Richard Bland

English professional golfer Richard Bland discusses his career spanning 28 years on the European Tour (DP World Tour) and now LIV Golf. Claude & Richard dive deep into what it was like to secure his first professional win at the age of 48, how he bounced back from losing his Tour card multiple times, why he doesn’t believe the PGA Tour and DP World Tour should have an alliance, and the factors that led to his decision to join LIV Golf.

Thanks to COBRA GOLF: The new COBRA DARKSPEED drivers are the perfect combination of groundbreaking aerodynamics, precision PWR BRIDGE weighting, and AI-designed H.O.T. Face technology that delivers transcendent speed. This is speed you won’t believe. Learn more at cobragolf.com

Tell your friends about the new show and be sure to follow Claude to submit questions, enter giveaways and keep up with the latest Son of a Butch updates on Instagram at @ClaudeHarmon3.

The views and opinions expressed by guests interviewed on the Podcast, including all program participants and guests, are solely their own current opinions regarding events and are based on their own perspective and opinion. The views and opinions expressed do not reflect the views or opinions of Claude Harmon, or the companies with which any program participants/interviewees are, or may be, affiliated.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. We come to
you every Wednesday. This week's guest Richard Bland, playing on
the Live Tour. Richard longtime European DP World Tour player
and I can never get used to calling it DP World.
It's the European Tour. But that's where Richard Blyin spent
the majority of his career and in his late forties.

(00:27):
He's now in his fifties. He made the decision to
go to Live and he talks about outgoing DP World
Chairman Commissioner Keith Pelly. Keith Pelly told him, listen, if
I'm you at your age, I take the deal. He
talks about it, and listen, Richard's not one of those
guys that got a ton of money. It was just

(00:48):
a decision to where it was like, Okay, this is
an opportunity, I'm going to take it. He's on the
Cliques Martin Kimer's team, and listen, he's playing really, really,
really good golf at this stage of his career. And
I can tell you he kind of used my used
the Floridian where I teach to kind of spend the

(01:10):
last three weeks. He's coach Tim Barter, who commentates for Sky.
They came over and I watched this guy grind for
the last month, and even in his fifties, he's probably
working harder now than he ever has and he wants
to continue to play well. And I think he's got
a very very interesting story. And like I said, he's
not a superstar. He's not someone that got the live bag,

(01:33):
got all the money. It was a choice that he made.
He talks about it. I've known Richard for a long time.
I've watched his career and this is a really really
good podcast, some really candid things that he talks about,
and something I think you all will listen and enjoy.
So Richard Bland this week on Son of a Butch.

(01:57):
My guest is a I mean, Richard, you are a
veteran of professional golf. You turn pro in nineteen ninety six,
got onto the European Tour. I think in twenty in
two thousand and two, if I'd have told you in
twenty twenty four you'd still be playing competitive golf at
the highest level, would you have believed me?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Probably not No. But you know, I think it's it's
every kids stream you know that's growing up playing golf
that they want to play at the highest level for
for as long as they can, So you know, it's
something that I'm proud of that I'm still going at
nearly fifty one, so I must be doing something right.
And yeah, it's been uh yeah, it's been a journey.

(02:41):
There's been some ups and downs, but I wouldn't change
it for anything.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
I mean, obviously it's easy to always look at the
icons and the superstars of competitive golf, but there are
certainly more people like yourself than there are of these
guys that the public see. He's flying around on private
jets and you know, having this amazing kind of superstar lifestyle,
both on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, the Challenge Tour,

(03:10):
the corn Ferry Ladies all over the world. The tours
are really made up of a lot of people that
are somewhat the fabric of what those tours are because
the John Rahm's, the Rory's, the Scotti Scheffler's, they're outliers.
They are very unique, unique people. But there are a

(03:31):
lot of people that get into golf, and I think
it's easy when we look at careers. Blandy, you haven't
won a major, you haven't won multiple times all over
the world. It's easy to look at that and go, oh, okay,
well that isn't a great career. But as Pat Perez said,
he said this to me many times. People always say, well,
you only won three or four times, and he always says,

(03:53):
we'll try and win in once. I don't think the
great ones, the Ernies, the Tigers, the Greg Normans, the
Nick Faldos, that of the past generation, and then the
guy's doing it today, Rory Scotty, Scheffler Brooks. They make
it look so easy and they make winning look very,

(04:15):
very difficult. You won your first tournament in twenty what
was it, twenty twenty one? I mean how many starts?
It was like almost five hundred to four hundred and
seventy eight starts. You played some great golf throughout your
career and didn't win. When you did finally get that

(04:35):
breakthrough at the British Masters in twenty one at the Belfrey,
which is an iconic kind of old school kind of
UK old European tour golf course. They had a bunch
of tournaments there, They had Ryder Cups there. What do
you remember about that week and what surprised you about
that week to get your first win, because I'm always
fascinated when you do finally break through. And I asked

(04:57):
this question all the time. Is it different than you
thought it was going to be? Did you play the
best you've ever played that week? What was it about
that week that in the almost four hundred and seventy
something other weeks tournaments, it wasn't your week?

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, I think I think one of the things that
really helped me. That week we were still playing in
Covid and we'd just come off a five week stretch,
so there was a there was a six week stretch.
The last tournament was was the Belfry, So I just
I'd been away from home for five weeks, not allowed

(05:34):
out the hotel.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Because you guys were much more on the European Tour
the DP World Tour. Now, you guys were much more
draconian and streaming because we were on tree to country, right,
you were just going from state to state.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
You know, every country had a different regulation, different testing
process or whatever. You know, we were getting tested two
three times a week every week, and we were we
were coming back on a on a charted playing that
the tour had charted and it was arriving into Birmingham
at about two o'clock in the morning, and this and

(06:12):
the and I remember the Belfry was a Wednesday to
Saturday start, and the and the flight landed at like
two o'clock on Monday or say Tuesday morning. And I'd
played the Belfry before plenty of time, so I kind
of felt like, you know what, I didn't really need
a practice round. And I and I'd played okay over
the five weeks. I hadn't played great, but I think
I had one top ten and maybe another top twenty

(06:33):
in the five weeks, so you know, the game was okay.
And I just I said to my girlfriend at the time,
who's now my wife, I said, can you come and
pick me up? I want to go home. I just
you know, loads of guys were just going straight to
the hotel and straight into the bubble again. I said,
I just need I need like twelve to fifteen hours
out of it. I need a night in my own bed.

