Coinciding neatly with the recent release of the Sky Documentary about his win at The Belfry, we recorded an interview with Richard Bland. Without doubt one of the great stories of 2021! In May he picked up his maiden European Tour victory on the 478th time of asking, making him the oldest first time winner on tour which kick-started a truly brilliant seasons performance! It’s a great episode as we talk about a load of topics in the game, as well as sleeping on a 36 hole lead in the US Open and his year in general.
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watch [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this no way [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello and welcome back to the Cookie Jar golf podcast i am Sam Williams and today we’ve got a special guest interview lined up with Richard Bland uh Richard’s been someone we’ve been keen to get on the pod for for a while now 2021 has obviously been an incredible season for him um notably picking up his maiden tour victory at the belfry in May uh and he is currently the oldest person to do that on 478 attempts of trying and that’s kind of kickstarted a really just a stellar year from him he led the US Open after 36 holes at Toy Pines um he’s notched up 10 top nine top 10s rather in 2021 and it’s just a really interesting kind of discussion with him we talk a little bit about his relationship with Tim Barta we talk about equipment we talk about you know joining the game in in sort of 1996 when he first turned pro right through to today and and along the way you know Richard’s had to regain his tour card on a number of times which he’s done through the challenge tour and Q school um and it’s just a really good good discussion um Richard’s kind of really really kind of down to earth guy you know talks a lot about you know what he’s working on with Tim his game you know and amazingly you kind of get this sense I always I think with Richard that he just absolutely loves beating balls and uh in that sense there was no one better to get on the pod uh we’re really glad Richard gave us our time we think it’s a really good podcast so we hope you enjoy richard Richard Bland welcome to the Cookie Jar Golf Podcast how are you doing yeah I’m well thanks for having me yes uh you know we’ve been trying to get this uh sorted in the diary for a while so yeah nice to nice to finally get it get it done and um yeah hopefully the the listeners will enjoy it absolutely the pleasure is all ours um you’ve been a bit busy you’ve been under the surgeon’s knife I see recently just give us a little bit of background on on that yeah yeah i had a torn miniscus um I had my right knee done about eight years ago um and to be to be honest with you I was playing most of the year with it uh uh but it wasn’t it wasn’t affecting hitting any balls or anything like that but just you just you know playing on it the whole year uh the last sort of three or four events it was getting quite sore um the walking it was still no pain hitting shots so that’s why I could still play um but uh yeah I couldn’t you know I was struggling to walk around you know at the end of every day it was pretty sore and um but yeah it needed to be done um so yeah I’m about two and a half weeks out of surgery now um but it’s it’s gone great um you I’ve done a lot of rehab um and yeah I hit balls for the first time today which is great a real sort of boost you know just for the sort of morale and and to know that it’s okay uh okay i haven’t hit anything of any distance i think the longest shot I hit was about 120 yards and I only hit maybe 25 30 balls you know just to see how it was and hopefully I don’t get a reaction which I haven’t done uh and yeah the knee was fine it was absolutely yeah you kind of feel like oh I could do an awful lot more but I only literally took four clubs up to the Whizzley because I I know what I’m like if it feels okay I’d want to be hitting five irons and start drivers with the drivers so I thought well if I haven’t got those clubs there then I can’t hit them so I literally just took three or four clubs and uh and yeah you know what i’ll just build it and build it now just slowly slowly i’m still in no rush to get back up to full speed or anything like that um it’s more just you know still taking it day by day on how it feels and and go from there you you we’ll get into your season and and everything shortly but you touched on it there and said the temptation is to take the five iron and start hitting loads more balls you’re 48 I believe Richard and you still get the you still get the urge to to still yeah I think uh I think you know I think any professional sportsman will probably not the most patient person in the world and uh and you know I don’t think um yeah especially kind of at my age you know I’m nearly 49 now I’m 49 in a couple of months so the temptation is there to just dive straight in at the deep end and you know I I didn’t want to do that um it was just purely right you know what I’m in no rush I’ve still got five weeks until the next event sorry so I’ve still got five weeks um and yeah so it was just see how it goes and you know I’ll do a little bit more again tomorrow and just and just build it gradually um you know so I I still think I’m probably a week away from hitting a driver with with kind of full confidence uh uh and and I’m fine with that you know that that that’s you know I haven’t got an issue it’s perfect time isn’t it it’s perfect time for to get the stuff out the way with um you Rob’s on to talk about what’s been an incredible year for you you know before we start diving into it how how do you summarize 2021 to your family and your loved ones and your friends and stuff you know what does it mean to you yeah it’s been Yeah it’s been pretty average no no no it’s been it’s been a you know obviously you know when when sort of January 1 comes around every year of course you want you want it to be a good year as everybody does no matter what you do uh in in life you know whether it’s professionally personally or anything I know we’ve all been struggling with with a lot of things with the pandemic and yeah looks like we’re going to be going through that for a little while longer but uh you know I I couldn’t envision what what’s happened this year you know back you know 12 months ago um yeah my main aim at 48 was really was right okay if I