Richard Bland with the Bourne Trophy, symbol of victory at the Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbour in Michigan on Sunday. Image courtesy PGA of America.
By Rahul Banerji
LIV Golf regular Richard Bland carved out a comfortable three-stroke win at the Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbour, Michigan, his senior major debut, on Sunday.
With a 17 under par total of 267 (64-66-74-63), Bland took top honours ahead of Australians Richard Green (14 under 270) and Greg Chalmers (13 under 271), overtaking the two midway through the back nine and then holding on well.
A tap-in par on the 18th green completed a closing round of 8 under 63 and victory in a field that included the likes of Ernie Els, Steve Stricker and Retief Goosen, all of whom were astern of the 51 year old Englishman.
Arjun Atwal took a share of 17th place on 5 under 279 with cards of 69, 75, 68 and 67 along with Padraig Harrington and Michael Wright.
The Senior PGA was Bland’s second title after the breakthrough British Masters in 2021 at age 48 after 477 winless starts on the DP World (European) Tour. It made him the oldest first-time winner on the tour, He signed with LIV Golf in 2022.
Special moment
“The British Masters was very special at 48. This is right up there. I couldn’t be happier,” Bland said later. “I’m going to celebrate the hell out of this one.”
At LIV Golf Bland has been a steady performers as a member of Cleeks GC, finishing inside the top 24 lock zone that guarantees a start for the next season in both 2022 and 2023. This season, he is currently 25th, four spots ahead of Anirban Lahiri.
On Sunday at the Harbor Shores course – which Bland had never seen until Monday – he bounced back from a disappointing third-round 74 with a 63 that had an eagle and eight birdies, six on the front nine and two on the way back to the clubhouse.
He would drop one stroke on either side of the turn.
Bland took the lead with his eagle on the par 5 15th hole and then had to wait out a long weather delay before parring the final three holes as Chalmers, as his closest pursuer, bogeyed all three.
“He played beautiful golf today,” Chalmers said on the LIV Golf website. “He played the best golf and absolutely deserves the trophy. It was fun to watch.”
Bland would then pay tribute and dedicate the Bourne Trophy to his elder brother Heath, who has had stomach cancer for more than a year and has just been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Paying tribute
“This isn’t mine,” Bland said. “It’s his.”
“He was in a coma for six weeks over Christmas end of 2017; actually died twice,” he added on the LIV Golf website.
“So when I started back playing in January, we didn’t know whether he was going to survive or not. It wasn’t until about July-August that we knew he was pretty much OK.”
With the Senior PGA title, Bland qualifies for next year’s PGA Championship and next month’s US Senior Open from June 27 to 30. He has two LIV Golf starts, in Houston (June 7 to 9) and Nashville (June 21 to 23) before that.
“There are a lot of great players out here, so coming into this week I was hoping that I had a good enough game to compete.
“I’m glad that I’ve shown that obviously to myself for my own confidence going forward. So, yeah, hopefully there is more to come.”
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