Richard Bland has won both the Senior PGA Championship and the Senior US Open so far this season, but will not get the chance to compete for the Senior Open Championship
LIV Golf star Richard Bland will not get the chance to win three senior major championships in three starts, after being denied entry into the upcoming Senior Open Championship.
Bland has won both the Senior PGA Championship and Senior US Open, and was hoping to add the Senior Open to his CV later this year. The Englishman’s quest to win his home Senior event alongside his two previous victories had been dubbed the ‘Bland Slam’.
Sadly for the 51-year-old though he will not get the chance to attempt to complete the feat amid his loyalties to LIV Golf and his decision not to pay outstanding fines to the DP World Tour following his Saudi switch.
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The Senior Open is co-run by the DP World Tour and the R&A, and those apart of the LIV setup who are yet to pay their sanctions to the Wentworth-based circuit will therefore not be able to compete. For now his attention turns back to LIV, with the breakaway league back in action at the iconic Real Club Valderrama in Spain on Friday.
He told Golf Digest: “The R&A needed to stand up to the DP World Tour and go, ‘Look, this is an open event, not a closed event… It’s a shame because Carnoustie is one of my favorite courses, in my top five ever. I played the Dunhill Links Championship there many times.
“So I would actually probably really fancy my chances.” Even if Bland was offered the chance to play, there would be yet another issue for the Englishman, with the Senior Open clashing with LIV’s UK event, as they make their first ever trip to JCB Country Club in Uttoxeter.
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“My priorities are there, and even if [I could] go play [with a tournament release from LIV Golf], I don’t know,” Bland added. “I’d have to I’d have to think about it.” His maiden senior major victory came in his first ever start, after Bland was offered the chance to play in the Senior PGA in May.
Winning the event in style, the LIV star carded a superb eight-under-par 63 in his final round at Harbor Shores Golf Club, pipping Australian veteran Richard Green to the title by three shots. A month later Bland made a return to the major arena, teeing it up at the US Senior Open for the first time.
And like his venture in the PGA, it proved to be yet another succesful week for the 51-year-old. His week at Newport Country Club proved slightly tougher however, as he was forced to compete in a tense playoff with Hiroyuki Fujita of Japan. It was Bland who prevailed though to join the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Roger Chapman and Colin Montgomerie in winning both the Senior PGA and Senior US Open.