(06:54):
I just need to get back home. And I then
just traveled up on the Tuesday night and started Wednesday.
And then I never do that in a tournament, I
mean you even though I didn't feel I needed the
preparation because I just played for five weeks. But I
just needed to be at home for a little bit.
So I drove up in the afternoon and uh and

(07:14):
just started Wednesday. But then there was another funny thing
that happened that week. I was walking down the range
on the Wednesday and I passed a good friend of
mine played amateur golf with him, a guy called David
Howell had Aliev and he said, you can't, he said, blandy,
he says, I need to stop, he said, He said,
You're never going to believe this. He said, I had
a dream last night. He said, you win your first

(07:36):
golf tournament. He said, don't know when, I don't know
what tournament was, but you're going to win.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
You're like i'd had that. I've had a dream a
lot too.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
At some point I've dreamt he said. It was so vivid.
You win your first golf and four days later there
I am holding the trophy. So but I just, I
honestly believe that, just that twelve fifteen hours at home,
just to unpack the suitcase, sleep in your own bed
for seven eight hours and just have a cup of

(08:04):
tea and just beay at home, reset and just reset it.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Just I don't think the fans and people listening to
this podcast, if you don't travel as much as that
we all do, the travel, it wears you down. And
if you can. I mean one of the things that, yes,
the private jet travel is on the PGA tour that

(08:29):
a lot of the superstars are lucky enough to do
is the ultimate luxury. But it was Greg Norman who
learned that from Jack Nicholas. Nicholas had his own jet,
Palmer had his own jet. Greg got his own jet.
I remember when Tiger was turning pro he my dad
was still working with Greg and Greg said to Tiger,

(08:49):
invest in private jet travel, especially in America, because he said,
will you can get home and if you can get
a night at home, he said, you'll have a family
one day. But it's that one night. So I'm lucky
enough to travel an enormous amount with Brooks and DJ
and I'm lucky enough we do a lot of it privately.
But what it does it gets us to and from

(09:11):
work faster. But there are times to where we're playing
the following week, but we get home and if you
can get a night with the family, with your dogs,
with your kids, with your wife, girlfriend, sleep in your
own bed, get up, make a cup of coffee in
your own home. The reset that that can give you

(09:31):
is enormous, It really is.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, it's huge. Yeah. I've always especially with Europe where yeah, unfortunate,
I've always sort I live in the south of England,
so we've always got Heathrow and Gatwick which are fairly
close to me, so you can pretty much certainly in Europe.
You know, Heathrow is a huge hub, so you can

(09:54):
get to pretty much anywhere most times a day. So
even if we were playing in the even if we
were playing in the same country, if we had to
say two tournaments in Italy, I would travel home on
the Sunday night if I got if I hated being
at a tournament in Europe on a Monday, I'd hate it.
I'd be Wednesday, I'd be right, let's go, come on,

(10:15):
I need to go. You know, Wednesday was just a
brain dead day. And so many times, you know, if
I if I okay. During COVID, we kind of had
to do it and you okay, so mentally you kind
of got your head around it. That's what you're going
to have to do. But if you didn't have to
do it. I hated doing two weeks on the road
in uh in Europe where I didn't go home. You know,

(10:35):
it's just that get home, unpack, repack, have that day
at home, whether you go work on your game or
you sent your clubs on to the next event. It
just like you say, you just you draw a line
under the sand of the last event, press the reset button,
and then go again. Okay. Mean you're getting up at
four o'clock on a Tuesday morning, okay, to go and
get an early flight so then you can go play

(10:57):
the practice round on the afternoon. You know. And some
people might say, well, you know, why not just stay
out and then do it, But for me, it just
kind of messed the whole week up. You know, I
was just Wednesday, I was ready to go, and then
I'd come Thursday. I don't know, I was just kind
of I just felt like I was out of sync,
and so many and a few times that I did
do it. You know, the second week, I've missed a cut.

(11:18):
I've been playing, maybe played quite well. In the first week,
I missed a cut just because I was I was
just out of sync. The whole week so it was
just right. If I can get home, I'm going home,
doesn't matter. You know, I've been I did it from
an Emirates flight once we came back from Morocco, and
the Emirates flight was like four hours later, and I
just went, I'm going to go home for an hour.

(11:39):
I just went home for an hour and then just
went back to the airport just to go. I don't
want to go from one term or to the other.
I just went, I'm going to go home for an
hour and then I'm going to come back.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
So that week at the Belfrey, I mean, you'd played
so many tournaments, you'd kind of you'd been one of
those players that, you know, it wasn't necessarily a stigma,
but you'd had a good career, lost your card a
couple times, but you'd always made a living playing for PETISCL.
You've got this idea in your mind, what winning your
first tournament is going to be like that Sunday? What

(12:12):
was the Sunday like? Did were you? Were you in
the lead?

Speaker 3 (12:17):
No?

Speaker 2 (12:17):
I was. I think I was tied or one behind
on Saturday and I shot I think I shot level
par on Saturday and hold nothing. I played te Degreen.
Probably the week I played best Tea Degreen I've ever played. Yeah,
I made one bogie a week and that was I
Like I say, I missed from about two and a
half feet for par on one hole. I think on

(12:37):
the about the eighth, seventh or eighth hole on Saturday,
and I just missed everything, and and and another thing
that happened before. Yeah, I've been you know, Tim my coach.
I've been with him for my whole career on tour
for twenty two twenty three years now, and he's never
He's never done this in the whole time I've been

(13:00):
with him. He texted me on this. So the Friday
nights we were sady for he said, if you want
to win this, you got to go and shoot sixty
six tomorrow. He said, So you have to be better
on the greens. He said, if you want to win,
that's the number you've got to go shoot. And I
shot sixty six on Saturday. Okay, that got me into
the playoff. But it just just just a couple of
things that week that the Dave Howe thing and then

(13:21):
Tim doing that he's never done it. Since he's never
done it, you know, it went a couple of times.
I've had a you know, I've had chances since and
what have you Like, I lost in the playoffs at
at Dubai the next year. Yeah, you know Victor Hoblin,
Yeah he never He never texted me the night before saying, look,
this is what you've got to do tomorrow, Tim. Yeah,
so I think, yeah, I think he's just going to

(13:44):
leave it at that one. That it was just a
one hit wonder there. But yeah, you know, I knew,
you know, I played pretty good on the front nine.
I think I went out in about three under. I
made a really good pass save on nine, I hold
from about fifteen foot for power of nine, which really
then kind of kept my mementor and I birdied and
the short hole around the corner and then yeah, you know,

(14:04):
and and then I kind of I stole on at
twelve the long pat three. You know we're playing. It's
it's pretty damp and sort of typical English day, you know,
sort of drizzle ball, not going very far. I remember
I hit busted a three iron to about thirty feet
short of the flag and hold it and uh and
then yeah, you know I hold you know, I hold

(14:26):
a beauty on eighteen, Yeah, which I probably thought at
the time, you know, I hit my te shot which
only just cleared the waters, but maybe a few people
just see. And as I was walking around.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
That's a tough finish.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
It was horrible.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
It's a tough finish kind of dog lay, yeah, kind
of from right to left. There's water off the tee.
There's water on the second shot, the landing area when
you're back in that little hollow there. I remember the
Ryder Cups that the US both lost there. There was
one year that they lost and it seemed like every

(14:59):
US play or rinsted in the water going. All the
matches went down to the last and then in I
think in the early nineties that's the that's the first
Ryder Cup over went to Davis love Hold the winning
pot on the eighteenth l But that eighteenth at the
belt bring tough driving.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, they've actually put a new tea further even further
back for that. And I remember when when I teed
off there, we it was it wasn't very nice, you know,
it was a bit of like I said, there was
drizzling yet and I back off the T shirt and
people had said to me, or what was it your
nervous and no, I said, the face of the driver.
I could see the face of the driver was a
little wet, and we all know that you get a
little bit of moisture on the face, the book can

