DeChambeau’s first swing of the day went painfully right.
He’s back.
Bryson DeChambeau is making his first start on the PGA Tour since the Farmers Insurance Open in January after working through injuries to his left hand and hip.
Wednesday is the first set of matches of this week’s 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, and DeChambeau drew Richard Bland, who’s making his first appearance in the event and averages 292 yards off the tee at 49-years-old.
Well, on the first tee, DeChambeau pulled driver on the par-4 and flared it out to the right. After taking a few bounces, his ball ended up in a tent.
“This is pretty wild. I didn’t really think this was possible going in today,” said Hovland.
Viktor Hovland and Richard Bland went low late on Sunday to set up a thrilling finish to the DP World Tour’s 2022 Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic.
The 24-year-old Norwegian took the clubhouse lead at Emirates Golf Club with a birdie-eagle-birdie finish to post the number to beat at 12 under. Bland, who earned his first win on tour last year at the Betfred British Masters, finished his round with consecutive birdies to tie Hovland and force a playoff. Two-time champion Rory McIlroy missed out on the playoff after finding the water on the final hole.
Replaying the 18th hole, Hovland made birdie to claim his second DP World Tour title in addition to the 2021 BMW International Open. The former star at Oklahoma State also has three wins on the PGA Tour: the 2020 Puerto Rico Open, 2020 Mayakoba Golf Classic and 2021 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. Hovland also won December’s Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
“This is pretty wild. I didn’t really think this was possible going in today,” said Hovland, who started the day six shots off the lead. “I knew I had to shoot a really low number but a lot of things had to go my way and I’m thankful that they did.
Viktor Hovland of Norway tees off on the eighth hole during the final round of the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club on January 30, 2022 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
“I was fuming after the three-putt on 15 and thought that was it and I knew I just had to try to finish off well and get a nice position for the week,” he continued. “I rolled a really long one on 16 and then on 17 and, hey, we got a shot.”
McIlroy finished third at 11 under, followed by five players T-4 at 8 under: Justin Harding, Tyrrell Hatton, Sam Horsfield, Adrian Meronk and Erik van Rooyen.
How to handle the weekend at the U.S. Open? “Just hang in and grind,” says co-leader Russell Henley.
SAN DIEGO – Matthew Wolff toured venerable Winged Foot in 65 in the third round of the 2020 U.S. Open and shot 68 on Friday at Torrey Pines to climb into contention at the 121st U.S. Open. And yet even the 22-year-old said he felt drained after Round 2 with golf’s toughest examination.
“The way I describe the U.S. Open to everyone,” he said, “is there’s not one shot that you can finally like breathe and relax and feel like, oh, it’s all right if I miss this a little bit because every single shot, every single putt, it takes all your attention.”
Russell Henley, co-leader after 36 holes, can relate. He had played 17 bogey-free holes around the South Course on Friday before he took three putts at his last hole of the day, No. 9, missing a 2-foot par putt that would have given him the outright lead.
“Just hang in and grind,” said Henley of his game plan for the weekend. “That’s what you’ve got to do around here.”
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Instead, he settled for shooting 1-under 70 for a 36-hole aggregate of 5-under 139 and tied Englishman Richard Bland, a 48-year-old journeyman, who posted a second-round 67 and became the oldest 36-hole co-leader of the U.S. Open since World War II.
Henley and Bland have plenty of company behind them. Wolff, who hasn’t played since the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in late April as he has been dealing with mental health concerns, finds himself one stroke back of the lead and tied for third with Louis Oosthuizen (71). Count Wolff among those surprised that he’s in this position heading into the weekend.
“My confidence was shot,” he said. “I’d say I came here with very, very – I’d say no expectations. I’d say my expectations coming here were to enjoy it and be happy, and I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to do that. Thankfully I am, as well as playing well.”
San Diego native Xander Schauffele (71) is among a trio of players at 2-under 140. Scottie Scheffler headlines those at 1-under 141.
Among the host of major champions at even-par 142 are defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Brook Koepka and Collin Morikawa, who bounced back with 67.
Rory McIlroy backed up with a 2-over 73 but remained in striking distance heading into the weekend.
“Even though Richard Bland’s up there at 5 under (along with Henley), 1-over is right in it,” he said. “So, yeah, in for the weekend and still feel like I’ve got a really good chance.”
World No. 1 Dustin Johnson (73) straddled the cutline during his round but fought back to make the cut and is at 2-over along with reigning PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson (69), who said he played much better on Friday.
