Richard Bland

Bland was born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. He turned professional in 1996 after a glittering amateur career where he won the 1994 European Amateur Championship. He reached the final stage of the European Tour's qualifying school in 1997 to gain his card on Europe's Challenge Tour for 1998. In 2001 he won for the first time at the season-ending Challenge Tour Grand Final. The win catapulted him up the rankings and onto the European Tour in 2002.
Bland had moderate success during his rookie season on the European Tour, ending the year in 73rd place on the Order of Merit with the best tournament finish of T-2nd behind Soren Hansen at Murphy's Irish Open after a playoff. Ran Nick Dougherty close for the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award in 2002.
He has failed to win enough money to maintain his card on the European Tour several times but has quickly regained his playing status each time, via the Challenge Tour rankings in 2004 and 2008 and via qualifying school in 2007 and 2011. In 2012 he was the last player to secure his playing rights for the 2013 season via the Order of Merit by a margin of less than a thousand euros.
2013 Notes: Played in 26 European Tour events making the cut in 15 with 2, top-tens. His best finish was T-5th at the Madeira Islands Open and T-10th at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. Was 108th in the Race to Dubai with Euros247,733.
2014 Notes: Played in 30 European Tour events making the cut 22 with 3, top-tens. His best finish was T-4th at the Portugal Masters and a T-5th at the Trophy Hassan II. Was 66th in the Race to Dubai with euros463,754.
2015 Notes: Played in 28 European Tour events making 19 cuts with 2, top-tens. His best finish was T-9th at the Trophy Hassan II and the Porsche European Open. Was 73rd in the Race to Dubai with euros441,496.
2016 Notes: Played in 29 events and made 27 cuts. The season started with top-ten finishes at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters (T-7th) and Maybank Championship Malaysia (T-6th), adding to a T-3rd at the Volvo China Open, his best result in six years. Finished 28th on the Race to Dubai with euros1,234,966 - his highest season-ending, thanks to seven top-ten finishes.
2017 Notes: Went into the season with 402 European Tour starts without a victory (European Tour record of the player without a victory, Ross Drummond, 486 starts). Played in 23 European Tour events making 14 cuts with one top-ten finish. Was 94th in the Race to Dubai with earnings of euro410,327. He did come close at the BMW International as he was T-2nd, one back of winner Andres Romero. Up to that time, it was his career-best finish and only top-ten of the year.
2018 Notes: Played in 26 European Tour events and made 12 cuts with no top-tens. His best finish was T-20th at the Portugal Masters. He was 163rd in the Race to Dubai so he lost his European Tour card, so he had to go through the full qualifying tournament. Got to the final stage and finished 81st, meaning it was back to Challenge Tour for him in 2019.
2019 Notes: Played in 19 Challenge Tour events making 15 cuts with seven top-ten finishes. Was 3rd on the Order of Merit earning euro142,371. Was runner-up four times Prague Golf Challenge, Swiss Challenge, Hauts de France, and Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge. He was able to get back his European Tour privileges.
2020 Notes: Played in 21 European Tour events making 16 cuts with two top-ten finishes. Was 76th in the Race to Dubai, earning euro240,432. He struggled the first part of the year but picked up speed over the summer, starting with his T-14th at the Dubai Duty-Free Irish Open. Finished the year T-7th at the Joburg Open, was T-2nd at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, four shots back of winner Christiaan Bezuidenhout and T-40th at the South African Open.
2021 Notes: Played in 23 European Tour events making 17 cuts with nine top-ten finishes. Was 11th at the Race to Dubai. After a slow start again, he was T-8th in his sixth start at the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open. But he went on to make history three starts later at the Betfred British Masters by becoming the oldest first-time winner in European Tour history, where he defeated Guido Migliozzi in a playoff to earn his maiden title during his 478th appearance. In his next start at the Made in Himmerland, he finished T-3rd. With those finishes was able to qualify for the U.S. Open. With rounds of 70-67, he went into the third round as a co-leader and the oldest player to lead the U.S. Open at the halfway stage. Bland stumbled on the weekend to shoot 77-78 to finish T-50th. Was T-4th at the Duty-Free Irish Open, fives shots back of winner Lucas Herbert. Also played in the British Open and finished T-67th. Was T-3rd at the Cazoo Classic, two shots back of winner Calum Hill. Finished T-5th at the Italian Open, three shots back of winner Nicolai Hojgaard. Then was T-4th at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, three shots back of winner Danny Willett. Was T-8th at the Portugal Masters and 45th in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
2022 Notes: Played in 16 DP World Tour events making 10 cuts with three top-ten finishes. He Was 2nd at the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, he lost in a playoff when Viktor Hovland made a birdie on the first extra hole. Was T-9th at the WGC-Dell Match Play, lost to Dustin Johnson in the round of 16, 3 & 2. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough to get him an invite to the Masters, as he was 53rd in the Official World Golf Ranking. The next week he finished T-29th at the Valero Texas Open and climbed to 48th in the world rankings, but it was a week late. He was T-8th at the Nedbank Golf Challenge Tour.
2023 Notes: Was T-10th at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and T-8th at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.