golfers compete for 20 spots in the major.
Because they are pro golfers, there’s even a sponsorship deal involved. The Corebridge Financial Team is what the group is known as, and the club pros receive financial backing for both themselves and their caddies in exchange for wearing Corebridge merch on the course.
While the club pros generally don’t make the cut or make much of a splash, there is an outlier every once in awhile. In 2023 club pro Michael Block was the only of his group to make the cut, and he finished T15 to earn an automatic exemption to the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla. Back in the 1970s and 80s, two club pros finished in 11th, but Block was the highest club pro finisher in the 21st century by a long shot. Other club pro finishers in the past decade have landed at T40 or worse.
Some club pros compete in other tournaments here and there, but the PGA Professional National Championship is generally the only path they have to qualifying for a major. The U.S. Open has a similar qualifying setup, though it’s open to any golfer with a handicap of 0.4 or lower, and the number of available spots for the qualifiers can vary from year to year.
The 2024 PGA Championship tees off from Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky on Thursday, May 16.