can if I can play until I’m 50 um yeah so my main aim was really just right just secure your card um you know if I can stay competitive until I decide to go and play senior tour or Champions Tour in America that then that was that was really my my main aim because that was where my my sort of focus was starting to sort of shift to um and yeah and yeah it was just one of those summers that yeah you kind of dream of really you know just everything I touch sort of turned to gold and uh yeah it’s just one I’ll remember for the rest of my life yeah I I I think there’s a lot of people that watched uh it was a Saturday finish wasn’t I i seem to remember I can’t remember why but it was a Saturday um and it was a pretty grim miserable day you know the weather was coming down the belfry is soft as pudding as we all know anyway so it was you know you guys were um really slogging it out there on the final day and you know watch I watched a little bit of it back actually kind of in preparation for this and the putter caught fire didn’t it on the back nine and they were going in from everywhere and it was just an an incredible sort of closing nine you you know great performance all week but I I sense that actually you know you were your form was trending in that direction anyway for some time it wasn’t actually just turning up that one week at the ble was it was you know kind of felt like the results have been coming good s for for for a good year or so yeah you know when we came out of lockdown um you the first time back in 2020 yeah i I I played pretty good uh the last sort of five months of the year or whatever we had you know I think I only maybe missed one cut I think um out of everything we played you know I got myself in you know some pretty good uh positions going into the weekend and you know obviously didn’t go my way um but yeah you know I played I played really solid and then I came out the start of the year i’ve never really been a sort of early year player uh it’s always been kind of probably from May June July onwards I tend to play my better golf i don’t know why is that kind of the you’re on yeah I don’t know just the Middle East has never really been a sort of happy hunting ground for me um why I don’t know you know it’s warm you know that normally would you know being a little bit older that should suit me because uh you know obviously my sort of brittle bones they tend to work a little bit better when it’s warmer um but yeah I’ve just never really been an early form player it’s it’s I’ve kind of been I’ve sort of built up uh through the year um and it was kind of a bit the case of that this year as well you know I I had a couple of decent results uh but yeah you know we played five five events because it was still tough to travel so we played sort of I think it was in Austria and then Grand Canary and then two in Tenneref i’d had a top 10 i finished I had a good Sunday in the last event in in Tenneref i think I shot 65 I think on Sunday um before British Masters so yeah I you know I felt like I was playing all right um you know Tenneref was not really my kind of course it was a bit of a bombers paradise i I was wasn’t really expecting to do that well around there um but it was nice to finish sort of that trip off well and I and I still think the key thing for me going into the British Masters is I came home a lot of guys just went straight from the airport to the hotel but I decided to come home my my girlfriend Kate she came and picked me up she drove up to Birmingham airport at like two in the morning to pick us up and I tested I tested and then went home and we got home about 4:00 in the morning and then I drove back to the belfry the next day at about midday uh and just played nine holes and I think I just think for me getting home sort of drawing a bit of a line under the sand of those events just kind of hit the reset button for me and I still think that’s obviously hindsight’s a wonderful thing but I think if I had just stayed at the hotel I don’t think I’d be probably sat here talking to you now with what’s gone on maybe I would i don’t know but I just for me that made a huge difference just to be able to sleep in your own bed for a night and just have like you know half a day at home for me that was you know that that that was I think that was a big thing and that’s the trick isn’t it on the European tour is it’s country to country so much that you know sometimes you need that kind of little bit of you know reset buttons yeah and out of the out of the pandemic we’ve always had that you know because I live 20 minutes from Heathrow or Gatwick you can always get home but because no travel’s been so difficult the last sort of two years wherever you’ve had to go you’ve probably doing three four week stints even in Europe and I find that incredibly difficult i always do like to get home in Europe between events just to go “Right okay that’s that week done.” And then I can just pack my bag and off I go again on a Tuesday um and not being able to do that it’s it’s been really sort of you know quite difficult on the mental side of it you’re just cry only an hour and a half flight from home but you can’t get home cuz it feels like a world away doesn’t it everything feels you know I’m not sort of I was happy that we were back playing i know a lot of people have u you know have had a lot a lot tougher time than than us golfers have and uh you know and I’ll always be grateful for that but uh um but yeah out of sort of co times it’s always important for me just to get home even if it’s for half a day that for me is is it’s always the difference isn’t it and and and you had a I mean you obviously put in a you know great performance all week going into the last day was really bunch just give me just give us a sort of little sense or a flavor for what that back nine was like for you because you you got to take me there you know you you it’s a good opportunity for the for the maiden victory um you know you you’ve got other people nearby people like Bob Mack who have probably got you know years ahead of them where there’s going to be more wins that are going to come and you know how much is this playing in your mind where you’re thinking this is probably the chance to get it done um you know I think I think with nine holes to play you know you know I knew I was in there you know I made a great pass save at nine