(15:35):
literally go anywhere. I mean absolutely anyway, So it was
I actually kind of try to dry the face and
then yeah, you know, so I was walking around the water.
It's quite a sort of longish walk around the water
to get to your tee shirt. Thought, fucking just if
I can, how some make three? I think that's good
because I was. I think I was leading by one,

(15:56):
and I thought, if the weather stays like this, it's
going to be pretty tough to beat. I thought, I
can't see myself losing. And I hit I think I
hit a four iron about twenty five feet right of
the flag on the middle tier. And then yeah, I
just probably hit the sweetest part of my career. And
of course, then you know, sometimes the golf and God's

(16:16):
go against it. It literally probably from doing my interviews
in my iView. Then the sun comes out and it's
absolutely you know, I was hitting some balls on the
range and it's perfect. I've taken everything off, you know,
I'm practicing in a short sleeved shirt and you know, really,
you know, no, it's perfect. Yeah, you know, am I

(16:36):
ever going to you know, come on, give me a break.
But you know, unfortunately, you know, it worked out.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
You got it done, and was the sense relief? Was
the sense what was it? Because you've played so long
and you'd had such a long career at that stage
and really twenty twenty one after being on the European
Tour DP world for I still can't get used to

(17:04):
the damn no mean, but you've been there for almost
two decades. Was it finally or this is what I was?
I wonder what that feeling was. I think, you know, validation.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, I think more, you know, as as everything kind
of sunk in, it was more I think just the satisfaction.
The satisfaction you know, we all you know, we kind
of you know, we all know we can do it,
you know, and yeah, you know, I will be the
first to admit, you know, there was there was occasions.
You know, you get in your own way, and when
you do that and you don't when the next time

(17:40):
you want it, it's almost like you put too much
pressure on yourself that even the next time because you
want it that much more and you know, and and
it's and it's I think it's a very very hard
thing to do. It's almost like, yeah, the more you
care about it, you can try.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
You've got it.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
You've got to care less in that respect. And uh so, yeah,
I think it was just that satisfaction that you finally
did do it, and and just it's not like a
cockiness or a brash or all that, but then you
just have that in a I think it just takes
your inner confidence to just to another level.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
If you've won a tournament on tour, people look at
you different. Yeah, I don't care what tour you're playing
on now. If you were a winner and you have won,
people look at you differently, You get treated differently, you
get different pairings, but there is a knowing look for somebody.
And I'm sure having been on tour for so long
in Europe, the acceptance and the so many people were

(18:47):
happy for you for that win. I mean because you'd
been a part of the tour for so long, so
the old guard were happy for you, and then the
young guard were happy for you as well.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah. No, it was u Yeah, you know, the the
amount of messages that I got, you know, the next
sort of week just completely blew me away. I mean,
and Legends of the Game, you know, Freddie Couples, you know,
putting it on social media. I think VJ. Singh did it.
Even Phil, guys I've never even met before. I never

(19:18):
even met Phil at that point. Of course I'd played
in majors and seen him, but not someone that I
would go up to and say hi, you know, he
would know who I was. So that that was, you know,
that was that was really nice. But I think I
think the thing that really got me was the messages
that I got from people that not not necessarily golfers,

(19:42):
but whatever walk of life they were in, and they
were kind of like, I'm going to keep going. You know,
there's times when I've gone, you know what, am I
doing the right thing? Am I on the right path?
And You've now proved to me that I'm going to
keep going down the path that I'm on? And that
was that blew me away. Those messag are still on
my phone now and will remain on there forever. And

(20:06):
that and it, honestly it took There were thousands, I
mean literally thousands.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
People you don't know.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, my wife. My wife was so understanding because I
was literally for Yeah, I had a week off straight
after and probably you know, obviously there was a lot
of media to do and sky and that kind of stuff,
and I was just these just hundreds of messages were
coming through every day and I was reading and I
read every single one. I didn't reply to all of them.

(20:34):
You know, I kind of put a message out there
basically saying thank you to everybody that I couldn't reply
to every single one. I'd probably still replying now, and
that that that kind of really meant a lot that,
you know, that some people, you know, they took that
they watched and that they were crying, you know, you

(20:55):
kind of like when you're coming down to stretch and
you're in that like you and I. Nothing prepared me
for that. Nothing prepared I wasn't expecting. I'm just a
guy that's just won a golf tournament, So what really
in the grand scheme of things, I wasn't prepared for that,
you know, and some of them quite emotional.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
That twenty twenty one year was your breakout year after
being on tour for almost two decades. You lead the
US Open at in San Diego, that John Rahm won
at Tory Pines. You're forty eight years old, You're leading
the US Open after two rounds.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Confidence And I say this a lot on the podcast,
but we talk about it as a lot in the
professional game, at the elite competitive level. Confidence They always
it's a cliche. You can't put a price tag on it,
but it is so true. You get your first win,
gets you into, You got into, You broke the top
fifty in the world for the first time in your

(21:52):
late forties. I mean, that doesn't normally happen like that, right.
Was it hard blendy over there that you had that
you didn't have the success that obviously everybody wants. Was
it hard to not try and make changes? You and
Tim Barter, your longtime coach, who is a commentator on

(22:13):
Sky for the American listeners if you watch Golf Channel.
He's the guy you know at the DP World tournaments
doing the interviews. You and Tim have been together forevers.
It was funny. I saw not long after you won,
Danny Willett, because Danny was the host of the tournament
at at the Belfry, and I saw Danny and I saw,
my what an amazing story and he was like, you

(22:33):
couldn't script it any better, right, I mean, for Blandy
to win, for Tim Barter, who's his coach, to be
the guy that interviewed him. You know, they'd been together
for so long, and then you know, we talked about
who were walking away, and then as I was walking away,
Danny shouted out me and he's like, I'm still trying
to figure out how Tim kept his job for that long.
The guy's never won in twenty years. But it was

(22:55):
an amazing story, and it it vaulted you two kind
of a resurgence in your career. All of a sudden,
at forty eight, you're playing some of the best golf
of your career. You almost beat Victor Hovlin a couple
of years later in Dubai in a playoff. Victor is
one of the best players in the world. What was it?
Was it the validation that you, all of a sudden

(23:17):
had this realization Blandy there where you went, Wait a minute.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yes, I am good, Yeah, I can do this.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
It is just golf. I am just playing the game
the way everybody else. They might have different toolboxes. We
you and I were talking about this privately yesterday You're
not going to out drive Bryson to Shambeau. You're not
going to do some things that other players can't. But
you've got to look at your game and go, Okay,
these are the things I'm good at. And I think
it's interesting you said this to me privately yesterday, and

(23:45):
you just said it earlier when we started. You wouldn't
change anything, and out of your entire career, most people
would go, Okay, I would go back and make changes.
Given the career that you had and the sick that
you've been lucky enough to have. Why do you say
looking back that you wouldn't change anything.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
You know, you've got to You've got to love the uh,
you know, just just just a journey that you're on.
You know. I I've made some great friends along the way.
Of course, you know, of course, no professional golfer wants
to play poorly and lose a card and that kind
of thing. So yeah, of course I would love to
be able to change that. I don't have to go
through there, of course, But and you know, you could

