Richard Bland (born 3 February 1973) is an English professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er.

Career

Bland was born in

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011, it had a ...

, Staffordshire. He turned professional in 1996 and reached the final stage of the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

qualifying school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

in 1997 to gain his card on Europe's second tier

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History The ...

for 1998. In 2001 he won for the first time, at the season ending

Challenge Tour Grand Final The Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final is the season-ending tour championship on the Challenge Tour. The field currently consists of the top 45 players on the Challenge Tour rankings vying for fifteen European Tour cards. It has been played annually ...

. The win elevated him in the rankings sufficiently to gain a place on the European Tour for 2002. During his first season on the European Tour, Bland’s best tournament finish was a tie for 2nd place at the Murphy's Irish Open, losing in a

playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, and ended the year in 73rd place on the Order of Merit. In subsequent seasons, he failed to win enough money to maintain his card on the European Tour several times but regained his playing status each time, via the Challenge Tour rankings in 2004, 2008, and 2019, and via qualifying school in 2007 and 2011. In May 2021, in his 478th start on the European Tour, Bland achieved his first victory at the

Betfred British Masters The Betfred British Masters is a professional golf tournament. It was founded in 1946 as the Dunlop Masters and was held every year up to 2008, except for 1984. Dunlop's sponsorship ended in 1982, and the name sponsor changed frequently therea ...

. At age 48, he became the oldest first-time winner on the European Tour; only

Malcolm MacKenzie Malcolm John Mackenzie (born 30 September 1961) is an England, English professional golfer. Mackenzie was born in Sheffield. He turned professional in 1980 and has spent most of his career playing on the European Tour. His best Order of Merit r ...

, with 509, had played more tournaments before claiming his first win on the tour. In June 2021, Bland played in the U.S. Open for just the second time in his career. At 48 years old, he became the oldest player to ever hold a share of the lead of the U.S. Open after two rounds, however he fell back over the weekend to finish in a tie for 50th. With eight top-10 finishes during the

2021 European Tour The 2021 European Tour was the 50th season of golf tournaments since the European Tour officially began in 1972 and the 13th and final edition of the Race to Dubai. The Race to Dubai was won by Collin Morikawa, becoming the first American player ...

season, Bland finished a career-best 11th place on the

Race to Dubai The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

rankings. In January 2022, Bland finished as runner-up at the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, losing to

Viktor Hovland Viktor Hovland (born 18 September 1997) is a Norwegian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He won the 2018 U.S. Amateur and then became the first Norwegian to win on the PGA Tour (at the 2020 Puerto Rico Open) and on the European Tou ...

in a playoff. Being just outside the Top 50 in the

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

in March 2022, Bland looked to find form in order to qualify for the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...

. He won his group at the

WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play The WGC Match Play, currently titled as the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's golf tournament that has been held since 1999. It is the only one of the World Golf Championships to have been contested ...

, halving with

Bryson DeChambeau Bryson James Aldrich DeChambeau (born September 16, 1993) is an American professional golfer. He has won eight times on the PGA Tour including one major championship, the 2020 U.S. Open. As an amateur, DeChambeau became the fifth player in his ...

as well as beating

Talor Gooch Talor Keith Gooch (born November 14, 1991) is an American professional golfer. Early life and amateur career Gooch was born in Midwest City, Oklahoma. He played college golf at Oklahoma State University. He was already drawing notice for his ta ...

and

Lee Westwood Lee John Westwood (born 24 April 1973) is an English professional golfer. Noted for his consistency, Westwood is one of the few golfers who has won tournaments on five continents – Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Oceania – including ...

along the way. However, he was defeated in the last 16 by

Dustin Johnson Dustin Hunter Johnson (born June 22, 1984) is an American professional golfer. He has won two major championships, the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with a 4-under-par score of 276 and the 2020 Masters Tournament with a record score ...

, ultimately just missing out on progressing to the Top 50. Bland made his full

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

debut the following week at the

Valero Texas Open The Texas Open, known as the Valero Texas Open for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played near San Antonio, Texas. It dates back years to 1922, when it was first called the Texas Open; San Antonio-based Val ...

, needing a victory to get into The Masters. He recorded a Top-30 finish, seeing him move to a highest ranking of 48th. In June, Bland joined the inaugural

LIV Golf Invitational Series LIV Golf () is a professional golf tour financed by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. The name "LIV" refers to the Roman numerals for 54, the score if every hole on a par-72 course were Birdie (golf), birdied ...

Amateur wins

*1994 European Under 21 Championship

Professional wins (2)

European Tour wins (1)

European Tour playoff record (1–2)

Challenge Tour wins (1)

Results in major championships

''Results not in chronological order in 2020.'' CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Results in World Golf Championships

¹Cancelled due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament
Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bland, Richard English male golfers European Tour golfers LIV Golf players Sportspeople from Burton upon Trent Sportspeople from Southampton 1973 births Living people