and I hold about a about a 12-footer for a par at nine uh which was a real sort of like momentum keeper you know and then I go on to birdie 10 which then you kind of like look back that really was a huge in the grand scheme of things you know you know I hold a couple of good putts coming in um but that was that was probably one of the most important putts of the day uh and it you know it had about I remember it had about eight or nine inches of break on it as well you know it was one of those that you you out of 10 you probably only maybe hold two or three times um so then to to hold that and then go birdie 10 was was huge um and I think that kind of just kept my momentum and set me up for the back nine because the weather was was starting to come in you know around 11 12 13 you know I I probably cuz I was an a good hour maybe an hour and a half ahead of the leaders i probably played that back n in the in the tougher weather i know they went through that weather as well of course they did cuz they were out there but um you know whole the sort of par five like 15 17 you and playing the last they they were tough holes um so I you know I probably played those you know the holes where you think okay you could take advantage when the weather was at its worst um so um I wasn’t really I was trying to keep that out of my mind as much as I could that you know this could be the time you know I think I I think probably you know looking back on previous attempts to win tournaments I I’ve probably put too much pressure on myself that right oh this could be it this could be it you get you get out of your you get out of your focus is what’s got you there uh and I didn’t do that this time not for a second or if I did or if I did kind of feel myself you know all right okay what am I going to say in my winner speech here you know I I I just I got myself out of it straight away and just got straight back into the mindset that I was in all day and and and that’s what got me through is the mind working towards a number there are you sort of going out thinking you know we need 66 to to to be in with a sniff here are you thinking you know Tim text me that on the Friday night yeah he’s never text me a score in 20 years and he text he said look he said 69 is not going to get this done you need to shoot 66 love it um I don’t know why he text it to me i I think he because he knew looking at the stats that I was teeter green I was head and shoulders above everybody else it was I wasn’t holding enough putts you know and we we we talked about it on the Friday night uh and he just said look you know you have to be that little bit more aggressive he said um he said you know puffs are getting to the hole of course but they’re not running at the hole um so uh yeah I I think Tim could see you know my T green game was you know I should have been probably six or seven ahead really if I’m being honest and that’s no disrespect to any of the other players i’m sure other players say well you could hold a putt here could hold a putt there but I didn’t realize until after the tournament I was a hundth in putting that week you normally norm normally normally a guy that wins a tournament is probably in the top two or three of putting all week so it just it shows you you know I was number one in T Green in literally every category you could think of um so uh but you can roll it well can’t you and and the putts don’t drop and you’ve played course you know you’re coming up to 500 events now aren’t you I think and yeah you must have experience this where days where you’ve just you’ve rolled the ball good it’s not you just and how you know it’s just so important I guess that all of a sudden it just clicks at the right time where the where the hole just looks massive all of a sudden they just start pouring in you know we’ve all had days where you know we’ve all had days where you can go you know what I can’t miss and then you know playing at the race to Dubai Yeah I I couldn’t feel like I could hold a putt if I stood there for 24 hours you know I’d hit a good putt and you know if if if the pace was great the line wasn’t quite right and then if you know if if I didn’t quite get the pace right or the line was right the pace was wrong it was you know I just And then you kind of start looking you start guess second guessing yourself and you know you almost stand and think well I just ain’t going to hold this but then you you you know you can stand up sometimes you walk onto a green you don’t even look at the line just get up there and hit it and off it goes in it goes oh what’s that about um so yeah you you know I hold a couple of good putts earlier in the round or I got the pace of the greens earlier uh in the day on on Saturday and um and like you say that you hold a couple of nice ones you know on sort of certainly on 10 well 9 10 12 um 18 was a pretty decent part i would say that was Yeah I mean that’s that’s got to be the alltime one sure oh yeah yeah you know that was again you know it wasn’t the easiest part in the world you know the nice thing about it is it was it was kind of mainly downhill so I didn’t have to worry too much about the pace yeah it was just purely just right just pick your line trust it and just set it off online um you know all the all the work that we do on putting greens is you know a lot of it is just right can you set the ball off online and that’s that’s what I just told myself so look just just set it off online the pace is fine um you know I haven’t really got to worry too much about that um it was and yeah fortunately I did and you know like you say the rest is history i guess there’s one shot I want to ask you about that week um and it’s in the playoff it’s the it’s the approach that you left with on uh on 18 and I think I seem to recall the ball was buried down in a divot you’ve had to absolutely gouge away at it do you kind of get to that ball then and just think this is hopeless it’s all against me i mean yeah you know I hit you know I hit the T-OT um yeah I was probably about 10 or 15 yards too far right of where I really wanted to go um and um I could see from the T-shot that it just looked like it had run out of fairway um and uh so you get up there and know obviously as I got closer you can’t really see a huge amount of the ball um and the thing was because it was preferred lies you know I was more worried that you know