“Even though I didn’t make a run today, I’m playing well enough to make a run,” Mickelson said.
It took 4-over 146 to survive the 36-hole cut. Jordan Spieth rallied to make it on the number with a 69. Edoardo Molinari backed up with a 76 on Friday, but survived the cut on the number and trails his brother, Francesco (76), by two strokes. They became the first brothers to make the cut at the U.S. Open since Joe and Jumbo Ozaki in 1993.
Neither Henley nor Bland, who will be paired in the final group on Saturday, have any experience contending in a major. When they exchange cards on the first tee, it likely will be the first time they’ve ever met.
“I know he won earlier this year. It might have been his first win on the European Tour,” Henley said of Bland. “Other than that, I don’t. I’m sure he knows nothing about me too.”
Richard Bland emerged as an unlikely hero at the U.S. Open even though this championship has never really been an incubator of fairytales.
SAN DIEGO — Despite the decades of ceaseless agitprop—Francis Ouimet’s upset, Ben Hogan’s comeback, Payne Stewart’s farewell, e pluribus unum marketing—the U.S. Open has never really been an incubator of fairytales. Of dramas, sure. And thrillers. But the previous 120 editions of this championship have witnessed more horrors than syrupy, feel-good fables.
That might explain why Richard Bland was beating balls on the range long after completing his second round at the top of the leaderboard at Torrey Pines. In U.S. Opens, nice guys with a great back story—the 48-year-old Englishman just won his first event in his 478th start—tend to meet the same fate as that kid in a slasher movie who decides to go investigate the noise.
We watch, hoping for the best but with a grim sense of foreboding.
Bland won’t be alone in feeling the vice tighten over the next 48 hours at Torrey Pines to where only one man (maybe) is still drawing breath. The U.S. Open is the most pitiless of the majors, each day a punishing gauntlet from which no competitor ever seems to emerge saying he shot the best score possible. Every round concludes with an official tallying of strokes, and a more private, rueful accounting of those left out there. By mid-afternoon Friday, the 156 players in the field had passed 1,000 bogeys made with the likelihood of a couple hundred more before sunset.
The South Course at Torrey Pines is the most architecturally prosaic venue the USGA visits and would be Exhibit ‘A’ in any malpractice suit against the ‘Open Doctor,’ Rees Jones. But it is adequate for what modern U.S. Opens are intended to do, which is expose every weakness from technical flaws to faintness of heart. Laudable design is immaterial to that objective on the logic that any course can be made difficult. It requires only fertilizer, green rollers and a dab of sadism.
Check. Check. And check.
The leaderboard at the 121st Open is bookended by men in their late 40s: Bland and, 22 strokes to his south, an Australian qualifier named Steve Allan. Until this week, Allan hadn’t competed in a major for 11 years and hadn’t made a cut in one for 16 years. He and Bland have combined for 13 career starts in major championships, just a few more than Phil Mickelson’s six victories in them.
Steve Allan plays a shot on the 17th hole during the second round at the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, Calif. on Friday, June 18, 2021. (Darren Carroll/USGA)
Unlike at the Masters, a U.S. Open leaderboard is where kings and cobblers collide. Just 34 days ago, Bland was unknown to even attentive golf fans. Now he finds himself being pursued by guys like Louis Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson and Brooks Koepka (who has won more majors than his prey has played). The elite and the everyman mingle at the other end of matters too. Allan was only four shots worse than Justin Rose, who has finished top 8 in both previous majors this year. On any given day, the talent gap between the best and the rest just isn’t that yawning.
Allan will have some well-known company at the airline check-in desk tonight. Will Zalatoris was runner-up at the Masters and hit as many greens in two days as the leader (26), but a balky putter condemned him. Webb Simpson had won the U.S. Open as many times as he had missed the cut, until today. Billy Horschel, Sam Burns and Garrick Higgo are all good enough to have won recently on the PGA Tour, but weren’t good enough this week to survive the cut. One troubled phenom returned (Matt Wolff) while a comparatively serene one (Viktor Hovland) departed early, WD’ing with an eye injury.
As the second round began to wind down, the north and south poles of the halfway leaderboard were separated by only nine shots. Like most Friday afternoons at U.S. Opens, players made progress long after they had completed their rounds. Rory McIlroy signed for a scrappy 73 shortly before 1 p.m. that left him 1 over for the tournament but he figured he’d be in the top 20 by day’s end. Within a couple hours, he was. Veterans of Open wars—in experience, if not in age— know that sometimes you just have to sit back and let the USGA do its work for you.