(24:30):
kind of go like, there's something not necessarily I would change,
But if you went back your mind, you know what
I would have maybe started doing that a little bit earlier,
you know, but like a you know, like I joked
with you yesterday, you know, you know, my school report
always just said, yeah, he's a bit of a slow learner,
that kind of thing, and and I guess I kind
of brought that into golf. And but you know, like

(24:53):
we said yesterday, you know, you've seen some you know,
we've seen some superstars that kind of peak and then
they're they're not playing anymore, you know. So to have
maybe my success later in my career, okay, you know
that that that that's that's that's how it's happened for me,
and I'm grateful for that. So you know, yeah, of

(25:20):
course someone saying we'd love to win in our fourth event,
of course, you know, but I think sometimes that's it.
It's not always a good thing. You know. We've we've
talked about players that won early in their career and
suddenly they've got all this money and and you're a
young lad, and you're a single lad, and it's very
very easy to go out and you think everything, Well,

(25:42):
I'm now just going to go I'm set now for life.
I'm going to be on tour for the rest of
my life, and and and they kind of probably feel
like they don't have to improve anymore, whereas you do.
You have to try and improve every single day, you know,
because that's just how good the standard is. And yeah,
and yeah, I'm just I'm grateful that it did come

(26:06):
for me later in my career. You know, there are
players that have played for twenty years, never won, never one,
you know. And fortunately I'm now not in that bracket.
But like like you said before, it's so hard to win.
It is, you know, back probably and I'm not taking
anything away from the ear of years ago, there's probably

(26:29):
only maybe ten or fifteen guys.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
You really says that a lot. My dad said when
he played the tour in the early seventies, you know,
he was still playing on tour when it was non exempt.
He always says, Listen, I knew I wasn't as good
as the best players. We knew we were just making
up kind of the field. We knew we had no
chance to win because everybody, the top stars, Jack and
those boys back then, they were just so much better

(26:52):
than everybody else now. And you probably and I'd be
interested to get your perspective on this, because this is
something I've touched on in the past. Why is it
do you think this new generation of players come out
and they are ready and do win early, because when
you turned pro in the early part of the two thousand,

(27:13):
you had to be an apprentice. You had to figure
out it's going to take you two three years to win,
and there was that mentality that you had to learn
your craft. Why is it that you see so many
this Ludwigo Aberg. I mean, this kid looks like he
can't miss and to do what he's done. I mean

(27:34):
last year at this time, he's playing college golf and
now he's played in a Ryder Cup, he's won a tournament,
and he's never even played in a major. You must
have seen a shift every single year in the in
the talent.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Oh, definitely that's coming out.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Do you feel like the players have more tools in
the toolbox now? What is it that you see after
being on tour for over twenty years that you see
with this younger generation that just seemed to come out
with zero fear and they just are not afraid to win.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Really, I think you know I've said I've said it
to a lot of young guys that you know, when
I was playing amateur golf in the early nineties, playing
for England and that kind of thing. We never had
fitness coaches or psychologists or anything like that. We didn't
have TrackMan's or launch monitors.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Don't get out of the dirt.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah, you just you're right, Okay, You've and coaching, you
know you you and I'm sure you know your dad
can say the same thing. Coaching has come on that much.
You have to know an awful lot more than what
you used to. You don't have to understand how machines work, this,
that and the other, biomechanics, all this, what have you.
And I just think I think golfers have just led

(28:48):
bread differently now. And I mean by that is that
you look at you look at Tiger's boy Charlie. He's
probably now he's you know, he's doubled in size in
the last year. We saw him. At the last father
son told him. He's probably in the gym with his
dad every single morning. He's not the average probably as
a as a bill the fourteen year old kid or

(29:10):
however old he is. Yeah, he probably takes his shirt off.
He probably looks like an eighteen year old he does,
you know, So it's it's that's that's how it is now,
you know, And I think Tiger changed that. You know
that that we had this this guy that came along
that was just better in every single way and off,

(29:32):
so everybody had to go up, what is he doing?
And we have to we have to now keep up.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
You're of that generation people forget. They look at Tiger
now and a lot of people never really saw Tiger play, right,
They never saw him play golf. They saw it on
Golf Channel, they've seen it in reruns and stuff. But
you were part of that generation playing on the European
Tour when Tiger would come over two or three times
a year, he'd play in them. He'd obviously play in

(29:59):
the Open Champi, but he'd come to Dubai and then
he was on that circuit where he was playing at
the Deutsche Bank which was in Germany, so he was
coming over there. There was no YouTube, There really wasn't
an Internet, so you were seeing him for the first
time and as a golfers and as an athlete. As
you mentioned, he was one hundred and eighty freak returned

(30:24):
from what golfers used to look like. Do you remember
when you saw Tiger for the first time at a tournament.
What was the year and what did you think?

Speaker 2 (30:35):
I can't remember the I remember I obviously I saw
him at the Deutsche Bank. I didn't really see him play,
but I watched him practice in a playoff one year.
I watched him practice for about forty five minutes in Dubai.
I remember I had to I can't remember if you've
been to the Emirates that there was a workshop, but
in one of the small mantelists there was always the

(30:57):
workshop there and I needed a put of gripping, and
the guys just said, look, we're a bit busy'd come
back in forty five minutes. I said, yeah, okay, no problem.
And as I was walking out and come out onto
the back of the range, literally Tiger just arrived. Steve
Williams just put the bag down. Tigers and I just
went like, no one around. I just kind of like okay,
and I'm probably seven eight yards by and I just

(31:18):
sit on the grass and beautiful about one o'clock in
the afternoon, and I just watched the most unbelievable forty
five minutes of practice I've ever seen. It was it
was you can't hit you didn't miss a shot. I mean,
did you not miss a shot?

Speaker 1 (31:34):
We didn't. You didn't see players like that. You didn't
see players that look like that. You didn't see players
that had speed like that. And Tiger had this aura
around him. I don't know if he created that or
we around him created it, but you felt you were
in the presence of something different.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
It was crazy, Like you say, he just didn't miss
a shot for forty five minutes, and I mean draws fade,
I mean, exactly the same shot every single time. It
wasn't if he's hitting a drawer. It was a five
yard draw, and then the next one was a five
yard drawer. It wasn't oh it hit one dead straight,
and then one had overdraw a little bit, and then
one he got perf. It was the same every single time.

(32:17):
And then he just opened himself up and hit exactly
the same shot just the other way. Just a five
yard cut, five yard cut, same flight, same trajectory. I mean,
do you, as a goalfer, you just standing there going
like you can't, you can't do that any better? You know,
I assume it must be like an artist and you're watching, yeah,

(32:37):
Pocasso paint you know, you go, I can't do that.
I can't do that. And I remember I walked off,
and I remember bumping into Tin and I just said,
we can't win this week. You can't win. You can't
beat that over seventy two olds. You can't you cannot
beat that unless he somehow self destructs. You can't beat

(33:00):
that over seventy times. I'm sorry, you just you can't
do it. It was just on a level that I didn't
even think existed. And I assume that was I don't
know if that was. I think it was whether your
dad was still with him or gone over to Hank.
I'm not too shy. I think it was early two

(33:20):
thy When did when did?

