A Block, a fire, & a winner you can’t name. The Charles Schwab Challenge needs a jolt.

Ultimately the most memorable moment of the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge was the middle-aged club pro who didn’t make the cut, and finished dead last.

Kudos to Michael Block for showing up at Colonial Country Club about a day after he stole the entire PGA Championship with a performance that made that major memorable.

Twenty years after Annika Sorenstam was the show at Colonial, Block’s presence in town was a small blade of grass compared to Sorenstam’s field of gold, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort.

(FWIW: Sorenstam shot 71-74 in 2003, and Block an 81-74 in 2023. Don’t take this as a rip on either player).

After Block missed the cut on Friday, he stayed around near the 18th hole and signed everything but dirty socks, and talked to anything that had an ear. He swam in a moment he wasn’t expecting.

Other highlights included the weather, which has yet to reach Hell degrees (it’s coming).

The final day featured greens the played like a driveway, Harry Hall collapsing, leader Emiliano Grillo hitting his tee shot on 18 into the creek that nearly carried the ball all the way back the length of his shot.

His recovery included an approach shot off the cart path, but he finished with a double bogey that knocked him out of first place by himself and left him tied with Hall and Adam Schenk.

Hall’s tee shot on 18 went into the water, which allowed Schenk to force a playoff with Grillo. On the second playoff hole, Grillo hit a brilliant tee shot at No. 16 to set up a birdie, which gave him the plaid jacket; it’s his second career PGA Tour win, and first in seven years and seven months.

Another “highlight” of the tournament was the fire. The “Schwab Performance Center,” the large tent that is supposed to be a bar with a golf shop and games, had an electrical fire the day before the start of the tournament. It never opened.

Some tournaments are more memorable than others, and that Block was a big highlight of this year’s PGA Tour event in Fort Worth isn’t a knock.

More like a 9-iron of reality.

As the PGA Tour schedule continually evolves, and this whole “LIV vs. The Tour” fight continues, tournaments like the Charles Schwab Challenge have decisions to make. Hard decisions. Every year.

Decisions that affect selling tickets. Decisions that can potentially influence attention spans that decrease daily. Decisions that ultimately can affect the future of the event.

There are two ways to go. Stay with what got you here, and bank on the tradition of the event and its good standing with CBS Sports, the PGA Tour and its appeal to either Charles Schwab, or some other potential corporate title sponsor.

In the last two years, the tournament has followed the same path forged by nearly all major sporting events, or sports franchises, and teams: Tickets, and ticket packages, are aimed for the high-end crowd.

It’s why you see smaller stadiums with more exclusive suites; they can offer a “better” seat, and far more all-you-can-eat/drink ticket packages surrounded by bars and food choices everywhere.

The crowd shots may look smaller, but the teams, leagues and events make more money because they can charge first-class, or business-class, prices.

On Sunday, Schenk was two shots off the lead at the 10th hole. The gallery for his tee shot looked like the tournament was under COVID restrictions.

At the same time, Scottie Scheffler’s tee shot at No. 17 was in front of a gallery appropriate for a good PGA Tour event.

The contrast illustrates one of the many challenges (problems?) tournaments that aren’t a major all face; there are far more Adam Schenk’s than Scottie Schefflers.

It’s why right about now wouldn’t be the worst time for the Charles Schwab Challenge to deliberately aim for the fairway and see if it still lands on the green.

The bit of offering a tricked-up car for the winner is fun, but that’s an Instagram post that fans will swipe up in a matter of seconds.

The course re-design will begin construction on Monday. The intent is to return the course to its original design, but its impact will affect a small number, and not really fans.

Build a legit stadium hole and try to turn it into a poor man’s No. 16 at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix.

Colonial’s No. 13 is as close to a stadium hole as the course currently offers. With water down the right side, there is no way to build out a complete stadium-style enclosure.

That hole remains the liveliest on the course, but it feels considerably muted after the PGA Tour and Colonial agreed to stop the honored tradition of the caddie race.

The decision was made in 2014, and it was one of those that sounded good in a board meeting but now more than ever looks shortsighted.

The decision was made because, at the time, both No. 13 at Colonial and No. 16 at the Waste Management were growing too rowdy.

Since then, No. 16 in Phoenix has become a live version of “Bama Rush” (ask your kids about it), and one of the most famous holes of golf in the world.

There may not be any way to bring Colonial’s No. 13 to that level, but it’s worth a try.

The overwhelming consensus is that since Charles Schwab became the title sponsor for the event is that its well run, professional, and stable.

That the event drew nine of the PGA Tour’s top 20 players without it being an “elevated” or “designated” tournament with a $20 million purse is a positive.

Event organizers would be justified by leaning into the status quo, or maybe do something bold and aim for the fairway with the idea that it lands on the green.