Home hero Bland eager to continue excellent form at International Series England

LIV Golf League star Richard Bland admits his ‘inner self belief’ is sky high going into International Series England at Foxhills Club & Resort, as he looks to continue a wonder season that has brought back-to-back senior major titles.

The Cleeks GC player romped to victory in the Senior PGA Championship back in May and followed that up the next month with a nail-biting sudden-death play-off victory at the US Senior Open.

The 51-year-old also looks set to secure his place inthe Lock Zone, the top 24 of the star-studded LIV Golf League, thanks to a number of strong performances this season. And he is hopeful of continuing that form in the fourth event on The International Series this season on the Longcross course in Surrey.

Bland, who has blossomed since claiming the British Masters crown in 2021 in his 478^th start aged 48, said: “When you get that win, you know ‘yes, I can do this’. It does not mean that you will become arrogant or cocky with it or anything like that, you just have that inner belief, when the chips are down.

“It is just a nice sort of feeling. Brooks Koepka (the Smash GC captain and five-time major winner), probably feels 10 times what I feel like. He must think he is bulletproof. It is good to have that confidence and belief in yourself, to know ‘yes I can do this’.

Bland, who lives just 15 minutes away from the course in Surrey, tees off at 11:50 alongside RangeGoats GC player Thomas Pieters and Jason Kokrak of Smash GC.

He is impressed with the set-up on The International Series, and believes the elevated Asian Tour-sanctioned events are helping to produce elite-level players such as Andy Ogletree, the American who won the rankings last season and earned a place on Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC.

He said: “It is fantastic, it is great that you get some of the LIV players to strengthen the fields, it is a real opportunity for the guys that play on the Asian Tour.

“I have played on the Asian Tour for 25 years now, and they are always a great place to go. I love the food, love the diverse cultures, the different courses, the grasses that they get to play. It is a fantastic opportunity to be able to play on one of the best tours in the world. It is a real golden ticket.

“You can see with Andy Ogletree, he won last year, and he is putting some good performances recently on LIV. It takes a bit of time to find your feet on LIV but he seems to be doing that now. I played with him a couple of times and he is a hell of a player. The Asian Tour is going from strength to strength and it is good to see.”