Speaker 1 (33:22):
When have t dub and my dad? Two thousand and two?
It was the last year they worked again.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Right, Okay, So I assume it was probably maybe later
than that.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
I mean, listen. Even still, there's an argument to be made.
There's always this argument about Tiger's golf swing. Who was
better under my dad or Hank? I mean, obviously in.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
My opinion, And I'm not just saying it because it's
you know, I'm sat here with you, Tiger in two thousand.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yeah, from I mean from an esthetic standpoint, but then
you look at I mean it's I always think that
Hank gets Hank gets a bad deal because the winning
percentage and the golf he played when he was with Hank,
the win rate was higher. I mean, it just it
was exceptional as well. But I think Tiger will always

(34:07):
going to be thought of in that golden era of
right around two.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Blue fields away, I mean, blew them away, you know.
So I guess you know, I'm old school. I'm a purist,
you know. In two thousand, I love the way that
Tiger swung the golf club. It was athletic, it was
just power. And he Yeah, I would say he drove
the ball better under your Dad than he did with Hanks.

(34:34):
Way better, I'd take that.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
But he was trying to drive it.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
Pretty but yeah, you know, he just came along and
he and he just changed the landscape completely of golf.
And and I've probably got you know, we we've all
got to be thankful for it. We're all better off
for it. We're all probably in better shape for it
because we've we've had to we've had to change the

(34:58):
way we go about working on our games, working on ourselves,
you know, and then maybe that's you know, they helped
me in the longevity that right, Okay, because looking after
yourself a little bit more has helped you, you know,
keep keep your career going.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, injury prevention, Yeah, that's you know.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
And like I said to you yesterday, now you know,
I'm not trying to look you know. I know I
can't compete with Bryson off the tea and DJ and
that kind of and that's fine, you know, But for
me it's about staying can I If I can pick
up a mile or two, that's fine, but it's as
we all know, as mother nature kind of catches up
on you is I don't want that drop off. If

(35:38):
I can keep my ball speed up around one seventy
one seventy one, which okay, yes is below average, but
it's it's far enough. It is far enough, you know,
especially when you play in nice conditions, you can still
get it out there three hundred and three to ten
off the tee. So most part fours you're breaking the
back of Yeah, of course i'd we'd all like to

(35:59):
hit it three p thirty three. Yeah, of course we do.
But if you probably look at most old school players
or guys that have been around for a long time
don't hit it that far. And Harrington's probably a bit
of a and Phil still do.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Ye only maybe because of his size. But but if.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
You look at probably Lee, you look at you know,
I've played a bit with Lee the last couple of years.
I've played with Poults the last couple of years, Stens,
and you know it's about it. Can you as long
as you can kind of hold that drop off, you know,
if you can kind of keep that at Bay, then
you know, I think you know you can. You can
still compete.

Speaker 1 (36:44):
So much over the last couple of years, the golf
landscape has changed. You were one of the players that
made the decision to go to live. Talk me through
that decision, why you decided to do it, and what
you've been surprised at over the last couple of years.

(37:04):
First of all, the decision to go to live, how
did it come about and why did you make that decision?

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, I was I remember I was playing Lee Westwood
in the match Player in Texas and we're walking down
the second and obviously there was rumors of the live thing, and.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
This is Tiger Or post filmmaking all his comments and
Allen Ship, yes, book and everything this live so now
Live's got no momentum.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
So this is just whispers about it. It's it's it's
you know, it's kind of will it won't it kind
of thing. And Lee said to me, we're going down
about the second or the third and we're just having
a chat and he says, have you had any contact
from from Greg yet? And I said no. I said,
why would he want to talk to me? He's gone blindy,

(37:53):
you're you know, you're top fifty five in the world.
They're going to want to talk to you. And I
went like really, and okay. So I kind of like
just got on and played and didn't really think too
much of it, and then kind of like spoke to
my manager at the time and just sort of said, look,
you know, is it worth a trying to get a
conversation and see And they came back and they said, yeah,

(38:14):
you know, we're you know, we're we would be very interested,
and you know, and I talked it over with my
wife and you know, my family, and I said, look,
there's this opportunity here that you know, you can't turn down.
At forty nine years old. Yes, I've had a decent
longevity on on DP world and the last couple of years, yes,

(38:38):
I'd done some nice money, but it's still not you know,
all right, that's it. I can completely stop playing and
never have to do anything else for the rest of
my life. Not even close. I mean not even close.
And you know, I and I talked to my wife
quite a lot about it, and I said to us,
look are you okay with this? You know, we know

(38:58):
that the human right, so the side of Saudi is
not good. And I said, you know, have you got
a problem with this? She said, Look, at the end
of the day, you playing golf, no matter where you
play golf in the world, isn't going to change that.
He said, So you know, you have to do what
you think is right and for the best. And as
soon as she said that, then for me it was

(39:19):
it was absolutely there was. I was one hundred percent.
I was It's a no brainer. My age, at my career,
at that stage of my career, I don't know how
long I got left. I didn't know, you know, I
could be I could lose my card the next year,
and so right, okay, okay, it might be a one
year thing. It might be I never signed a contract

(39:40):
will Live. The first contract I signed with them was
at the start of twenty twenty three. Yeah, I've never
signed for a dollar. Does everybody think I had any
money from?

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Everyone thinks that everybody that went to Live got the
bag right, they made all this money. Yeah, there are
guys that did that, but there were also people like
yourself that made the decision at the age you were
at to go. Were you and have you been surprised
at the backlash?

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (40:12):
I kind of yeah. We all knew it wasn't going
to sit very well, you know, as soon as you
start kind of upsetting the apple cart as such. Yeah,
you know it's going to put some noses out, and uh,
you know, I think looking back to London the first event,
I think some of the questions that the media put
across to some of the players. Fortunately I wasn't one

(40:34):
of them. Ye know, I mean they were they were shocking,
they were dreadful, they were disgusting questions to be asked.
And you know, when you know, if there's a World
Cup in Saudi Arabria in a few years or whatever, though,
those journalists will be out there, one of them, you
know that they'll just be doing their jobs exactly you know,

(40:57):
and exactly what we're doing. You know, we're just doing
our job. There's an opportunity there to do your job
for more money. Like you say, it's not everybody's decision,
and that's that's entirely up to them. But all you
can do is you have to make the best decision
for you and your family going forward. Whether that agrees

(41:18):
with you know, some people, that's them, you know. I
got I got some stick on social media and I
remember replying to one guy. It was just rubbing me
up the wrong way one day, and I just said,
I said, if I turn up to your house with
a briefcase with five million dollars in that briefcase, and
I tell you, right, this is where the money's come from.