walking to the ball because I knew it probably just run out i I can’t then prefer my lie that you know if there’s some mud on it especially crossing water um but then of course then you get close and you can see that the balls just sat down and then it was it was just kind of in like a because it was still early in the year Mayish you know sometimes you grass doesn’t you know grows maybe at different speeds it just got into a part where you know grass hadn’t really grown it’s just like a bit of an old sort of sort of depression but the worst thing about it is it was at the back of the depression so and I had a then a tuft of grass sort of sat right behind the ball if it was at the front so nearer the flag probably wouldn’t have been that bad but because it was at the back then I can’t get I can’t get the leading edge of the club sort of low enough on the ball it’s only 230 carry as well isn’t it i mean it’s not like you know it’s Yeah you know the thing was as well you know you’re kind of like really yeah now you’re giving me this really um but you know once you’ve kind of okay you know you have that sort of like sort of yeah why me sort of for 5 seconds you know they’re right okay well I’ve got to hit the ball at some point i’ve got to you know I can’t just say oh look you know what i’m not going to play from here you’ve got you’ve got to hit it so you you you soon sort of switched to right okay let’s right how are we going to do this and and and then it sort of simplified a lot of things you it took like sply over certainly over water it took like long iron completely out of play because I just wouldn’t have been able to get to the bottom of the ball and um and get any elevation so unfortunately I carry a fivewood and uh it really was the only shot um and left my own Yeah and and with with it being sort of cold and dampish yeah I knew it was never going to go like a you know it wasn’t you weren’t going to get like full distance out of it not out of that light uh and it was just then right okay just make the best contact you can and just anything right of the hole was fine anything that stayed dry and anything right at the hole because the pin was tight left right okay I’ve got a shot i can make I can still make four you know and and that was the thing for me was right okay well make sure you know don’t just give it to him with a soft bogey here just make him make three if you’re going to lose right okay make him win it um yeah unfortunately it came out great and rest is history yeah as we say and then you know that kind of sets fire then to a really big season because you’ve had an absolute fistful of top 10s you’ve had you know things like the US Open where you know you know you’ve had a you know a great showing there again you know just just is there is there like a piece in here where almost you know winning sort of unlocks a level of confidence or is it just actually the game was already there and we’ve we’re just kind of continuing on the same stuff with Tim what do you know what sort of continues that trajectory for you if you will yeah I think obviously you get the confidence of winning of course you do um but yeah I knew my game was in very good shape um yeah and and I think you know winning just kind of cemented that feeling yeah I think I took um I think I took a week off um straight after the British Masters uh and then went to Denmark uh and and as and I I practiced a little bit towards the end of the week um but not you know I wasn’t really sort of practicing as such as you know it was just really just you know because I’d taken three or four five days off uh was just right okay just get back swinging the club when I got to Denmark you know the swing just felt exactly where I left it uh but I think that’s testament to the work that you know that that Tim’s done and and we’ve both done that I I can do that even like today I’ve not hit a ball for a month and you know it just looking at it yeah okay lines of that look fine um you know and Tim called me um just about something else he said “So I saw that video you put online.” He said he said “Chris you don’t need to see me.” Um I will but I think that’s just testament to the work that we’ve done over the years of just ingraining the right things for me that it’s I’ve got a golf swing now that’s very very low maintenance that’s what I’ve always wanted i if needed I could go three four months with not seeing Tim if I was playing well and I felt like my game was good enough to compete and win I wouldn’t see Tim and and he’s fine with that he’s he’s he never chases me do you need to see me do you need to see me i I go to him so if I if I you know even if I’m swinging quite well I will see him now and again just to go right okay I just want to make sure that all the the basics and the fundamentals are there and you know posture is not sort of slipping out of place or anything like that so yeah but as regards if I think like you know what I’m hitting the ball how I want to hit it and I can hit the shots I want to hit I don’t see them m and do you think that’s a kind of a symptom of a 20-y year partnership you know you kind of trust don’t you you know you you still see it on tour today you can still see guys probably get over coached yeah I’m probably in fairness I’m probably the other way i pro I’m probably undercoach but that’s how I want to be i want to understand my goal swing i want to be able to fix it myself and and know the nuts and bolts of it um and you know so many times you know like with with Tim you know he’ll come and see me at the Whizzley and we’ll hit balls we’ll video it and I’ll tell him what I think i’ll say I think this this and this and he go “Yep that’s exactly what I’m seeing you know.” So we’re we’re very much always on the same page and that’s what I want from a golf coach um and uh you know to you know he’s not the best coach in the world but he’s the best coach in the world for me and that’s that’s what means everything to me and you know I think Tim is one of the best coaches in the world you know he’ll say he’s not but to me he is and uh you know we we we’ve got a great relationship you know professionally and you know off the golf course you know he’s he’s he’s a very close friend of mine and uh uh and that’s something that you know we will always be no matter when I finish playing you know we’ll always be close friends