Richard Bland has teed up for the 2024 Senior PGA Championship, the 51-year-old chose to defect to the breakaway circuit in 2022. At the Harbour Shore Golf Course, Bland is competing in his first PGA Tour Champions event since joining LIV Golf.

Having done that, the British pro has taken the 18-hole lead after shooting five birdies and one eagle. Bland has been tied for the lead with a 7-under-64 scoreline. His participation at the Senior PGA Championship was a favor from his former Dunhill partner and PGA Championship CEO, Seth Waugh, who has previously shared his disapproval of LIV Golf’s innovative format.

Richard Bland shared how he got the invite for the Senior PGA Championship

Joining LIV Golf meant that Richard Bland could not play in the PGA Tour Champions event unless he received a special invite. Bland could accept the exemption and play with his former PGA tour pros only if the week of the Senior PGA Championship did not overlap with any LIV Golf events At the post-round press conference, Bland recalled that he received a special invite last year to play in the Senior PGA Championship. However, the 51-year-old could not play in the major championship in 2023 because he was busy with an LIV Golf event.

This year, fortunately, the stars aligned for the British pro as the breakaway league is on a mid-season break, allowing Bland to play elsewhere. Taking advantage of it, the 51-year-old contacted Bob Jefferey, PGA of America Director, and requested him for an invite. Bland stated, “I kind of reached out and said, look, I appreciated the gesture for the invite [last year]. If it could be run to this year I would love to come play.”

Luckily, Jeffrey could help and accepted his requests immediately. The Englishman iterated the reply of Jefferey and said, “Bob came straight back and said, we would love to have you, so here I am.” But the process of receiving the exemption couldn’t only be given by Jeffrey; it was also approved by Seth Waugh [CEO of PGA of America]. When Bland met the CEO before his first round, he didn’t forget to appreciate his gesture and thank him. Bland shared, “I know Seth Waugh very well. He was my Dunhill partner a few moons ago now. So I saw Seth last night. You know, I thanked him for it. Yeah, I’m very grateful for the invite and hopefully, I can do something with it.” 

A few days ago, Waugh had disregarded a few aspects of LIV Golf’s format. Despite his disagreement with the breakaway league and how it plays certain different ways, Waugh didn’t shy away from allowing Bland to play the Senior PGA Championship, which he found flexible for the board. However, Waugh had been adamant on his stance about the LIV Golf and OWGR issues because he isn’t only the CEO of PGA of America, Waugh also takes a seat on the board of Official World Golf Rankings and has shared the things barring LIV from world ranking points.

Seth Waugh reveals the two fundamental issues with LIV Golf

Earlier this year, Greg Norman revealed that his league has withdrawn the application for OWGR points. He relayed that the breakaway circuit could not move through the OWGR system, and they could not get on the same page. But what was the issue? Seth Waugh revealed that the world ranking system could work around the no-cut, 54-hole events since even some of the PGA Tour Champions events were the same.

However, the OWGR could not understand the relegation, promotion, and team events. Waugh explained that the relegation and promotions were “murky and they [LIV Golf] didn’t want to share exactly who was sort of there and so we never knew the percentages of what that would look like.” Secondly, the team events also posed a threat to LIV’s OWGR eligibility. The league couldn’t be more transparent and thus, the two cannot work together.

Waugh had shared that the PIF-backed circuit can reapply for the world ranking points and they’d certainly look into it. Regardless, of the ongoing tussle between OWGR and LIV Golf, it hasn’t hurt Richard Bland’s chances of teeing it off on the Michigan greens.