(41:41):
I said, there it is tax free, it's yours, but
that's where it's come from. The briefcase would be on
the other side of the door, on my hand, and
be still being the door because they're not in that situation.
It's not there in front of them. It's very very
easy to take the moral high ground. It is. We've
all done it, probably, but you know, when that situation

(42:01):
is actually gone right, I've got the chance here to
make my life, my wife's life, and my family's life
very very comfortable for the next however, however long at
forty nine years.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
Old, i'd need locking away really if I didn't take it,
you know, And I would, and I will say, it's
the best decision I've ever made.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yeah, I've absolutely loved it, and I've loved the innovation
of Live and how it is trying to you know,
make golf call again, you know, and I and when
we played in London, I felt like a rookie again
at forty nine. I did. I felt like it, and
I really do thank them. It's made me a better
player because I'm playing against Bryson, I'm playing against DJ
and playing against Brooks, playing against Cam. I'm playing against

(42:50):
them fifteen times a year. It's made me a better player.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
And you're You're on Martin Kimer's the cliques. Having access
to a guy Martin Kimer could be the most unassuming
two time major champion that's also won the players Champion
you could ever meet. I think because Martin's such a
nice person, such a genuine, genuine human being, that you

(43:14):
sometimes forget how great a player he was. You can't
win two majors and phone it in. I mean, I mean,
if you look at the places that he's won, right,
winning US Open at Pinehurst, which was brutal, and then
the way they had whistling straight set up, and then
to win at the Players as well. Last year you
got to spend a lot of time with Martin. There

(43:35):
were times where he was healthy, there's times where he wasn't.
But what have you taken away from your time and
your experience with a great player like Martin?

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, you know, I just think he's very He's just
you can see he's just very, very cool under pressure,
and you know, I think he's got tremendous sort of
self belief in himself, and you know, you talk to
him about you know a few things.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
You know.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
I was just with him a few days ago and
it was got I think the US Opens going back
to Pinehurst again this year, isn't it? And it was interesting.
We was having dinner one night and and I just
was just chatting to him about that week, and you know,
it was just interested in talking to him about you know,
when did you really feel like, you know, you're right, Okay,

(44:24):
I've got this, I've got it done. And it was
quite he was telling a funny story. I think he
was like I think he said, I'm like he hit
his t shot on fifteen or something like that, and he's, uh,
and he hit I think he hit like two iron
off the tee and then he hit his second shot
into about fifteen feet with a three iron and he's gone.
He was walking up to the bring. I'm right, okay,
that's it. I'm good now any three puts and he

(44:48):
was in. He was and it was like it was
so interesting and he's funny. As soon as you think
and he's gone.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
On the golf course, as soon as you think, okay,
I'm safe now, Yeah, I've got it. Someone holds a
bunker shot, you make a bad swing out of nowhere
because you go to that mindset of going, okay, I've
got this. Yeah, and it sometimes can really really kind
of switch the other way.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
Yeah, and he's he's and he and he actually quite
openly talked about the time, you know, I think he
went on to win by seven or eight or something
like that, but he talked about the time in Abbadabby
when he had a ten shot lead I think with
twelve to play and lost to Gary Starr and uh,
and it was interesting that he that he talked about

(45:30):
quite a member. Yeah, that how he you know that
he was just going along. Everything was kind of great
and you know, just right and thinking what okay, this
is just you know, just kind of get it into
the house and take the trophy, thanks very much. And
I think he made I think he made a six

(45:50):
or something on the on the ninth or something like that,
and and I think Gary then made birdie, so it
was like a three shot swing there, and then he
made I think he made a triple on thirteen, where
then he makes a birdie on the very like next hole,
so suddenly it's a four shot swing. Yeah, and he
said I just couldn't stop it. I just literally fit.

(46:12):
I was trying everything, but he just I just could
not kind of you know. And someone is as good
as Martin was, the world number one and major winners
and what have you that, Yeah, it happens, you know,
it does happen. And but yeah, he's just he's just
you know, he's just one of those guys that you know,
sometimes he doesn't give you a whole lot, but what

(46:34):
he gives you it's good stuff, you know. And at
the end of the day. You know, we've all I've
been around the block enough that yeah, I know what,
you know, I know what I've got to do. You know,
I don't really need I shouldn't really need any sort
of pep talking now that right, Come on, guys, you
know he should be if that should just come from
within yourself. But yeah, he's like you said, he's just

(46:58):
he's just a cool guy to be around. And and
that's when again one of the other things I think
I've just loved with live and You've got to know
players so much more because you're round in that team environment.
You have got to know Gmac a lot more, Burn
Wisberger last year, Laurie Cancer who's been on the cligues
a little bit. But you know, you're also around all

(47:20):
the other guys where everybody's at the course at the
same time and you and and it just it really
is just a great atmosphere to be around and to
play golfing.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
I think I've said this a lot of times. I
was lucky enough to kind of start my career on
the traveling circus in the early two thousands. That was
the European Tour back in the day, and Live reminds
me a lot of what the European Tour used to be, right.
It was kind of this traveling circus. It went all
over the world and things like that. Keith Pelly has

(47:53):
just resigned from running the Deep World Tour, the old
European Tour. You've been on Live for the last this
will now be your third year. But you are a
European Tour guy. That is you didn't you didn't play
in America. You never left and moved to Florida and
played the PGA Tour and did both, So the European

(48:14):
Tour was your home obviously. Keith Pelly moving on sounds
like Guy Kinnings who was the longtime agent for Monty
and everybody at IMG, he's now going to take over
that role. What happens in your opinion now to the
European Tour, because there is there is this argument now

(48:37):
that I think you can make this that with the
alignment and the partnership that the European Tour that Keith
and Jay forged together. Now every year the top ten
players off the europe off of the DP World will
go to the PGA Tour. Where do you see the
European tour going and where would you want it to go?

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Uh? Yeah, I think Keith has done a lot of
good for the tour. I think he has. You know,
was I a fan of where I where he was
taking the tour in the last maybe two years partnering
up with with America. No, I wasn't, And why not?
I just like again, I just I always go back

(49:23):
to I remember when he first came in as CEO,
he gave his first player, full player address at PJ
Cattle and I can't remember what year it was when
whenever the first year was he was in charge PJ
Cattaloon and he basically we were then going to partner
up with Asia.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
It was going to be the Asian Tour.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
And he was basically saying that America is hostile America,
who's our rival, and we have to compete with them.
As far as ask said, that was the whole idea
of the Roleck series is to play for seven million dollars.
Pretty much what that America PJ Tour were playing at
the time is to try and keep our best players
in Europe to play bigger events. But yet we still

(50:06):
just you know, in some ways, they we bowed down
to whether it be player power that right, they want
to go play in America, and we made it easier
for them to go play in America, that we cut
our playing minimums down. You know, I think it's now
that you only have to play what was it two
or three events outside of the majors too.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
You've got you've got guys that I mean, You've got
guys going to the Race to Dubai at the end
of the year leading the European Order Merit that have
legit other than some of the co sanctioned and the majors,
have played in maybe two to events legit real standalone,
and you can take Abu Dhabi and Dubai out of

(50:52):
that equation, right they are not. Those are the ones
historically that we're talking like a regular Pete European old
school DP World tournament. The guys that every year are
winning this are playing the majority of their golf on
the PGA Tour, right. A lot of these guys live

(51:14):
the majority of the year in America. And I still
remember to where I mean, I started working on the
European Tour in the early two thousands. I've had on
the podcast. He's a good friend of mine, Trevor Immoman, Trevor,
Justin Rose Poltz, Adam Scott. They use the European Tour

(51:36):
to go over and win on the European Tour to
then be the springboard to get them top fifty. And
because top fifty back in the day was the holy grail,
right if you were top fifty in the world, regardless
of which tour you played on, you got into all
the majors, you got into all the wgc's, you got
into the Players Championship, and then you got most likely

(51:59):
if you were winning, and you're probably gonna get an
invite into Honda, an invite into Bayhill, one of the
big tournaments. But back then, those guys Rosie Scottie Poltz,
that kind of generation. They won European Tour events, real
European Tour events, not CO sanctioned ones, not Dubai Abu Dhabi.