yeah i mean I think and that’s where you know even at an amateur level right you you people working with coaches because someone says that’s the right person and actually it’s so much in the dynamic between the partnership because so much of this isn’t like the communication and the way the you know feel is translated through through language and stuff it’s you talked there about over coaching again you know benefit of you know 25 years experience out there on tour you do you kind of see guys week in week out you see them on the range and think he’s trying something new again this guy’s know or he’s got the glove under his under his armpit or he’s got the the tin cup gear out again what’s going on you know you know you you kind of see it um yeah I can only I only see what I see but you see so many lads getting coached on Wednesday afternoon and sometimes I get that you need that you know if you’re struggling if you really are struggling with something and you can’t do something yeah you might need your coach there more times than you you would want to me personally you know I very very rarely do I see Tim at a tournament very rare and we and we book that’s something that we’ve found out over the years there’s been times when he’s come to see me you know I might have played on a Thursday morning played quite nicely and he’s just walking down the range because he’s working with Sky and he’ll stop and have a chat and you know we we’ve you know how’d you play this that and the other yeah okay this that and I’ll hit a couple of shots here and there not to for him to have a look at but you know cuz I’m just there and I’m hitting balls but I’m not maybe fully focused you make a couple of sloppy swings and he’ll just like oh you know looks like this it looks like that the next thing I’m in a lesson and I don’t want to be you and I’ve shot 73 the next day and I’ve gone home what’s going on here and and it and I can’t remember when it happened i said literally I said if you see me you know and you want to have a chat about how I played fine we’ll we’ll go and have a coffee at the back of the range and we’ll we’ll have a chat i said but that is not going to happen again you know you’re not going to come and then say “Oh all this that and the other.” Just so we just basically say “Right you know what works best for us is that I hardly see him at a tournament i always do my work with him away from tournaments if I feel I need to see him I’m struggling with something then right fine i I’ll see him.” But normally now it’s a 10-minute fix it’s just right okay that’s just slipped slightly right just you know just work on that there’s the drill for that right just do that for half an hour and you should be good to go and it usually is so um that’s what we’ve always wanted he’s the same you know he just wants something that’s as low maintenance as you possibly can yeah he always tries to say he’s trying to make himself redundant yeah so that you don’t need to be coached your golf swing just it looks after itself in a lot of ways yeah you do see a lot of it don’t you you see players you know finishing beating balls on a Saturday night going into a Sunday working on new moves and you’re just thinking you know you just know there’s a 76 around the corner on this yeah you know you know there’s times when that needs to happen of course I’m not I’m not suggesting it doesn’t or if you’ve played poorly on the Saturday you know or you’ve hitten a certain shot that you just don’t like and you you’re trying to stop okay you know what you might go in just right you might go do a few drills i’ve done it and I’ll still and I would do it next week if that was the case you know if I felt like after a round you know what I need to you know I can’t stop hitting it right or something like that you know what I I’ll go and work on it because that’s what it needs you know something needs to be slightly fixed um but I I’m a big advocate that you know if it ain’t broke then yeah certainly don’t try and fix it i’m I want to talk a little bit about the US Open if that’s okay you spent you had um you obviously led after 36 holes in that the Americans would have been going absolutely wild with the headlines going who is this Richard Bland you and he’s but you you you’d hit the ball I mean off the tea it was on frozen rope wasn’t it you know it was you know it’s a really demanding test te to green toy pines how do you look back on the US Open because you know it was obviously you know a difficult weekend how how do you look back on that yeah yeah yeah first yeah First it was a bit of a game of two ars I guess um you know like you say the first two days like everybody talks of a US Open it’s the toughest driving examination you you’ll face all year and it is but I I didn’t think I could miss i thought the fair was quite wide it was just because I literally I couldn’t miss a fairway if I tried um that but that’s how good my my golf swing felt with a driver and with everything else um and yeah I played fantastic Friday morning um I think I got I think I finished five but I got it to six um and then yeah then you kind of have to sit on the lead for the first time ever in a major for best part 24 hours and then the course was just completely different on Saturday i mean and that just the test was completely different yeah when I played at like 10 7 on Saturday morning it was it was getable even though I played very very well don’t get me wrong but the course was getable uh and then you go out and then the Greens are just you know complete play completely different you um even just with a 100 yard shot the the Greens were releasing probably eight nine yards and even though at the weekend I actually play actually I still drove the ball very well even at the weekends I still think I hit I think I hit 10 fairways both days but I I just got on the back foot with with the second shots and probably got a little bit too defensive and uh and it just wears you down if if if you just drop a couple of shots early um it just wears you down because you stand well where am I going to make a break it’s um especially when the course gets really firm and fast um yeah you just okay it doesn’t matter how whenever you play your open if you you stand on every hole and someone offers you a par you pick it up walk to the next doesn’t matter if it’s a 300 yard par four you’d still