Exclusive:LIV Golf devotee reveals shock at end of tour after committing to 2.0 model

In an exclusive interview with The Scotsman after completing his first round in the Champions UK plc European Senior Masters at Grand Hyatt La Manga Resort in Spain, the Englishman also revealed he has “no desire” to return to the DP World Tour.

Having been floundering since losing its huge funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, a decision was taken by LIV Golf chiefs to wind down the circuit after BC Partners Credit pulled the plug on a proposed $300 million investment.

While the likes of Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter had already jumped ship, it leaves two-time major winner Bryson DeChambeau looking for somewhere to be playing his golf in 2027 and Bland, too.

“Yeah, I was surprised,” admitted the 2021 British Masters champion about his reaction to the news that it had come to the end of the road for the breakaway circuit. I read it for the first time yesterday on social media when I woke up. Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that. Everything I was aware of was positive and it looked like it was going to move forward. So, yeah, to wake up to that was not what I was expecting.”

While some people felt the writing had been on the wall for LIV since the Saudis got out, Bland insisted he didn’t feel that was the case. “No, no,” said the Cleeks team member. “We were kind of hearing that they’d got the players. Or they’d got enough players that would support it. Obviously they’d have had to get more players, but, yeah, I wasn’t expecting it.”

The 53-year-old was asked if he would be talking to LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil. “In all fairness, I don’t think there is anything to say,” he said. “What can you change? Maybe the communication could have been better the last seven days because I am sure they probably knew what was going on. Yeah, to read it on social media is not ideal. But it is what it is and I can’t change it. So just move on.”

According to Golfweek, Bland raked in earnings of $19.5 million during his time with the rebel circuit. “It was,” he replied to being asked if it had been a ride to remember. “I enjoyed it. I had a great four-and-a-half years on LIV and I loved every minute of it. Just through that, it is sad that it is finished.

“I felt there is room in golf for a team league or something like that. But clearly someone has thrown an awful lot of money at it and it’s not worked, so maybe there isn’t. Who knows?

“If the conflict in the Middle East hadn’t started, would it still be going? I probably think so as we were told in January that the league was going to be fully funded through to 2032. So we were very positive coming out of that meeting in Riyadh thinking ‘right, we’ve got five or six years now and we can really gain some momentum and take the league where we wanted to take it. But obviously three or four months later that all changed.”

While it is likely that a number of LIV players will be competing back on the DP World Tour going forward, Bland, who landed his breakthrough win on the circuit at the 478th in a play-off at The Belfry, insisted he won’t be one of them.

“Obviously it has left me a little bit up in the air,” he admitted. “I don’t really have a huge amount of options outside of LIV. Obviously I can come and play on this circuit (the European Legends Tour) if I want to. Right now the Champions Tour is a pretty closed shop, so I can really do anything there for another nine months or so and, even then, I don’t know what I would have. Not much from what I’ve heard. We’ll just have to wait and see.

“But I think it is going to be a much-reduced schedule for me going forward. That’s okay. I’m not much bothered, to be honest, as I’m in a fortunate position where I can wait and see what happens. I’ll maybe play a little bit in Asia, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it next year.

“I’m done kind of chasing the game. I’m not going to chase it any more. I haven’t got the desire to do that. I could rejoin the tour, but my category isn’t going to be great. I don’t want to go to places where I don’t want to be playing. I’d much rather go where I want to play. I’ve kind of closed the book on the DP World Tour and that’s fine, I’ve dealt with that. I’ve got no desire to go back there and play full time.

“I have to see how committed I am. I’m only really here this week because my parents and my sister live just up the road - that’s the only reason I am actually playing this week. I’ll look at the schedule next year whenever it comes out and see what I want to do.

“Right now, I am looking forward to spending a bit of time at home after this week. But LIV has put me in that fortunate position where I don’t have to make any hasty decisions. If I want to take a little bit of time off, I can take some time off.”

The Hampshire man, who sits seven shots off the lead, shared by English dup Van Phillips and Matthew Cort after carding a one-under-par 71 in the opening round of this week’s $400,000 event at La Manga, smiled as he was asked to pick out his LIV Golf highlights.

“You know, I had a couple of good tournaments at Greenbrier,” he said. “In 2024, I was battling [Jon] Rahm and [Brooks] Koepka down the stretch. That was good fun - I enjoyed that. Yeah, for me, all of it was new, fresh, exciting. The team side of. Yeah, I loved all of it.”

Get our golf newsletter by clicking here