(52:20):
They won rank and file European Tour events. That's how
they got to America. Now it seems like the way
to get European Tour membership is to play in all
the majors, win one of them, and then go play
one tournament. Go play Scotland, which is now CO sanctioned,

(52:41):
but you're not playing a full European school. I remember,
you know, it's easy to beat up on Patrick Reed, right,
Patrick Reed makes it sometimes easy for people to beat
him up. Right. But Patrick Reid has played a lot
on the DP World Tour in the last five years.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Yeah, I think he's I think I spoke to him.
I think he said he's played. He's played more more
regular DP World events and than what Rory has in
the last however long. Yeah, and it's you know, I
don't know, I'm kind of maybe spitballing here a little bit.
But if you didn't have to be a DP World member,
you know, to play Ryder Cup, would they even come back?

(53:22):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
I remember at maybe they wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
They might come back for maybe play Dubai or you know,
and Rory maybe play the Irish or something like that,
But I I don't know, maybe they wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
The miracle at Madina where the European Ryder Cup team
had the massive comeback all the Nobbles to captain, they
win it for sev But on Sunday morning it looked
like they were going to get beat and they were
going to get beat bad, and I remember thinking Blandy,
is this kind of if they do get beat, is

(53:56):
this kind of the final nail in the coffin? Because
the majority, if not ninety percent, of that Ryder Cup
team for the European Tour all flew to Chicago from America.
They didn't fly from Europe because they all lived in America.
They were all playing on the PGA Tour, they were

(54:17):
all making their homes in America. And I remember thinking,
if they go on to lose this, this it's not
the euro it's not Europe against America. It's the it's
the European based players that left the European Tour to
come to the PGA Tour for the money, for the
bigger tournaments. They're the ones making up this Ryder Cup.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yeah. I think it's a hard one that I think
that the Ryder Cup selection is how you balance yeah,
because it is a European it is a European team,
and it is a.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
You know, and it is you have the European Tour
and you.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Have to you it may be someone that you know,
and I've like, I think it's how how do you
split it, you know, from say like a world ranking
list or world points list to the DP World Order,
a merit points list of who gets in. And however,
you know, my point is you had a guy last
year who's third in DP world points list on the

(55:19):
yearly list, and he's not in the he's not in
the Ryder Cup. He's third Asian MORONC and he's one
at that venue that year and he's not in. You know,
so that that kind of didn't really sit right, and
that just shows you then that really the the the

(55:44):
kind of race tooby list is completely irrelevant. It doesn't
matter to.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
The world or the.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
You're pretty relevant right now in hugely, you know.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
I think that's one of the things that really really
sticks in my is is how, you know, I don't
know what kind of say Keith has had in that.
I know, you know he can't vote on it, Llever,
but to stand there and go, right, okay, guys, you
know they've put this, they must have put this proposal
together to go right now, this is what's going to

(56:17):
happen as regards of world ranking, and someone has gone like,
hang on a second, that is just not fair. You know,
how can you have like our major, which is the
BMWPGA Championship in September where you have a lot of
the top ten players in the world, certainly probably four
or five of them, Rahm and Rory and Tommy and

(56:41):
Fitzie all playing, and you can have a tournament in
America where the FedEx is done, the FedEx is done
so that it's and they're playing for more points that
I don't I don't get. And it was exactly the
same at the DP World Championships at the end of
the year. Are Tour Championship, the same tournament in the Marrier,
Chris playing for more world he's playing for more world

(57:03):
ranking points. How that can be allowed? I've got no
idea is if you are a DP World player now,
I think it's almost impossible to get into the top
fifty in the world unless you probably win six times.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Well, I think if I was talking to Chow Men thought,
because he's the commissioner and chairman of the Asian Tour,
and we were talking about Tom Kim and Tom Kim's
kind of meteoric rise to the PGA Tour, but the
road that he took in coming from Asia and then
coming to Europe and then getting to the PGA. Choe

(57:39):
was saying those stories won't happen anymore, and it does
increasingly seem as we stand in twenty twenty four that
without the framework of an agreement between Live and the
PGA Tour, like you said, it seems like the only
way to get into all of the big tournaments. It's

(58:02):
to me, it seems like it's going the route that well,
unless you play on the PGA Tour, there is no
real pathway for you to really make the jump that
a lot of people have made. And again I use
Adam Scott and Trevor Imloan. I worked with both of
them in the early two thousands and the holy grail
for them was get top fifty in the world. That

(58:24):
gets you into the players, that gets you into some
of the WGCs. Then you can start to make this
move that's kind of the base camp that then you
can make the jump to go to the PGA Tour.
And it does seem like right now, the world it
seems like if you're not on Live, the world is

(58:46):
basically trying to become one hundred percent PGA Tour centric. Now, Blendy,
what do you say to the fans and the people
listening to this podcast saying you you left the European Tour.
The European Tour gave you a platform for twenty years.
You left to further your career right for what was

(59:09):
better for you. So your opinion on what happens with
the European Tour is in valid anymore because you basically
left to go do something else. Because there are people
that say that.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Yeah, of course, and I completely get it. But of
course there's one thing in life we're always allowed, and
that's your opinion. Everybody has one, you know, So whether
my opinion people want to listen to it or they don't,
best you know, I'm not going to lose any sleep
over that, you know. My opinion is I certainly don't
like the way it's going. Like you say, given ten

(59:44):
of your best players away every single year is for
me as a recipe disaster. I relate it to my
football team Southampton.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Yeah, they had My father in law is a season
ticket holder.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
You know they gave away for you know, they they
sold all their best players, okay, you know because a
Liverpool or a Man United or a man City would
come in for them and pay for an awful lot
of money for them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Now they're in the Championship and.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
At some point, at some point, yes, you can kind
of keep your head above water for a while, but
you know you're not replacing Lake for like, you have
someone like Nikolai Hooyguard who's got one of those spots
going to the PGA Tour this year. And this is
and this is no disrespect to the guys that have
come from Challenge Tour. That is not the same level.