probably think about it um and yeah it just I just can’t you know you probably look at I just got US Open um I’m not the I’m not the first person and I certainly won’t be the last but I think the main thing that I took out of that week was that you when my when I have my game you know when I feel right you know what my game is in good shape and I like the way I’m playing and I’m doing everything well it stacks up against the best in the world and it’s proof that okay I didn’t prove it over four rounds of golf i proved it over two um and and that’s that’s a great feeling to have so I came away okay i was disappointed of course you know the golfer in me is is pride is hurt of course um but you know when you look at it and you look at the take the positives from I thought you know what when my games there it stacks up and that was a huge huge plus for me very big plus it must be tense sleeping with the lead on the US Open i’ve got a funny feeling that’s something I can probably only ever dream of and I’ll I’ll just have to spend my life imagining but as a viewer you just don’t legislate for how how fast they turn those greens and how firm they make them because they push you to the edge the thing is with the US Open even like you can’t you can’t fake it even for nine holes because it will find you out even on a even on a Thursday you can’t Yeah you might have nine holes where you hit it around a bit and you you hold two 32 or 3 footers for par and stuff like that but a US Open will just find you out it will um so even the first two days you you can’t just you don’t get to five or six under par because you you missing fairways and you’re missing greens and you’re up and down and it you know for out of ball washes you’ve got to you’ve got to hit quality shots so I think that was the thing even though it was the first two rounds it’s still the pressure of a US Open that right every single shot there’s double bogey just round the corner and and one poor shot can do that you can take double in in a blink of an eye uh even on Thursday because the yeah they that’s the thing with amazing they don’t just oh there you go they just hand it to you on a plate especially the USGA we all know some of their course setups get a little um interesting let’s say um so even even from even from the get-go they don’t they don’t just right okay well we’ll give you we’ll give you a day just to ease your new boys in you know these are these are the four biggest tournaments in the world so right you know you’ve got to you’ve got to have your aame right from the word go um they push it don’t they they they they push it hard and and and it ends up rewarding the bombers because like you say you’ve got a you know you’ve got a green that’s like a car park and you know you’ve got you’ve got guys in the field that have got you know significant distance advantage they’re younger that you know you people like you know John Ram people like Bryson sending it so far that actually they can kind of attack those pins a little bit more and it does it you know it kind of marginalizes things a little bit doesn’t it i think for for certain people but um yeah it’s it’s it’s it is the same test for everybody um and yeah it it didn’t go my way at the weekend and that’s fine you know I I I gave every shot 100% um you know and it wasn’t it wasn’t for the fact that I kind of folded under the pressure you know I started quite nicely on Saturday you know I think I was level path through about six holes or something like that so it wasn’t like I I I you know I I buckled from the word go and I was five over after three holes you know it just kind of like you know I think I was one over through 10 so I’m still right in there and it just like say just a shot here or there you just you’re just 5% out and and you and you make bogey and the thing is once you start and get sort of in a US open once you start getting that sort of two three over and you just start leaking that oil a little bit it it’s just very difficult because you don’t sort of think oh well there’s there’s three good birdie chances coming in and you know just right just steady the ship with a couple of pars and right okay you can maybe get back to level par or something like that it’s just right okay well is a chance really trying to get home yeah you know you’re just right okay just get it to house with as little as damage as you can and um and it’s just it’s just a brutal brutal test yeah and the last six holes on Sunday I was I was fried i was absolutely fried mentally because it just every single time you you kind of um even you know when you’ve got a 30ft putt you’re putting on greens that are probably 13 on the stint meter it’s not like you just knock it up to six inches and tap it in it’s always three four feet so you always got that next one to like you know concentrate on and it just wears you down it does um but it was a great experience and I loved every minute of it that’s that’s why we play the game i suppose a probably a pretty good insight as well into you know the the guys that are coming through now and you know 25 years ago you you started playing professional golf i got you know it’s a different world we’re in now i guess I’m kind of thinking an 18-year-old Richard Bland you know coming hot off the onto the scene in 2021 it’s a it’s a alltogether different different game right do you kind of feel that when you go to weeks like that or Oh yeah yeah definitely you know you you look at you look at the guys now they’re just Yeah they’re all bombers and Yeah and they can fit through the gra fit through the gap of the door it’s not like they’re you know muscle bound or anything like that but they’re just they’re just taught differently now they are just right from the word go just hit it as far as you can you know straighten it out later but just hit it as far as you can so that’s what they are sort of bred to do you see some of these guys you know the Hogards Mimui yeah they’re not they’re not big guys but jeez do they move it wilco Wilco yeah you know he’s again he’s he’s probably 10 stone dripping wet but he’s just got his levers his width is just incredible unbelievable you know and it’s just so if you know if I was starting out again you know it would just be right just hit it as far as you physically can and then yeah you will as your technique improves and your body gets stronger to