Richard Bland defends his Senior PGA Championship title this week, his first of two senior majors he won last year (Senior U.S. Open was the other). His first defense comes just outside the nation's capital at the recently-renovated Congressional.
Bland is coming off a T37 last week at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, earning an exemption from winning the 2024 Senior PGA Championship. He entered the weekend at 3-under after rounds of 1-under 70 and 2-under 69, putting himself of striking distance of thirty-six hole leader Jhonattan Vegas by only five shots.
Bland didn’t play his best on Saturday with a 5-over 76, but rebounded on Sunday, shooting a closing 1-under 70 to end up at 1-over for the championship.
The 52-year-old had flashes of strong form last week. Bland was grouped with Bryson DeChambeau on Saturday at Quail Hollow, and he said it was a memorable day, from the crowds the 31-year-old brought out there to the energy that felt palpable in the group that day.
“It’s always exciting to play with Bryson," Bland said in his Tuesday presser at Congressional. "The energy that he just brings, the buzz of the crowd, yeah, it's always-he’s just a good guy to play golf with. I get on with him on and off the golf course, and I always enjoy playing with him. It's nice to see a golf ball hit like that.”
Even though Bland won at Harbor Shores Golf Club in Michigan last year, coming back to a different part of the country to defend remains sentimental. He said it gives him some confidence being on the property as the reigning champ.
“Whenever you've won and you go back to defend, of course, you're always going to have fond memories. Yeah, it was my first ever senior event, so yeah, I was kind of going into it a little bit sort of blindsided,” Bland said. “I knew obviously there are a lot of good players out here, but having not competed with those guys for quite a while, you don't know where your game is going to stack up against them.”
Bland was in a good stretch of his form during last year’s Senior PGA Championship, and he says that it led to just the extra amount of confidence he needed to win his senior major debut. He had four top-15s in his first seven LIV starts entering the week of the Senior PGA Championship, and mentally, that helped his mindset for that Sunday finish.
“I was confident that if I played the golf that I was playing at the time, and I took that forward into the Senior PGA, I felt I would have a say in how the championship would pan out," Bland said. "Fortunately, on Sunday it went my way. That can only help boost your confidence coming into this week.”