The man who spent much of the day in the lead, has only ever played one U.S. Open. But Bland has taken his share of gut punches. He lost several playoffs in qualifying. “I’m not going to lose any sleep over that,” he said cheerfully. “I’m just enjoying this one right now.” When you come across a 48-year-old man who believes in fairytales because he’s seen too much of the other side, it makes you want to believe right along with him. No matter how much we are conditioned to expect something else. Odds are that Bland won’t sleep tonight, but he will dream.
Playing in the U.S. for just the second time, Richard Bland shot a Friday 67 to take the clubhouse lead at the 121st U.S. Open.
SAN DIEGO – As Englishman Richard Bland walked from one media stop to the next after shooting a second-round 67 at the 121st U.S. Open, he smiled and said, “Rory has to do this week in, week out, huh?”
That would be Rory McIlroy, the former World No. 1 and four-time major winner who is one of the faces of golf and usually in demand for the post-round car wash of media obligations. But this week he’s looking up at Bland, a 48-year-old journeyman pro playing in the U.S. for just the second time and his fourth major championship. All of this was new to Bland, who made 478 starts on the European Tour before becoming the oldest first-time winner on the circuit last month at the Betfred British Masters.
That victory combined with a third-place finish in Denmark helped book a spot in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and Bland is taking advantage, following up a 1-under 70 on Thursday by carding seven birdies in a round of 67 on the South Course and becoming the surprise clubhouse leader by one stroke over South African Louis Oosthuizen. If it holds up, he will be the oldest 36-hole leader in U.S. Open history.
Confirmed by the @USGA historian staff – at age 48, Richard Bland would be the oldest 36-hole leader in U.S. Open history.
But Bland didn’t sound surprised to be in the trophy hunt. “When I saw this place on Monday, it kind of set up to my eye,” he said. “It’s all there just straight in front of me, and that’s the kind of golf course I like. I thought, I can play around here.”
In his Twitter bio, Bland states that he is a European Tour professional golfer during the week, the joke being that he’s taken a few too many weekends off over the year. It was just two years ago, at age 46, that Bland missed so many 36-hole cuts that he was demoted to the Challenge Tour, the minor league circuit of the European Tour. But he never gave up and ignored the signs that he might be washed up. He still believed that he could regain his form and eventually win, and he did just that.
“What am I going to do, go and get an office job? I’m not that intelligent, I’m afraid,” he said. “The old saying is you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight. I’ve always had that kind of attitude that you just keep going. You never know in this game, you just keep going.”
His joy after beating Italy’s Guido Migliozzi with a par on the first playoff hole was something to behold and it became one of the feel-good stories of the year. Only Malcolm MacKenzie had played more European Tour events (509) before winning his maiden title. The response on social media, with the likes of Fred Couples and Lee Westwood sending congratulations, overwhelmed Bland.
Richard Bland waves after his putt on the ninth green during the second round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Mandatory Credit: Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports
“I’m just a guy who’s won a golf tournament really, when you boil it down,” he said. “But as it all sunk in, I think it was just more satisfaction than anything that I kind of got what I’ve always wanted. I want more. Every golfer wants more. Hopefully I can do it again.”
Perhaps his caddie, Australian Kyle Roadley, summarized his bosses perseverance best.
“A lot of tenacity, a lot of hard work, there’s a lot of guys that come and go in this game and to stick at it for as long as he has, hats off to him,” he said.
A spot in the U.S. Open – just his fourth major in his career, one per decade beginning with the 1998 British Open – was among the spoils of victory but he still floated in under the radar. He doesn’t even have a sponsor for his ball cap, sporting the logo of his home club, The Wisley Club in Woking, England, which gave him 10 hats to wear this week.
“So, if anyone is offering,” he said with a smile.
Don’t be surprised if he shows up with a sponsor by his Saturday tee time. His rhinoceros headcover also is telling, part of a charitable commitment in which he donates money for every birdie he makes to an organization called Birdies4Rhinos.
“Two things I can’t stand is three-putting and animal cruelty,” he said.
The putter behaved on Friday. Starting his round on hole No. 10, Bland carded birdies on five of his first eleven holes and climbed to 6 under for the championship before giving a stroke back at No. 8. It made for an easy day on the bag for the man nicknamed Roach.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Roadley said. “I’m just out there peeling bananas and telling him where the wind is, pretty much.”