control it you’ll straighten it out but just hit it as hard and as far far as you can because that’s what the game is now today and it will only be um more and more like that and I and I assume guys that are maybe coming through amateurs that are starting to come through in the England scene and that kind of thing they’re probably being they’re probably in the gym at 14 15 years old we I was never like we were never like that yeah when I played for England with with Howler and people you know we never had like fitness trainers or anything like that if if you did have one you would probably looked at and go “What was wrong with you?” you know if you weren’t tucking into a full English every morning you it was you know now it’s it’s a lot different everybody’s looking after themselves a lot better you know what they’re eating um yeah and just getting physically stronger and um I don’t see it changing anytime soon well it kind of begs an interesting question i’m always keen to get people’s views on this but it’s where you stand on the equipment debate because those people you’re talking about have been brought up on a diet of you know you know you know max max driver head size you know ultimate forgiveness go at it as hard as you can you were brought up on a diet of you know small headed drivers you know need to be able to shot shape you need to be able to strike it pure you can’t you know you can’t miss the middle of the face how do you sit there and look at it now and look at things like the distance debate uh it’s a tough one really you know where you know where do you go from here you know they’ve probably let it go so far um yeah where do you go i don’t I don’t know you do you rain the ball back in you know you talk about you know do you have a ball a professional ball so it goes maybe 30% less or something like that but then you get tournaments like say the open how can an amateur then qualify for the open when he’s if he’s allowed to use a ball a normal say titless prov ball and then no free ads on the pod and then and then then he’s got to peg a ball up on um on Thursday that he’s never used before yeah it’s that’s that’s going to be unfair he’s got no chance m um and and the thing is you know with with guys just getting physically stronger you know if you suddenly start making the head smaller they’re going to find a way to to to get it out there they are um you know so you know when I’m sort of playing and you play with someone that you know hits it a long way and you’ve got people stood behind you spectators and what have you and and and they let one go you hear what they oh wow you know I wish I could hit a ball like that you know they’re impressed by it so you kind of go well you know why are you trying to stop that you know we are trying to you know we want to entertain spect spectators of course we do you know that’s why they’re there we’re there to showcase golf and to showcase our skills and to hit the ball a long way is a skill you know you’ve got to be you’ve got to be able to physically move that club head very fast to hit the ball a long way um so it is a skill and it’s something that everybody can work on everybody can be stronger everyone can be fitter if they choose to be um so it it’s it’s a real you know it’s it’s a real sort of head scratcher really i don’t know i honestly I I think as regards with the driver I think they’ve they’ve kind of they’ve got it as far as they’re going to go um you know with obviously with drivers I don’t think they could I don’t think you’re going to get now a new driver comes out next year and you’re going to find that 15 to 20 yards you know you’re all It’ll be in the marketing though you know i I think yeah I think you know you you had that maybe 15 years ago yeah when the head sizes went really big and and they were using different materials and that kind of thing yes we had that sort of like huge leap of distance whereas now I think you you I think you’re probably manufacturers are probably looking more aerodynamically to move the the uh so the club can move faster and it’s going to come from you know the player himself whereas before the club head did a lot with a trampoline effect that kind of thing you know that was a big big leap forward so I don’t I don’t think you’re going to see a huge amount it changed now if they said right Okay it stays where it is you know we’re not going to change anything it’s it’s basically going to come from uh the players physicality the more the technical side i think he he’s just going to get bigger and stronger and move the club head faster rather than Yeah the club doing a lot of the work as well yeah and and the the games just it feels like there’s a constant cycle of change and if it’s not the equipment one day or you know someone’s trying a new move the next you know one one of the big things obviously recently is the DP World Tour announcement um and what that means and you know I’m thinking here you’ve played at different tours as well throughout your career I mean amazingly you know I you know I think regained your European tour card or re or gained the European tour card five times um you know most recently 2018 was it 2019 19 when you 2019 yeah 2019 got it back 2019 getting it back and you know you’ll have all the I guess the scars from you know kind of going spending time at Q school and challenge tour and you know immense resilience through the process how do you look at you know DP World Tour and what that means and you know what that looks like going into next year because you know to a certain extent is there going to be like a bit of a drip down effect do you think or will it just bolster the the the top top money in the in the top events i think Keith I think Keith has done an unbelievable job over the past two years with the pandemic um you know I think we I think maybe if other people were in charge we might not have even had a talk um yeah he’s been since he’s come on board yeah some of the changes that he’s uh he’s made have been I personally I think he’s been fantastic okay there might be some people that disagree but okay that’s everybody has their own opinion um but you know with DP World coming on as well um again I think it only just it only gives us more strength and you know we’re up against the uh US tour which is just an unbelievably huge organization and we you know we struggle to