Richard Bland celebrated his 51st birthday on Saturday, but it was during the final round of the LIV Golf Mayakoba event the day after where he arguably received his best gift – a hole-in-one on the par-3 152-yard eighth.
The Cleeks GC player was going along nicely at El Camaleon Golf Club at four under for the tournament and standing 12th with 10 to play. However, things got considerably better when his tee shot at the eighth landed encouragingly on the green to the left of the pin before gently rolling into the hole a few seconds later. That moved him to six under and into a eighth on the leaderboard tied with LIV Golf newcomer Tyrrell Hatton.
The ace was the fifth in LIV Golf history, with the most celebrated being Chase Koepka’s, which he achieved at the Watering Hole at LIV Golf Adelaide in 2023, sending the sellout crowd wild in the process.
As for Bland, he'll be hoping that his form can help his team to a better campaign than 2023. Cleeks GC, led by Martin Kaymer, finished 10th of the 12 teams last year, with third at LIV Golf Jeddah its best finish. Despite those struggles, Bland was its best performer, finishing a creditable 20th in the individual standings.
Since then, two players have moved on, with Bernd Wiesberger opting to draw a line under his LIV Golf career with a return to the DP World Tour and Graeme McDowell joining Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC. In their place have come promoted Kalle Samooja and new signing Adrian Meronk.
Given those changes, and Bland’s promising start to the season accentuated by the circuit’s first hole-in-one of the year, there is every reason to believe better times are ahead for the team in 2024.