The caddie for Richard Bland holds the sixth green pin flag during the second round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
Roadley is 53 and was on the bag last year when Finland’s Sami Valimaki, 22, won the European Tour’s Oman Open. But he got canned because Valimaki wanted a caddie more his age that he could relate to. Roadley began working for Bland in December during the tour’s South African swing and said they were just a pair of graybeards giving it their best.
“Rolling back the years, baby, that’s what it is all about,” Roadley said.
In a year where Stewart Cink won at 48 and Phil Mickelson became the first 50-year-old to claim a major, Bland said he was going to “give those gym-goers a run for their money.”
His confidence is high and he’s finding fairways, something that he’s been doing with regularity since a driver change last month. Bland spent some time last week with his golf coach, longtime Sky Sport TV reporter Tim Barter, who he calls the best coach in the game.
“In golfing terms, we just kind of speak the same language,” Bland said. “He’s part of the furniture. Just took me 20 years to listen to him.”
Listen up, golf fans, it took Bland 478 events to win the first time. Who says it can’t take just four to win a major?
It’s perfectly OK to admit that you didn’t put money down on Richard Bland to be in contention during the second round of the U.S. Open.
It’s perfectly OK to admit that you didn’t put money down on Richard Bland to be in contention during the second round of the 2021 U.S. Open.
He was the longest of longshots, with 400-to-1 odds to win the toughest of tournaments ahead of the start at Torrey Pines on Thursday, and as of publishing this post, he’s six-under and leading on Friday with other contenders getting ready to tee off thanks to a five-under (!!) second round.
So who is this guy? Glad you asked. Here are some facts about the golfer who skyrocketed up the leaderboard heading into the weekend:
Meet the guy who led at one point during Friday’s second-round action.
It’s perfectly OK to admit that you didn’t put money down on Richard Bland to be in contention during the second round of the 2021 U.S. Open.
He was the longest of longshots, with 400-to-1 odds to win the toughest of tournaments ahead of the start at Torrey Pines on Thursday, and as of publishing this post, he’s six-under and leading on Friday with other contenders getting ready to tee off thanks to a five-under (!!) second round.
So who is this guy? Glad you asked. Here are some facts about the golfer who skyrocketed up the leaderboard heading into the weekend:
At 48 years, Bland becomes the oldest first-time winner on the European Tour, surviving a one-hole playoff over Guido Migliozzi.
There was nothing bland about how the Betfred British Masters was won other than the winner’s name.
After 478 starts on the European Tour, Englishman Richard Bland can call himself a champion. He fired a bogey-free 6-under 66 in the final round at the Belfry in England, beating Italy’s Guido Migliozzi with a par on the first playoff hole to win the Betfred British Masters.
The 48-year-old became the oldest first-time winner on the European Tour. He had won once on the Challenge Tour during his 25-year pro career, notched 32 top 10s on the main circuit, but the closest he had come to victory was at the 2002 Irish Open. On that occasion, Bland fell out of a four-way playoff on the second hole.
This time, Bland drained a 25-foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole and pumped his fist in celebration. Then after collecting his ball, he rubbed both hands over his face in disbelief and buried it in his hat to hide his emotions. Years of frustration and anguish poured out of him. But his work was far from done.
Migliozzi, 24, helped by taking three putts for par at the par-5 17th, but bounced back to make a par out of a greenside bunker at 18 to tie Bland at 13-under 275. They returned to 18 for the first playoff hole and it looked to be advantage Migliozzi, a two-time winner on the circuit, who had the closer birdie putt. To his chagrin, he gunned his putt 6 feet past the hole and missed the comebacker for par. That left Bland with 3 feet to achieve a lifetime goal and he buried it.
Bland, who credited his return to an old driver for hitting nearly every fairway at the Belfry, made only one bogey for the week.
He lost his card at the end of 2018 and had to return to the Challenge Tour, but he never gave up on his dream of winning on the European Tour.
“What was I going to do for the next three, four years,” he said of accepting his demotion with grace at age 46. “I’m getting fat as it is. It’s only going to get worse.”
In a video call with his parents, Bland asked his mom if she was all right. “No!” she said through tears of joy. “I’ve waited for this so long. We’re absolutely proud of you.”
Earlier in the week, an American friend of Bland’s gave him a simple pep talk: one shot at a time, one hole at a time. “I had that in my head all day and to make the dream come true,” Bland said. “That’s as far as I went.”
It took him all the way to the winner’s circle. At long last.