compete with it you know because we’re playing in so many different countries and and and we have we go to some countries say like Czech Republic where golf is still in its infancy And so people don’t really know about it a huge amount so how can we go and play there for5 million dollars we can’t no one’s going to put the money up because they might not get people through the gate the t you’re not going to sell it to the TV um around the world because um it it’s just not really a big sport in that country you know so we are trying to grow the game you know around Europe more around the world um so I I I think he’s done a fantastic job um yeah I’m probably not going to maybe see the real rewards of the DP tour um you know I guess I’m exempt for two more years you know hopefully I’m going to go to Champions Tour end of next year and try and qualify and that’s where I see my future um but you know I will always be you know internally grateful to the European tour for what they’ve done and um you know it’s been a fantastic tour to play and it will be in the future and you know we’ve got some great talent coming through and it’s um it’s going to be very exciting and you know and and such a thing with a partnership with with DP World I I can only see it being a positive And um I think it will only it will only grow from here and yeah I think in 5 years I think the European tour will be a lot bigger than it is now or I should say DP world uh as well but we are still the European tour i think it’ll be I think it’ll be huge and I think hopefully we can you know compete more with with America and and and try and hold our better players more in Europe uh which is which has been the hard thing for us um you know especially over the last couple years where our prize money has really suffered so guys will go to America and you can’t you can’t you can’t criticize them for that there’s more then there’s more world ranking points over there so you you can’t you can’t hold that against them um so hopefully you know we can attract better fields get more world ranking points and and like you say and then then hold our better players more in Europe and you’ve got you know things like you know the the possibility of a you know a Premier Golf League happening you know things like the Saudi Golf League and what happens there you know there’s going to be you know and status is everything as well isn’t it you know the top 50 in the world mark you know so key and everything’s concentrated around a you know a calendar around the US I think it is interesting but one thing that’s clear and it kind of I think you know talked about there these kids coming out now it’s these guys are coming out as you know professional athletes and you know I think those feeder tours need that I’m I’m curious because you mentioned there your your exempt status um for the next two years you’ve you’ve obviously well I’m guessing you’ll have event number 500 circled on the calendar in your schedule where’s that going to And what’s the next year looking like i’m trying to really make it at the British Masters okay um so I think I’m at about 492 I think right now so I’m going to play hopefully if everything goes to plan I’m going to play about uh four or five in the Middle East um and then um I was going to play a couple in South Africa um but uh I’ve just organized a trip with my brother to America we’re going to go play Augusta End of America uh I’ve got a friend who’s a Yeah I’ve got a friend who’s a member there uh I’ve already been to play once um a few years ago so I’ve kind of scratched those two off and I’ll probably try and play maybe um in there’s a tournament I think in Malaysia or Thailand and then in Japan so I’ll probably play those two and then British Masters will hopefully be number 500 which I think that’s such an achievement you know I think you know I think that would be pretty cool i think you know to stand there um defending champion and to play 500 which yeah I’ll be hugely proud of so um yeah I think I think that’ll be a nice way to sort of make that one happen if I can yeah that’s a hell of an achievement and you got the 150th in St andrews as well so presumably on that as well yeah that’s another huge thing um yeah I’ve not played an open at St andrews i’ve always wanted to uh so to be able to play the 150th there would be and especially after hitting the opening t-shot um at St george’s earlier this year um yeah I wish in all fans I would have preferred it at St andrews because it’s a little bit more of a wider target um but uh yeah that’s going to be another huge thrill to play to play an open at St andrews you know that that’s yeah that’s where if you ever want to win an open that’s that’s where you want to win it um and yeah I’m already you know already sort of looking forward to that so uh yeah it’s going to be exciting you know 12 months so what you will i think the opening t-shirts in Andrews strikes the fear of God into most people it’s one of those it’s too wide i mean you know like you said in some good company though if you pulled it out of bounds and if you did get that first t-shot I think is it Baker Finch and both managed it so yeah but um yeah that was yeah that was a nerve-wracking experience at St george’s i’ll give you that that was uh I was probably more nervous over that T-shot as I was over the three-footer at the Belfry but uh yeah that was that that you know that was huge that was again you know something that you know when you’re waking up on January the 1st you know to to have that honor bestowed on you was just you know something you you only dream of and um you know I’ve got the you know I’ve got photos and I’ve got the video of it and you know it’s Yeah that’s again just something I’ll remember for the rest of my life i mean 2021’s going to go down the counter if you no doubt as a very special year and um with only a few days left of it before the next year all we can do is I guess wish you the very best Richard for next season we’ll pulling for you if the British Masters is the 500th as well that’s that’s awesome we’re going to be there and cheering you on but uh thank you so much for joining the podcast really appreciate it and uh yeah have a great Christmas and New Year and yourself thanks very much see you soon take care watch this [Music] no [Applause] [Music] way you think he doesn’t want to win [Music]