(01:00:31):
It's not the same level of player that you're replacing.
The ten or fifteen guys that are coming from Challenge Tour.
Is not replacing those It's not the same caliber. It
isn't so you are just watering down your talent the
whole time, and that I think in the future for
future sponsorship is going to hurt the talk because again,

(01:00:52):
no disrespect to any player that's playing on the Deep world.
They're all really good players. They are I'm not I
don't dispute that at all. The standard is incredibly high.
But unless you have got marquee players people that right, Okay,
I'm going to go watch that guy. Where's the return
for the sponsors? They're just going to go unless you're

(01:01:13):
going to give me x Y and Z. You know
of a player and of course, then you've got to
pay them to come back and play, and it's I'm
just not a fan of it. I'm just not a
fan of giving your your ten best players, if you
I kind of it frightens me that over the next
five years, if this does carry on, you're going to

(01:01:35):
give your best fifty players to the PGA Tour. Now, yes,
some will come back. Not all fifty players are going
to keep their card, but but it's kind of like
the way, kind of the way, you know, I would
almost go if I was a twenty six, twenty seven
year old guy and I've played good on the DP
World Tour and I've got my card in America and

(01:01:55):
I go play and I don't keep my card and
I maybe just miss out, and I've got full corn
Ferry status, I would almost probably go at that age,
I'll I'll stay in America and not go back, and
not go back, you know, because let's face it, Yeah,
you know, I know you can say that they're playing

(01:02:15):
for more money in Europe than they ever have, but
you know, I think you know, you read between the lines.
You know, PJ tours proping an awful lot of that
up that Yeah, I and and it's a sad way
to think about it, and it's a sad opinion to
have it. It is, and I wish I didn't have it,

(01:02:36):
But I really do hope that, you know, it gets
sorted out and and I just somehow I just fear
that the deep world could be in some ways left behind.
I really do. And I hope Guy comes in and
he's stronger maybe in that area than maybe Keith was.
Like you say, I think Keith did an awful lot

(01:02:58):
of good for the tour. You know, I don't think
probably the last eighteen months two years of his sort
of tenure has been you know, his best. But you know,
it is what it is, and you know, and I
know some people might go that I'm maybe a part
of that because I went to live but I can

(01:03:18):
also say that, you know, and Keith knows. He said
this to me when I had a meeting with him.
He said, Bland, if I was in your position, I
would go. And that was our CEO of the DP
world at the time. He said to me, he said,
if I was in your position, I would go, so
and he was right, Yeah, I, like you say, you know,
it's it's the best decision I've ever made and I'm

(01:03:41):
a better player for it, and no regret and I'm
oh none, none whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Lastly, twenty twenty four, what are the goals for you?
I mean, obviously you know you're setting goals in you know,
you're fifty one. What are the goals? Are the goals
to keep improving? Are the goals to win? Because obviously
we were talking about this yesterday as well. At your
stage of your life, your career, your body, your game,

(01:04:14):
you have to pick. I mean, there's courses that are
going to set up well for you and courses that
are going to set up well for other players. What
are the goals for this year?

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
Yeah? You know, I know to be you know, if
I wanted to play on live in twenty twenty five,
I'm gonna have to play some seriously good goal. You know.
I know a lot of people think, oh, it's everybody's
live that's washed up and this, that and the other.
Let's just bs. You know, you have to even to
finish top fifteen on a live event, you have to

(01:04:43):
play some serious goal. You have to and if you
finish in the top ten, you have played some unbelievable goal.
That's my opinion, and so yeah, So for me, if
I can play, I would like to think if I
can play two more years, I think that would be
me probably riding off into the sunset. You know. You know,

(01:05:05):
my brother's gone through cancer this last sort of twelve months.
I want to I want to enjoy the rest of
my life. You know. Of course, I'll still be around golf.
I'll still play golf. I might even play a few
senior events here and there. You know, have I got
any ambition to play sort of seniors in Europe? I haven't,
to be honest. And then do I want to maybe

(01:05:29):
play champions and start playing twenty five twenty six tournaments again?
I don't think I do, you know. So it's a
lot of travel. Yeah, I love playing in America, you know,
but you know we're happy where we are. So yeah,
I think if I could play through twenty twenty five,

(01:05:49):
I think that would be you know, I'd be sort
of retiring and very happy man. So you know, but
that doesn't mean to say that this year I'm going
to give it everything I've possibly got. You know, I'm
a I'm a hundred an all in guy. You know,
I can't do anything half heartedly you know, I'm behind
the eight ball anyway when you're playing against DJ and

(01:06:10):
Brooks every every round. So you know, I've got to
be at my best, you know, most of the time.
And that's what's made me a better player. That's just
it just that has to come out of me. So yeah,
I'm going to do everything I can to be playing
in twenty twenty five. Of course, i'd love to be
coming down the stretch with one of those guys fighting out.

(01:06:33):
I hope it happens, but yeah, you know, it's I'm
sort of more also, you know, I can kind of
see the end of the road a little bit more now,
which I kind of like the look of as well,
So you know, but we'll see. You know, I've always
sort of said, I, you know, I'll cross that bridge
as well when I come to it. My wife says, oh,

(01:06:54):
you'll never retire. But you know, I've had like a
nice sort of two three months off and I really
miss it too much. So but you know, now I'm
back in kind of practice mode, and you know, I'm
here at the Floridian with you practicing and for the
next couple of weeks, and it's it does kind of
get the juices flowing again, I can say that. So,
but yeah, you know, I'm excited to play in twenty

(01:07:15):
twenty four. I'm exactly where I want to be. I'm
playing on the tour. I want to play on regardless
of the financial side of it. I just I just
love playing live. I think it's great. I really do.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
Does your football team, Southampton, do they get back to
the premiership. My father in law, Mike McCleary, I mean,
he goes to the games, he sits there in the rain,
he's devastated. They're in the Championship. Do they get back
to the Premiership playing well?

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
They're on a good run right now. I think they're
about eighteen and nineteen unbeaten, and I think we play
Sheffield Wednesday tonight, who are like nineteen, So it's know
in Southampton, this is probably and we're at home, so
this is probably. Now we're going to lose three nol.
I think it's tough. It's going to be tough to
get an automatic. But how you're back through the you

(01:08:08):
look at Leicester. Leicester look really strong. It's which, yeah,
they kind of I think we can maybe nick a second,
but I would probably. I think if someone offered you
the playoff spots right now, I think you'd take it.
I think you'd take it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
I think it's always the same with being a Saints fan,
you know, even though even though it's quite good at
the minute. Yeah, they did it at the start of
the season. They had a good start, and then they
lose four in a row, so you know, hopefully they
can keep the run going. But you know, it's just
whether the squad is strong enough and big enough to
get through. You know, Forty six games is an awful

(01:08:45):
lot of a lot of football in the season. So
I hope so, I hope so. But there's always that
sort of bit of pessimistics view when you're a Saints fan.
So we'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
I am learning. I am learning that well, having a Saints'
supporter in the family.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
I'll ask me that question in about three months and
I might be able to give you a better answer.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
Great stuff, have a great year. Thanks for talking to us, Claude,
thank you, bou.

Speaker 3 (01:09:16):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
That was Richard Bland and listen, he's definitely somebody I
root for, right. I think that his story how long
it took him to find his first win, to find
that success Yeah, it's easy to categorize someone like Richard
as a journeyman. But if you are a journeyman, it
means that you're still seeking, But it also means that

(01:09:38):
you're still on this journey playing professional golf. And there
are a lot of people at Richard's age that are
packing it in that that aren't playing anymore. He's still playing.
I'm excited to see what he can do in twenty
twenty four. And I think it's important that we hear
from superstars, from regular golfers, and from people that are

(01:10:01):
just making their career playing professional golf. And I think
Richard's got a very very good story. Thanks everyone for
listening some of it, but which comes to you every Wednesday.
We are back next week.